About the Book
-
Author:
- Jennifer Mathieu
- Genre:
- Contemporary
Cover Story: Bayou Beauty
BFF Charm: Heck Yes!
Talky Talk: Full of Moxie
Bonus Factor: Texas Forever
Anti-Bonus Factor: Climate Change Anxiety
Relationship Status: Fired Up
Cover Story: Bayou Beauty
A purple-blue cover with a boy and a girl holding hands in silhouette of a cloudy sunset, their reflection in the water behind them. The title of the book gets increasingly watery as it is spelled out. Because this book takes place in Houston, the source of the large puddle the couple is standing in evokes a bayou flood — but it’s beautiful.
The Deal:
Eliza Brady, type-A Baldwin High student, has an interesting junior year ahead of her. Because Hurricane Harvey flooded her school building, she and other Baldwin students and staff will be sharing space at Southwest High for the time being. Harvey also flooded her home, so she’s living with her aunt and uncle in a ranch house not far from her ruined school. Climate change has Eliza in a constant state of anxiety, and she decides to start up an action-oriented club at Southwest/Baldwin to help the planet.
Javier Garza, a shy Southwest High student, has had panic attacks every time it rains after he experienced Harvey. He doesn’t understand why — his house didn’t even flood. But he’s worried just the same. When Eliza asks him to join her after-school club, he does, and not just because he finds her cute: he wants to figure out how to preserve the planet for his soon-to-be-born niece.
The two have chemistry, that’s for sure, but will bureaucracy, Houston-oriented Big Oil, and classmates’ apathy stand in their way?
BFF Charm: Heck Yes!
Eliza is a little bit MUCH at first and can be very overbearing at times. Everything can be solved, she thinks, by organization, color-coded planners, to-do lists, and action. But her outward confidence hides her innermost anxieties, the bulk of which are caused by man-made climate change.
Javier is a sweetheart who doesn’t understand his own panic attacks caused by bad weather. He is not a leader, but a follower, so even he is surprised when Eliza asks him to be a co-president of the ETUP club. The club helps him to come out of his shell a little bit, and he even imagines new action items for the club to take on.
Mathieu created a story that makes you root for Eliza and Javier as people, not just as a couple (which, obviously, they become). You want Eliza to find peace; you want Javier to settle his heart. I also have climate anxiety and saw a lot of myself in Eliza. Every plastic bag I’ve ever used haunts me sometimes, as I know they’re still hanging out in a landfill somewhere. She does the same thing, calculating all of the bottles from all of the students and then all of the schools, and on and on, a mountain of trash the size of Texas. It’s overwhelming. So I get it. But at the same time, you can’t slow the warming of the planet just by yourself.
Swoonworthy Scale: 5
Eliza and Javier have a little bit of an insta-love thing going on: she bumps into him on the first day of school, he thinks she’s cute, she thinks he’s cute, they meet again and she suggests to him joining her new club because she wants to see him again. It seemed inevitable that they would end up together. The thing that got me was that Eliza made all the first moves. It’s very Eliza of her to take charge of her love life, and I appreciated that she was the one putting herself out there!
Talky Talk: Full of Moxie
Jennifer Mathieu wrote Moxie, upon which the Amy Poehler-produced Netflix movie is based, and Down Came the Rain has an equal amount of heart. Mathieu doesn’t include slang or pop culture references in her books, so they don’t feel too dated. This book takes place in 2017, right after Hurricane Harvey, but it could be relevant today or five or ten years from now, and I like that.
Bonus Factor: Texas Forever
An additional voice in the book, aside from the dual POV of Eliza and Javier, is Houston itself. I liked hearing that familiar voice talk about its own strengths and weaknesses, and how it handled the rain from Harvey; how the people of Houston banded together after the flooding, and supported one another, and came back stronger than before. I wished there were a few more interstitials with the Houston voice — I think there are only three altogether — but they were a nice touch.
I also thought it was worth mentioning that both Eliza and Javier have family members who work in the Big Oil field, and how it’s difficult to unwind the systems that have fossil fuels dominating the energy industry. The conversation that Eliza eventually has with her oil executive dad was cathartic and much-needed. Kudos to Mathieu for taking that on.
Anti-Bonus Factor: Climate Change Anxiety
I mean, obviously, this book is about climate change, and Mathieu leaves the ending on a hopeful, but realistic, note. Did reading about climate change make me more anxious about it? Yes, but it was nice reading someone else’s fears that mirror mine. I felt a lot less alone.
Relationship Status: Fired Up
If there’s anything that this book does, it makes me more grateful for living in this world at the time that I do. Yes, the fight for the planet will be hard, but I’m fired up and ready to make changes and urge others to do so as well. This is a good must-read for kids and adults alike!
Literary Matchmaking
With Moxie, Jennifer Matthieu offers another story about a girl taking charge, this time with the feminist movement.
Joan He’s The Ones We’re Meant to Find explores the aftermath of climate change.
If you’re looking for another novel that reflects on classism and mental health, pick up Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher. I received neither compensation nor kittens in exchange for this review. Down Came the Rain is available now.
