This is the first novel in Hurwitz's Rains series.

I'm quite familiar with Hurwitz's thrillers for adults, and this is my first of his YA novels. It's pretty good - it features many of the things that have made his novels for older readers so successful and gripping. (I'm a particular fan of his Orphan X series.)

THE RAINS is an interesting new twist on the zombie genre. The novel does a good job of introducing and establishing this new twist, and Hurwitz's characters are well drawn. I think I would have preferred this to be pitched to an older audience, but it nevertheless works very well for a younger audience. I hope to read the rest of the series, but I think I'll prioritize his Orphan X novels before getting caught up with the rest of the Rains books.

This book was more sci-fi oriented than I would have liked. While I did think that it had strong character development, it simply wasn't right for my crime fiction blog. Even as I cover some thrillers and dystopian novels on that site, this one was more science fiction.

A very intense and grim reimagining of a zombie apocalypse. The adults turn into terrifying creatures that shouldn’t be alive, but are. They don’t do the typical things that we associate with zombies, no eating of human flesh, but they are not themselves, they are slaves of the enemy.

The story starts pretty much at the beginning of the horror. The brothers Rain hear noises on the neighboring farm and go to investigate, and find horrible thing going on. They rescue the kids and return home to find their aunt and uncle have been taken over as well. They then head out to rescue Patrick’s girlfriend and head into town to find help. They are met with a horror to hard to believe. They do find one adult who has not been changed, their high school science teacher, and other kids hiding in the school, which has a fence surrounding it that keeps the changed adults out. They slowly start to put together what is going on, but can not come up with any solutions. The kids can only sit and wait for their 18th birthdays.

The story is told by Chance, in a notebook that he grabbed from his room. He is fifteen and a typical teenager. I liked him immediately. He is not as sure of himself, always having had to live in his older brother’s shadow, but he has an inner strength and he is smart. He is the one along with Dr. Chatterjee, who figures out how and why the change happens. There is some nice explanations about other parasites in our natural world and they are able to figure out the science, as much as possible in the situation, about what is going on.

Patrick was also a likable character, he isn’t as book smart as Chance, but he has strengths that help them on their quest to figure out what is happening. He is also a natural leader, although he doesn’t see himself that way. He is also fiercely loyal to his brother and girlfriend and will do what he needs to protect them. He will also protect those who need it, like the younger children stuck in the school with them.

I liked Alex as well, she also has a lot of good strong qualities to her. She has a strong moral compass as well, and is determined to help the other kids that have been captured by the Hosts (what they have decided to call the changed adults), and to figure out what they are doing with them. She can also hold her own in a fight.

This is a creepy and terrifying story, steeped in natural science. It is a story of survival against horrible odds that will keep you turning the pages well into the night. The ending was not at all what I expected either, it was shocking and alarming. The next book in the series will be out in October of this year and I am looking forward to seeing how it all ends up. At this point I have very little hope for the survival of humanity in this series, and I so hope I am wrong.

Good alien/zombie invasion story. Fast paced and exciting.

My dystopian boys will love this one. And they love a series, so this will make them very happy.

While I personally prefer his adult thrillers, this first foray into the Young Adult genre is a gripping story with zombies and alien invasion that I found enjoyable to read. This is an intense book with tons of action and a very high creepiness factor. I really liked this one, and I can see how it would be even more incredible to the age group it targeted.

The cliffhanger ending left me wanting more!

This has some decent horror scenes, and the sci-fi details, while kind of dumb, are really no more ridiculous than those in plenty of B-movies. But the characters are completely generic, as if in his quest to make them seem like relatable teenagers from the flyover states, author Hurwitz stripped them of interest entirely. This book also seems to be written in a way that talks down to its intended audience. It's not that the writing is bad per se, but the narrative voice misses its mark and nearly everything else here seems lazy and derivative.

Gregg Hurwitz is one of my all-time favourite authors and I never hesitate to recommend one of his novels when someone is looking for a page-turning mystery/thriller.
This author decided to take a stab at writing a Young Adult, horror/science fiction novel and did it ever work! Loads of zombie-like creatures, grisly blood-soaked fights and an adventure so hair-raising you can't put it down.
A survival story in which brothers Patrick (17) and Chance (15) Rain and Patrick's girlfriend Alex are faced with a town killing itself. Their parents, friends and neighbours turn into ferocious in-human creatures and all kids under the age of 18 are carted away to a place unknown. The brothers and Alex run for their lives while trying to figure out a way to fight back. Will they succeed or will they end up victims of this heinous war zone?
Told as Chance Rain's journal entries make this story unique, however there is quite the cliffhanger ending.
A creepy and enjoyable read, The Rains is a praiseworthy start to a new Young Adult series.