Scattered Showers
Rainbow Rowell
Illustrated by Jim Tierney
Pan Macmillan, 2022
Hardback, €23.80
ISBN: 9781529099119
Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell is a series of nine short stories based around love, including teenage romance, fantasy and even a story working through menopause. One of these stories, “Snow For Christmas”, includes characters from Rainbow Rowell’s Simon Snow trilogy, a young adult fantasy series. Although I haven’t read the series myself, from what I have read about Snow, I would love to read more. Without spoiling the stories from the book, I can simply say I was glued to the book. The characters were so interesting. It was fun to find out who actually ends up falling in love, and the backstories of the characters.
My two favourites were definitely “Kindred Spirits”, which was a story about two Star Wars fans lining up outside a cinema after a new movie is going to come out, and “In Waiting”, where the characters in the story are all original characters, waiting patiently to be put into a story. Even though those two were my favourite, all of the stories were interesting, and I adored reading about the characters, despite getting only a short glance into their stories of love. This book is for fans of any kind of love story, especially with happy endings – but I may be a bit biased, as I am obsessed with sappy books.
Hanna Geszczak, 13
This book is for lovers of Greek mythology and high-stake quests. Filled with thrilling deceit, romance, and unforeseen plot twists, this story will immediately enrapture any reader and pull them into the untruthful songs each character sings.
I recommend reading the 
The book takes you on a journey through all the characters’ points of view, featuring police interviews and news articles. These interviews do become repetitive, but the book pulls you back in with plot twists aplenty. 
I really liked this story. Though the beginning was clichéd and predictable, the story went from strength to strength. There were sprinklings of funny events and conversations throughout the book which had me smiling to myself. You can picture the beautiful settings and mouth-watering food clearly throughout the story. The author was so attentive to describing Indonesia and I feel she did a great job. I learned so much about Indonesian culture while following Sharlot and George’s story . There was such entertaining banter between the characters. Each character had their own distinctive personality and was well written. 
As someone unfamiliar with thriller novels and the author’s previous work, this was a surprisingly emotional read, especially in the last sixty or so pages. It was very interesting how the characters’ dynamics and mindsets changed, strengthened and even became dangerously warped as the story went on. There were some incredible twists that I didn’t see coming at all. This book covers heavy topics like grief and death, and has a pretty nasty shock that sets off the second half.
The supporting characters are just as strongly written as the main characters, and have diverse and distinctive personalities, such as the sweet and caring Honey-Belle and serious and assertive Danielle. The dialogue is witty, and the humour is used as a way of 
Dunn does not shy away from acknowledging those immense Gothic novels that have come before hers. Like her predecessors Wilkie Collins and Ann Radcliffe, Dunn uses the Gothic genre to epically and successfully portray our very human fears: life, death, love, and isolation.
Alexander tells this story through verse. His masterful use of rhythm, pacing and language creates fluidity and lyricism that draws the reader into the world of Upper Kwanta. While this novel deals with difficult themes and dark parts of our world’s history, Alexander also beautifully illustrates moments of hope, the strength of family and the power of storytelling.
