The Color of Rain - Softcover

McCarthy, Cori

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0762448210 ISBN 13: 9780762448210

Publisher: Running Press, 2013

Synopsis

If there is one thing that seventeen-year-old Rain knows and knows well, it is survival. Caring for her little brother, Walker, who is "Touched," and losing the rest of her family to the same disease, Rain has long had to fend for herself on the bleak, dangerous streets of Earth City. When she looks to the stars, Rain sees escape and the only possible cure for Walker. And when a darkly handsome and mysterious captain named Johnny offers her passage to the Edge, Rain immediately boards his spaceship. Her only price: her "willingness."

The Void cloaks many secrets, and Rain quickly discovers that Johnny's ship serves as host for an underground slave trade for the Touched . . . and a prostitution ring for Johnny's girls. With hair as red as the bracelet that indicates her status on the ship, the feeling of being a marked target is not helpful in Rain's quest to escape. Even worse, Rain is unsure if she will be able to pay the costs of love, family, hope, and self-preservation.

With intergalactic twists and turns, Cori McCarthy's debut space thriller exists in an orbit of its own.

About this title

About the Author

Cori M. McCarthy has a BA in Creative Writing from Ohio University, a graduate certificate in screenwriting from UCLA, and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of the Fine Arts. Born in Guam, (a military kid), she has lived in Ireland and traveled widely around
the world, but now lives in Michigan with her husband and baby son.

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Reviews

Gr 10 Up-To get the funds she needs to jump planet and travel to the Edge, where her younger brother might be cured, Rain has only one commodity to sell: her virginity. Walker's headaches and confusion will soon identify him as Touched, and he'll be among the hundreds taken away by Earth City police each year. Attracted by Rain's unusual red hair, the starship captain agrees to transport her and Walker through the Void. Aboard Imreas, Johnny Vale controls dozens of women who work as prostitutes for passengers and crew. He will use any means necessary to make Rain totally dependent on him. Despite killing her only friend from Earth before her eyes and demoting her from serving as his exclusive mistress to having sex with whoever will pay, Johnny cannot break Rain's spirit. Her unique qualities attract the attention of Ben, whose advanced technological skills keep Imreas's complex systems functioning. They also help Ben bypass surveillance to develop a relationship with Rain. When she learns that the ship carries hundreds of Touched to work in asteroid mines, she reluctantly agrees to help him and the K-Force stop Johnny and his brother, an even-more-sadistic slave trader, who enjoys lobotomizing the Touched personally. The hopeful ending seems highly improbable. Having survived beatings and rape, witnessed torture and murder, and made choices that sent others to their deaths, Rain seems unlikely to emerge unscathed, ready for a conventional romance with Ben, who carries his own share of guilt. McCarthy's dystopian future in which "deranged people with power" control others through violence and degradation makes for bleak reading.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankatoα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

McCarthy's bleak debut novel delivers readers into Earth City, "the most forgotten planet in the universe," where Rain White and her 12-year-old brother, Walker, are orphaned. Lo, a prostitute, takes them under her wing and encourages Rain to sell her body to avoid scrambling for survival. Walker is also infected with a disease that decays the mind; Rain's desperation is heightened by the fear that police will discover Walker's condition and send him away with the rest of the "Touched." On this lawless future Earth, power falls to those who can readily escape the planet-like Johnny, an attractive starship captain who offers to transport Rain and Walker to a region called "the Edge," where an alleged cure for Walker's condition awaits. However, Johnny's assistance comes at a cost: his personal possession of Rain. McCarthy's poetic language glows throughout her descriptions of a desolate and melancholy universe. Psychological and physical torture, gruesome deaths, and sexual slavery create a dense, claustrophobic narrative that may require even mature readers to come up for air. Ages 13-up. Agent: Sarah Davies, Greenhouse Literary Agency.

Desperate to get her younger brother the medical help he needs, 17-year-old Rain White agrees to become a minor space-gangster’s girlfriend if he’ll take her to the Edge, where “mecs”—genetically advanced humans—supposedly have a cure for the Alzheimer’s-like disease. Once on board the ship, Rain discovers the cargo is human, and she and new mec ally Ben band together to liberate those who can’t speak or act for themselves. The word color in the title refers to the caste system of prostitutes aboard the slave ship, and although violence, sex, and language are relatively mild, this is more appropriate for mature teens and adults. McCarthy’s world evokes the flavor of the television series Firefly while touching on themes of difference, emotional abuse, and responsibility. Vivid characters and Rain’s first-person narration draw readers in to this refreshingly unique story; give this to sci-fi/fantasy fans tired of vampires, zombies, and witchcraft, and who don’t mind an edgier story line. Grades 9-12. --Cindy Welch

Edition details

• Publisher: Running Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0762448210
• ISBN 13: 9780762448210
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352