Scattered Showers

A delightful collection of short stories by Rainbow Rowell. A few that I had already read.  • Midnights - New Years Eve story. Have already read and loved. Also in My True Love Gave To Me.  • Kindred Spirits - Previously published, but I hadn't read it yet. About a girl waiting in line for Star Wars The Force Awakens in 2015. Really cute.  • Winter Songs for Summer - Set in what must be, like, 1999/2000ish on a college campus. Really cute story featuring mix CDs.  • The Snow Ball - (skipped because it seemed Christmassy and I wanted to save it until after Thanksgiving) Cute. I like the weird best friends and Star Trek is obviously better than Prom. True Story: The day of my senior prom, I was at a theatre festival.  • If the Fates Allow - Read last year and loved. About Christmas 2020.  • The Prince and the Troll - Weird and fun. A sort of fantasy story about a bridge troll who I think turned out to be a mermaid, but her river had dried up. Because of the road.  • Mixed Messages - I decided to read this, even though I haven't read Attachments. It was an enjoyable story that was mostly a text message conversation between two friends who are women nearing their fifties.  • *Snow for Christmas - the Simon Snow story. Haven't read those books, but have read Fangirl. I skipped this one.  • In Waiting - This was like being inside of Rainbow Rowell's head. It was really funny at the beginning. It was really interesting and reflective as it progressed.

3.75Overall this was an entertaining short story collection. But short stories aren't my thing, that's why I didn't love it.Midnights: 3
Kindred Spirits: 3Winter Songs for Summer: 4
The Snow Ball: 2.75If the Fates Allow: (Skipped bc I don't want to read about covid)The Prince and the Troll: 2.75
Mixed Messages: 3Snow for Christmas: 5 (Snowbaz for life)
In Waiting: 4.5* (really interesting concept)

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.

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He huffed out a laugh. “I thought you said no to prom because you didn’t want to ruin everything.”

“What’s everything?” She was still whispering.

“You and me. Friendship.”

“I don’t,” she said. “But I’d rather we ruin it together than you ruin it with somebody else.”

What’s Scattered Showers About?

This is the first collection of short stories by Rainbow Rowell—nine stories, four of which had been previously published.

They are, at their core, love stories—the beginning of a relationship, the change of a relationship, the maintaining of one—and a couple that are harder to define. Rowell’s signature style and sweetness fills these pages—her light humor and propensity for happy endings, too. (propensity, not universal practice)

Checking In On Old Friends

With three of these stories, Rowell revisits characters from previous novels. We get to see some of the primary characters from Attachments in “Mixed Messages,” and a character from Fangirl in “If the Fates Allow,” and some of the characters from the Simon Snow trilogy (and, I guess, from Fangirl, too?).

I didn’t get into the Simon Snow stuff in Fangirl (and even skipped most of it) and didn’t bother with those books—but I liked the fact that Rowell did revisit some of her previous work. (I do wish we’d gotten to see Eleanor and/or Park, but am pretty sure that I’d have been annoyed at whatever she told us about them, so I’m glad she didn’t include anything about them).

Now, it’s not essential that you’re familiar with the characters in these stories to enjoy them. I don’t honestly remember who Reagan was from Fangirl (hey, it was 9 years ago, cut me some slack), but I quite enjoyed this story featuring her. I did remember the characters from Attachments, but I don’t think it enhanced my appreciation of that story—but it was nice to see a little about what’s gone on with them.

The Illustrations

Opposite the first page of each story is a full-page illustration, sort of a cover image. There are also some accent illustrations scattered throughout the stories. They were attractive and fitting to the stories. I’m not sure that they added much to the book, but I did think they were nice touches.

So, what did I think about Scattered Showers?

I’m a sucker for Rowell’s love stories, and had a lot of fun with these.* When she’s not writing about teen wizards, I have a hard time resisting her work (and don’t find much inclination to try).

* Okay, true to form, I skipped “Snow for Christmas” after the first page and a half didn’t intrigue me at all.

Out of her norm were two stories: one that’s a strange fairy-tale of sorts that I found strangely appealing, but I’m not sure how to talk about it. The closing story is about some characters who’ve taken up residence in an author’s subconscious or imagination, while they wait for the author to put them into a story or novel. I thought this was a fantastic story—Pirandello-esque, but with a Rowell-twist.

All in all, this was a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.