H2O by Virginia Bergin

Title: H2O

Author: Virginia Bergin

Series: The Rain #1

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publication Date: October 7, 2014

Source: Purchased

Imagine if all the water in the world suddenly became poisonous.  You couldn't drink it or drink anything containing it.  It didn't matter if you boiled it beforehand or ran it through a filter.

Now imagine that you can't even let the tiniest speck of water touch your skin - directly or through clothing.

Not a very fun sounding situation huh?

That is what H2O is about.  At some point the world had been hit by a meteor, but more or less everything was ok....until it wasn't.  Apparently there were tiny alien microbes on that meteor that released into Earths atmosphere and mixed with the water.

The microbes eventually permeated all of the clouds and the water in the sky and started falling down to the ground in the form of rain.  The rain then covered everything.  The plants and animals seem to be okay with drinking the water....or having the water touch them, but that could not be said for the human population.

Where the water touches the persons skin they start scratching uncontrollably, causing themselves to bleed.  Other things happen too aside from that, but all in all it isn't pretty.

Water has become something that can pretty much melt your face off if you touch it.

Pretty cool sounding premise don't you think?

I find it very hard to tell you what my feelings for H2O actually are.  I had SO MANY problems with it, yet I couldn't put it down and had to finish the story.  I just had to!

Ruby

First our main character Ruby.  Ruby is a self centered egotistical selfish brat.  The whole time she is worried more for herself than anyone else.  I guess that can be forgiven, since she is trying to stay alive just like everyone else, but at some point you really get sick of hearing it.  She is also totally stuck on her looks and appearance.  THE WHOLE TIME.  Geez kid.  Get over yourself.  No one can take a dang shower.  WHO THE HECK CARES IF YOU ARE WEARING MAKE UP?  Really?  You need to be wearing designer clothes and shoes?  The world is in complete chaos.  UGH UGH UGH.

Oh and Ruby.  Ruby is kind of stupid.  So many times she tells us how she went outside but forgot to look at the sky to see if there were any clouds in the sky and if it looked like it could rain.  FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING IF IT RAINS ON YOU, YOU WILL DIE.  Self centered brat.  And she was obsessed about finding her stupid cell phone despite the fact that the phone lines have been dead since pretty much the beginning of the book.  She eventually tells you why it was so important to her, but you have to wait like half the book to find out.  And even then you have to kind of be paying attention or you will miss it.  Thank you editor for trying to save this part of the story, but probably should have tried it earlier on.

Also, WTF is a scab from making out?  On your chin?  WHAT?!

Narration/Writing

So this book takes place in England.  In England.  I don't know about you, but I would expect something about the narration to speak to that.  Some lingo or something.  However, while reading this if you happened to forget that it was England you would think that your main character was American (she isn't).  Throughout the whole story the only thing that really reminds you that the book is taking place in England is the name of cities/locations.

Also, this book is supposed to be a diary of sorts for Ruby as if she is writing a book about the whole situation.  There are a few hiccups that don't really flow very well with this.  For example, all of a sudden the girl knows the names of different types of clouds and starts using them often.  APPARENTLY there is a book that she started reading at some unknown point in time while she is writing this story that she started reading a book about clouds and is learning all about them.  Really, we could have done without this random cloud talk.  It was weird and awkward.

THE BUTTERFLIES

If you follow me on Twitter (and if you don't you should!! @cupcakes_books) you may recall the butterfly picture.  Here it is if you missed it or have forgotten the glory that is the stupid butterflies.

This book is riddled with these stupid butterflies.  What is the point you ask?  Well... apparently a lot of swearing happened and Ruby wanted to stay true to the story, but didn't want to swear.  So instead she decided to put these lovely butterflies in place of swear words.

No people, I am not kidding.  The butterflies were an intentional annoyance.  Instead of writing the story where you don't need to have swear words in it, but to keep it clean, Virginia Bergin has placed these lovely butterflies throughout the story.  There is one instance where she allows the word "God" to show through.

So at least I can tell you, that if you are worried about swear words that there are not any in the story.  HOWEVER, this does allow you to be as crass as you want if you so desire.  You can also tell which words were intended for a particular butterfly...so really it was kind of pointless.

And you finished this why?

Again, I still have no answer to this.  None.  I just really had to know where the story was going and how it got there.  Will I read the sequel?  Yeah, I most probably will.  Am I insane?  Highly likely as it is quite obvious that I had issues with this book, but still some how enjoyed it at the same time.

My Rating

3 Stars

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