Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell

Summary from Goodreads:

Rainbow Rowell has won fans all over the world by writing about love and life in a way that feels true.

In her first collection, she gives us nine beautifully crafted love stories. Girl meets boy camping outside a movie theater. Best friends debate the merits of high school dances. A prince romances a troll. A girl romances an imaginary boy. And Simon Snow himself returns for a holiday adventure.

It’s a feast of irresistible characters, hilarious dialogue, and masterful storytelling—in short, everything you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell book.

Review:

Rainbow Rowell is one of my favorite authors. She is hands down, one of the all time best at writing characters who you just feel like you know. I have loved everything she has written. I think there are just some writers out there that speak to readers’ souls. Like they can write what we cannot. If we can put words to exactly what we wanted to say, this is what it would be. She (along with maybe 2-3 others only) speak to me on this level. And this book was no exception.

I guess the disappointing thing for me about this book was that sometimes I wished for more. For the new stories, not connected to longer works,  I almost always wanted more. Some of the stories were better than others. Some were connected to longer fiction that I haven’t read in so many years that I failed to recognize the character they were connected to….And now I want to re-read those older works. I keep thinking about the one Covid Christmas story, and I can’t get it out of my head. I had so many feelings about it. Maybe because it was so familiar and relatable.

I also can’t get the last story out of my head. It deals with the story writing process. And while I’ve seen things like this before, Rowell does it in such a fun, romantic way. It reminded me a bit of the show “The Good Place,” which I also love. And it’s no surprise that most of her story about writing stories is all about characters. How do characters develop? What happens to them before they are fully fleshed out?

This is the kind of book I wanted to read slowly and savor because that’s how deeply Rowell speaks to me. But, it’s hard to read something you love slowly. You just want to dive in and enjoy it. And I did. The first story was one I think I’ve read before. I’m enough of a fan that I think I’ve read a story or two of the author’s online, but it’s been so many years that reading it again felt fresh and new. And it felt like it belonged here in this book.

All in all, this was a treat. I will continue to read anything Rowell writes and  hope she writes a lot more. I give this a 10/10.