Until it stops raining

Original title: Hasta que deje de llover 

 

Genre: Contemporary

Original publication date: February 2020

Book description: This story follows Milo and Axel through their adolescence and afterward. 

Milo is a young shy kid when he meets Axel the next-door neighbor who seems more outgoing and sure of himself. We have unrequited love, and we follow a few key moments in their lives as they grow up.

Thoughts:

Warning this book contains drug abuse, homophobic behavior from people, mentions of physical and emotional abuse, cheating, mentions of harassment.

This story took me a while to pick up. I found this book by accident while searching for book deals in Kindle and just bought it on a whim. I read the synopsis and was mildly interested. 

I expected to enjoy reading it and I was surprised.

Milo is shy and due to his past he is a very unsure person, always fearing how others see him. Afraid of the world and yet he has very normal aspirations for his age, he is 14 years old when the story starts. 

Axel and his family move in next door, they are running away from something that happened in Axel's school.  You might find a bit annoying the family dynamic for a bit here. 

Axel and Milo become close friends but Axel wants something more, Milo does not. That *Spoiler Alert* pushes them apart for a while. 

Parents are not perfect, they get stressed out, they vent and sometimes overreact especially towards their children. Also sometimes they take a while to act even in their own defense. As mentioned above there are descriptions of an abusive family so you will see a mother and wife stand it for years before she took the decision of involving authorities, this is briefly touched on several occasions. That attitude is stressful but in a way understandable. It is hard to get out of those situations.

As the years progress we see more of their lives, they go their separate ways and meet up a few years later, try to mean their friendship, but you know how angst works. Life throws at them several obstacles, they also do not make the best designs at times and time continues to flow.

This story is full of stress for the reader, you see snips of the life they lead when they meet again. you might like it or not.

I generally don't like too much angst in my books and this shows up. I ate it up like there was no tomorrow. I picked up this book and read it in a single go, I had plans to start it and finish it the next day or two, no it did not go as planned. I stayed reading until I reached the end.

They are not my favorite couple, their decisions made me angry most of the time and yet this story felt so real. You have dreams and hopes, you fall in love, you want something for the future but life doesn't always give you what you want. And sometimes what you thought you wanted, does not really make you all that happy.

We follow a bit of their family's lives as well and a few other people they run into, so it feels like a broadcast, but in reality, the story only ever really focus on them, do not expect very deep secondary characters. 

One of the most realistic, heart-wrenching stories I have read this year!

 If you do not like angst them this is not for you though.