Christopher Hawkins definitely knows how to tell a horror story! This book was a quick read that I didn't want to put down but also didn't want to end. The plot was suspenseful and Hawkins does a great job describing each scene thoroughly without rambling and boring the reader with excessive detail. I could see the drooping willow tree out front, the scarred wooden kitchen table, and the leaning shed housing it's broken lawnmower. And I could hear the rain-relentlessly beating down on the old, withering farmhouse.

I think my favorite thing about this book was how well each character was fleshed out and made real. I didn't always like Scott, but that made him more believable in a way. His internal struggles with his wife's infidelity and his childhood trauma are the backbone of the story. This book is almost as much about dealing with trauma while navigating relationships as it is about a mysterious storm cloud bringing some very strange rain that changes the very nature of everything it touches.

This story ripped my heart out, but I felt the ending was perfect.

Thanks so much to Christopher Hawkins and Netgalley for this ARC!

Slow start but soon picked up the pace. Probably best to not read as it’s raining, or maybe that’ll add to the atmosphere of the read. Scott and Dana have two kids, Jacob and Tallie. Life already spiralling from the truth of Dana’s infertility a mysterious cloud appears, Scott sensing the danger does everything he can to keep everyone out of the rain the soon falls. And what a danger it is, soaking through and destroying buildings and people alike, even the dog isn’t safe. Underneath all of this is Scott’s dads voice telling him how much of a failure he is, in his childhood home already filled with ghosts of the past

I requested an arc from NetGalley and was very graciously accepted.
The book was incredible!
Un-put-downable. Compulsively readable.
Christopher Hawkins painted a bleak picture, and I devoured it. The setting was deliciously claustrophobic and gruesome. The characters fully rounded, although I wanted to smack the protagonist upside the head at times because he was so full of self-loathing; it was painful (more on this later).

This was a refreshing take on dystopia. A simple but ingenious premise that gets worse as the plot progresses.

I could not have imagined this ending; in that respect, it was an oddly satisfying surprise.
Four stars! Out of 5, because of a very subjective point. I did not sympathize with the hero and found him too self ruminating and stuck. His interiority was repetitive, and despite fitting the story well, felt a bit heavy-handed and, in my eye, could have been filed down a notch in favor of pragmatism and urgency.

Still, I rooted for him and his family as they wallowed in the horror of their new reality, and I will recommend the book to any psychological horror lover out there.
To sum it up: An eerie and crafty debut, full of humanity and powerful moments that, while being emotionally drenching, were also relevant to the theme.

Thank you to NetGalley and Christopher Hawkins for providing me with a review copy of Downpour, This book is interesting and I like how the location is at the farmhouse which makes it feel like you are trapped while the danger is all around you. the open-ended ending reminds me of "The mist" which is another book I enjoyed.
I like how at the start of the book we are shown the father and the daughter and at the end of the book it shows both the father and daughter as well and I find that really neat.

Filled with ton of suspense, this will surely make you question what is happening outside next time a storm hits.
With the whole story taking place in one location, it adds to the tension that builds before breaking.
This is one of those books you will have trouble putting down and taking a break from.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. The following opinions are my own.

This book told me to sit and not up until I finished it. The plans I had were thrown out the door. It's a devastating book that will have you glued to its pages and you are taken for a ride while fhe nightmare unfolds before you. I found it to be wonderfully fast paced which I liked. But it was also very heartbreaking to watch his family survive a storm.

Downpour is a fast paced, quick read about an unnatural rainstorm that wreaks havoc on a small farmhouse. I didn’t want to put this one down, and I really enjoyed this book right from the opening pages.
My only real complaint about the story is that Scott, the father, immediately knew something was wrong with the cloud and rain before any of the weird stuff started happening. He saw the cloud forming off in the distance, and just knew without any kind of warnings or other suspicious behaviors that they shouldn’t go into the rain.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for and advanced copy of Downpour by Christopher Hawkins in exchange for my honest review.

Oh how a love a dystopian book!

When a freak cloud appears, Scott is uneasy. Something just doesn't feel right. Suddenly disturbing videos and reports start circulating online and it makes him even more convinced that this isn't your average storm. When the rain begins to fall, the horror begins.

This book had me glued to my Kindle and I didn't stop until I reached the end. It was heartbreaking and harrowing and I loved every minute.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mr Hawkins for the ARC.

I enjoyed the writing of this story.. A unique type of horror, with a lot of psychological horror thrown in.

Scott has had a rough go of things lately. When it seems everything is going wrong and he can't let go of the past, a rainstorm comes and changes everything and everyone around him. That old adage of "When it rains, it pours," is a perfect quote for this story.

Fantastic story telling, descriptions are excellent, and the entire time I was hooked on the story.

Thank you #NetGalley for #Downpour by #ChristopherHawkins

Downpour is a fantastic psychological horror novel. Hawkins does a good job of showing instead of telling throughout the story. The result is an atmospheric building of dread. The reader can easily connect with Scott, as he tries to save his family from what can't be understood. The story spirals into an anxiety inducing climax. I loved how this book made me reflect on my own life.

Many thanks to @netgalley and the author, Christopher Hawkins, for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was heartbreaking. It was so great, I really enjoyed the short stories collection in Suburban Monsters so I was very excited to read this. What a great story.

I didn’t like this at all. I thought it was long and boring. Maybe the audiobook would be better.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I really hoped to like this one but I just couldn’t get Intro this novel and the writing felt weird to me it was hard to find a connection with the character’s

Thank you to NetGalley and Christopher Hawkins for the digital ARC!

This book kind of surprised me, because I found it very slow to start. I wasn't hugely interested in the story to begin with as I didn't hugely feel connected with the characters. But I think that's what the author was going for, and the surprising thing is that this whole book takes place in a house over the space of hours. Once the action starts, things to devolve rapidly and we see a truly apocalyptic scenario happen.

Our main character is Scott, a dad of two who's wife has recently cheated on him. He lives in his dead parents house, living with the ghost of his alcoholic father and a mother who abandoned him. Things are looking pretty grim on his personal and financial fronts, and they don't really improve. Things start falling apart when he spots a strange cloud in the distance, and some instinct tells him it's not right and there's something wrong with it.

As the cloud expands, he becomes more committed to his opinion and refuses to go into the rain. What he sees online and on TV cements it for him. Thankfully, we have a main character with common sense because he sees that people are acting strange in the rain and things are having odd reactions. Nothing more to spoil the plot here, as I didn't anticipate where it was going. I did think this might make a good game!

In terms of the characters - I never liked Dana and didn't particularly care what happened to her. Jacob was surprisingly great for a 16 year old boy and he had a good head on his shoulders. Tallie was...well she was a 4 year old - she solidified that I don't like kids because half the book felt like trying to console her. I know she's 4 but I felt tired on Scott's behalf! Scott himself was layered, with trauma from his childhood and a life that hasn't really done anything and is falling apart.

He does a good job at trying to keep his family alive, and I'll let you read to find out whether he succeeds.

Overall - an enjoyable horror!

Slow start but soon picked up the pace. Probably best to not read as it’s raining, or maybe that’ll add to the atmosphere of the read. Scott and Dana have two kids, Jacob and Tallie. Life already spiralling from the truth of Dana’s infertility a mysterious cloud appears, Scott sensing the danger does everything he can to keep everyone out of the rain the soon falls. And what a danger it is, soaking through and destroying buildings and people alike, even the dog isn’t safe. Underneath all of this is Scott’s dads voice telling him how much of a failure he is, in his childhood home already filled with ghosts of the past

I was first introduced to this author via his collection of short stories, <i>Suburban Monsters</i>. When I saw this book pop up on NetGalley, I immediately requested it without reading the description, genre, or even paying much attention to the title.

The story starts with a family living in a rundown house in the middle of nowhere. Scott, our narrator, grew up in the farmhouse and has had to sell off the land to make ends meet - all he has left is the farmhouse and he's struggling with taking care of the old house. He lives with his wife, Dana, but they're having problems because she cheated on him and he's trying to decide if he can forgive her. Dana also hates the farmhouse, hates being in the middle of nowhere, and hates that it's still decorated exactly how it was when Scott was young. They have 2 children - one teenage boy and one four year old girl.

I assumed the book was horror (which it was) based on the author's short story collection. About 10% into the story, nothing horror-y had happened yet and I started to wonder if maybe I should have, you know, read anything about this book before requesting it. However, it's so well written and interesting that even if the book was just general fiction about Scott and his family's struggles that I was okay with it. It also made the remaining 90% of the book more engaging because the author threw me into this world and made the family feel real.

But then - a strange looking cloud appears in the sky! And I knew it was horror and here it comes!!

This cloud appears; it's the only one in the sky and is a less common type (a mammatus - I learned a new cloud type). Scott doesn't trust the cloud or the rain that it brings but everyone tells him he's being ridiculous. Dana is frustrated because she wants to repair their marriage but all he can talk about is a stupid cloud. She puts her hand into the rain to demonstrate that it's perfectly harmless (shocking spoiler - it's not). Scott humors her and lets a couple of drops get on him but doesn't like the feel of the rain so refuses to do more and insists the family stays inside.

From here, the story ramps up quickly. Scott watches a YouTube live streamer who's videoing the cloud. And then what happens next isn't all that supernatural but was really creepy and probably the part of the book that stuck with me the most.

I'm trying not to give too much away. This was an intense story, very engaging, believable, and terrifying. I stayed up way too late reading this which was a horrible choice because then it was the middle of the night and I was freaked out from the book.

The author does an amazing job with Scott's character development and narration. Scott had gotten that little rain on him in the beginning and it's causing him to change. It's done very well in the writing where the language changes ever so slightly as Scott changes. At first, I was wondering if the language change was a mistake but then realized what the author was doing and loved it.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this advance review copy.

Thank you for the eARC!

Synopsis: Scott and his family live on a farm in the middle of nowhere with only his distant neighbor to keep him company. Suspicious looking rain clouds turn up one day, out of the blue and once it starts raining, all hell breaks loose. The rain is dangerous and Scott will do anything to keep his family safe.

My thoughts: If you enjoyed The Rain on Netflix, you'll enjoy this read. The imagery was so vivid, I felt like I was there with Scott as he dealt with the oncoming issues that came with the rain. I stayed up late to binge most of the book and I enjoyed it a lot. The characters felt real, Scott had his faults and wasn't perfect and I enjoyed having that point of view. There were parts where I was genuinely freaked out and the story was very twisty from the very beginning. One thing that took away from the story was near the end, it got a little confusing and I got a little lost. But I enjoyed everything else and how the story wrapped up. I highly recommend this read for anyone who enjoys horror!

WOW. Jaws made us afraid of swimming in the ocean, Cujo made us afraid of dogs, and Downpour will make us afraid of the rain. This book was one of the best scary summer reads I've experienced in a while.

The author does a fine job of molding the characters. We learn that Scott not only had a horrific childhood, being abandoned by his mother and left with his abusive, bitter father, but he's having marital issues. The farm he inherited is costing more money than it's worth, and he's not a very happy guy. Then an unusual cloud forms and not too long after, the rain begins. Scott tries his best to keep his family safe, despite his wife and kids pushing back every chance they get.

The ending surprised me, but was fitting for this type of story.

Mark my words - this one will be made into a very spooky film in a year or two.

This was a very good first novel by this author. I hope he keeps up the books! His prose was absolutely wonderful and the characters were heart felt. Any books about storms, floods, hurricanes, etc. draw me in.
The combination of spookiness, grief, and stormy weather was perfect.
The only complaint is it's a bit repetitive.

This was a really bleak book. A claustrophobic nightmare that begins when a strange cloud formation gathers over a family home and starts dumping rain. A very peculiar rain. A rain that that changes everything.
Uncomfortable to read at times, but overall, a good character driven cosmic horror tale.

P.S. If you aren’t familiar with a mammatus cloud, look up some images. A huge one would be totally terrifying.