Down Came the Rain

By: Jennifer Mathieu

Narrated by: Robb Moreira, Laura Knight Keating

A beautiful coming-of-age tale that tackles climate change head-on from the acclaimed author of Moxie—now a Netflix film.

After Eliza Brady’s home in Houston, Texas, is destroyed by Hurricane Harvey, she is forced to transfer to Southwest High School. Traumatized by the floods and anxious in her new surroundings, Eliza throws herself into environmental activism, even if it’s against the wishes of her Big Oil dad.

But when she meets Javi—a boy who has experienced climate-related trauma of his own—she’s finally able to connect with someone over the devastating mental effects of ecological disaster.

Filled with nuanced themes of mental health, classism, and eco-anxiety, Down Came the Rain is a riveting and moving tale of friendship, first love, and what it means to grow up in an ever-changing world.

©2023 Jennifer Mathieu (P)2024 Recorded Books

Virtue signaling

I’m a big Jennifer Mathieu fan. Unfortunately DOWN CAME THE RAIN didn’t work for me.

Set in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, Tess, a wealthy white girl and Javi, a lower middle class boy form a school club to address climate issues.

The first 80% of the book is a lot of virtue signaling through Tess’s character. Tess also recognizes her class and race privilege and when she forgets, she quickly becomes more enlightened. She’s never defensive. Tess’s near obsession with what everyone is doing wrong for the planet results in her committing an act of vandalism. But she’s very sorry and gets off extremely lightly because she has a breakdown when she thinks her boyfriend Javi will be blamed.

If Mathieu had been less heavy handed, I would have enjoyed the book more.

Neither the male or female narrator did the voices of the opposite gender well.