I’m excited to share the next guest post of launch week! I met Lulu through a writing coaching program last year, and her thoughtful feedback and beautiful prose inspired me. She also shared a chilling story idea and her great sense of humor. She’s currently alpha reading my work-in-progress, Bound, and I can’t thank her enough for the encouraging feedback. All that to say, I’m glad Lulu is sharing with us today. Onto her review!

Goodreads link: Stop the Rain: Never Leave a Fallen Comrade by Kassie Angle | Goodreads

Content Warnings: heavy PTSD & nightmares, mild war violence & blood, grief & survivor guilt, general intensity [a character wishes they had died in combat, but there are no suicidal thoughts]  

You’ve most likely never heard of this book — which is one of the reasons I chose to share my thoughts on it when Vella asked me if I’d write a review. The other reason being that it made me cry not once, not twice, but three times — and that’s a real feat for a book considering it’s only happened to me about four times in my teenage years.

Stop the Rain by Kassie Angle is a contemporary Christian novel following Harley, a young American soldier, who returns from the war in Iraq to a home that he no longer feels he belongs in. Here’s the blurb:

He left his entire world in Iraq. So why did the war follow him home?

Harley Keane and his best friend Nigel were just kids when 9/11 rocked their world and changed their lives forever. When they’re finally old enough to join the Army, all their childhood dreams seem about to come true. But war wasn’t supposed to be like this. A kid’s dream isn’t supposed to become a living nightmare. Fellow soldiers aren’t supposed to bleed out in front of your eyes.

Back home, safe and unwounded, Harley feels anything but. Why would God spare him when so many others were taken? Why won’t the nightmares stop, even when he’s awake? And how long can he hide the truth that threatens everything he has left? When Harley’s invisible scars refuse to stay hidden, will he let anyone close enough to help? And how do you go on with life when “okay” isn’t okay at all?

I’ve always been skeptical of indie-published books – or contemporary fiction, for that matter. I only read Stop the Rain due to the enthusiastic recommendation from a close friend, and even then, it took over a year before I decided to try it for myself. Despite my reservations about the cover and the genre in general, I picked it up and gave it a proper go last January. 

All of a sudden, I was seeing the world through the eyes of a broken soldier, frantically trying to keep his head above water, desperate for help but too afraid to ask for it. Although I’d been fairly aware of PTSD and the mental health struggles of soldiers returning from combat, I’d never had this kind of deep experience of what it must be like. Angle’s sensitive but gritty portrayal of Harley’s fight to ‘be okay’ and avoid medical discharge while dealing with grief and deep trauma didn’t feel overwrought or contrived but real. Harley doesn’t have some cheesy, fairytale ending, where all of his wounds instantly disappear after a mountain-top experience; instead, he wrestles with them and with God in a real, meaningful way.

Angle doesn’t spend time on beautiful prose or in a sweeping setting – and despite the fact that those are both usually aspects I look for in a story, I feel that style wouldn’t fit with the story she tells. Her style very much fits with her characters – it’s direct, specific, raw and real. The characters in Stop the Rain feel truly alive; their voices are so vivid that they’re almost audible, and their interactions are laugh-out-loud relatable. Throughout Harley’s story, we’re introduced to side characters with their own intersecting spheres of conflict, desires and fears, adding depth to the story with all of their quirks and loves and brokenness.

Kassie Angle’s action scenes are clear and highly visual, her softer scenes full of meaning, and most of all, the emotions are so deeply and powerfully conveyed that even the smallest line can become truly moving. This book certainly isn’t a light read, but it is a hopeful one.

Is this book perfect? No; at a few points, I found it a little bit slow, but the highly sympathetic protagonist was really what drove the whole story forward. If you love a good book that simultaneously makes you fall in love with, cry with, and heal with the main characters, then Stop the Rain is a definite must-read.

About the Reviewer:

Lucia (or Lulu, whichever you prefer) has always loved stories, though it took her a while to realize that her insatiable hunger for printed pages and that stack of half-filled notebooks were signs that she was meant to be a writer. Now, over three years and many, many words later, she can’t imagine doing anything different.  

Lulu writes because she believes in the power of the light that stories can shed in the dark places of the world, and how they can help us understand ourselves, our fellow creatures, and our Heavenly Father. She loves setting stories in her home nation of Great Britain, as well as exploring other places, worlds and times through her books. When she isn’t caught up in a flurry of inspiration or daydreaming about her characters, you can find her wandering and wondering in the countryside, avidly discussing period dramas and fantasy classics with her friends and family, swimming, or nose-diving off a foamie surfboard. If you want to read more of Lulu’s writing, you can find her blog at wordsandwildflowers.co.uk.

Note from Vella: I haven’t personally read this book yet, but I trust my guest reviewers to include all necessary content warnings.