![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleI was a little iffy about reading this book because I thought Tantalize was a little weak, and ended just as I was really getting into it. I thought Rain Is Not My Indian Name is actually much better written. It's a fairly standard YA novel where the girl's mother died years ago and her best friend recently, she's withdrawn into herself, and then the connections she has with other people draw her back into the world, and I found it totally emotionally satisfying. It even made me cry at the end, which is what that kind of book should do.
I not only liked Rain, I also liked the way all of the other characters are also real people with their own lives that we catch glimpses of. My favorite is probably Grampa, who spends the majority of the novel on vacation in Vegas and sends notes and emails back.
The reason I picked up this book even though I thought Tantalize had problems is that one of the reviews I read mentioned that Rain is a fangirl, and that's not something you see in very many books. For anyone else to whom this might be an enticement: it's not a major plot point, and, in fact, only gets two mentions. It's not quite a throw-away, only because she talks about fandom being something Fynn (her brother) introduced her to. The second mention kind of bothered me: "Me? I'd cleaned the house, read sci-fi fan fiction, and eavesdropped in Internet chat rooms." On the one hand, I know firsthand how easy it is to avoid real life by cleaning and hiding in fandom. On the other, I'm bothered by the reinforcing of the stereotype that fangirls don't have lives.
I not only liked Rain, I also liked the way all of the other characters are also real people with their own lives that we catch glimpses of. My favorite is probably Grampa, who spends the majority of the novel on vacation in Vegas and sends notes and emails back.
The reason I picked up this book even though I thought Tantalize had problems is that one of the reviews I read mentioned that Rain is a fangirl, and that's not something you see in very many books. For anyone else to whom this might be an enticement: it's not a major plot point, and, in fact, only gets two mentions. It's not quite a throw-away, only because she talks about fandom being something Fynn (her brother) introduced her to. The second mention kind of bothered me: "Me? I'd cleaned the house, read sci-fi fan fiction, and eavesdropped in Internet chat rooms." On the one hand, I know firsthand how easy it is to avoid real life by cleaning and hiding in fandom. On the other, I'm bothered by the reinforcing of the stereotype that fangirls don't have lives.