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The Rains
The Rains
Jan 12, 2026 11:54 AM

Author:Gregg Hurwitz

The Rains

WINNER of the ITW THRILLER AWARD - Best Young Adult Novel

THE FIRST BOOK IN THE HIGH-OCTANE YOUNG ADULT ADVENTURE THRILLER SERIES FROM BESTSELLING AUTHOR GREGG HURWITZ.

It's never really been my thing to be the brave one - that's always been my older brother Patrick - but something world-changing is happening in our small town of Creek's Cause. Parasites have infected everyone over the age of eighteen, making them violent, and if they even sniff a kid they either bash our brains in or take us back to their creepy lair.

We're trapped at the school with the other remaining survivors, including Patrick's girlfriend Alex, and we don't know how long we'll last. The school is surrounded by infected adults, and we're sure that there is something else out there, something controlling the people that used to be our parents, our guardians.

But here's the real problem, Patrick is turning eighteen in a few days, so it's up to me - Chance Rain - to find a way to save him. And maybe, just maybe if we survive the next few weeks then we can help save humanity.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Orphan X and comics in the Batman, Wolverine, and Punisher universes comes The Rains, a thrilling adventure as relentless as The Hunger Games and as page-turning as Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave.

Reviews

A brilliant, terrifying, rule-breaking reimagining of the zombie novel.

—— Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Rot & Ruin

One of those all-too-creepy-and-believable stories. Chilling!

—— Ridley Pearson, New York Times bestselling author

Readers with a 5th Wave-shaped hole in their sf-loving hearts will rejoice.

—— Booklist

In his first book for teens, Hurwitz crafts a tense, disturbing tale that's simultaneously a story driven by brother love and the determination to survive against impossible odds.

—— Publishers Weekly

The alien-zombie mashup that science-fiction fans won't want to miss . . . This zombie-esque sci-fi novel will feed the needs of readers looking for a fast-paced, adrenaline-pumping story with elements of horror.

—— Kirkus Reviews

The Rains is a fearsome exploration of survival that turns the horrors of the natural world into our worst nightmares. Readers will hold their breath for the whole adrenaline-packed, terrifying ride. Biological sci-fi at its best.

—— Lydia Kang, author of Control

A compelling, deep, dark drama about Dracula’s origin. Even I had to keep the lights on when reading this book!

—— JOHN SAUL, author of Suffer the Children

A terrifying and compelling prequel that reveals how a young Bram Stoker confronted evil to craft a masterpiece.

—— LIBRARY JOURNAL

Whatever fiendish bargain Stoker and Barker struck to resurrect the voice of Bram Stoker with such authenticity and aplomb, it was worth it, at least to their mere mortal readers. Dracul is a genius and fevered nightmare of Gothic madness, each page seeping with ominous dread and escalating horror. It is a prequel more than just worthy of the original novel—it is sure to be an undying classic of its own, haunting, terrifying and entertaining generations to come.

—— ERIC RICKSTAD, author of What Remains of Her and The Silent Girls

Very scary . . . a big book that will no doubt be a hit among monster-movie and horror lit fans—and for good reason.

—— KIRKUS REVIEWS

J.D. Barker is a one-of-a-kind writer and that’s a rare and special thing. Stephen King comes to mind and Lee Child, John Sanford. All one-of-a-kinds. Don’t miss anything J.D. writes.

—— JAMES PATTERSON

A . . . dread-infused atmosphere not at all that far from Poe.

—— Irish Times

Dracul is utterly compelling, not to mention terrifying . . . it truly is the best possible reading material for October 31st.

—— Irish Examiner

This Dracula is the vicious, bloodthirsty, malevolent 'strigori' we know and love to hate.

—— Irish Independent

Dracul is a fat, entertaining novel which mixes fact and fiction with lusty relish . . . Written, like its illustrious antecedent, in epistolary form it also mimics the darkness of the original.

—— RTE Guide

An intriguing tale of bloodlust, horror and resurrection . . . [Dracul] builds to an exciting and suspenseful climax.

—— Mail on Sunday

It takes you on a journey through time - Christmases past and present in a Dickensian way, but brings you bang up to the present - how can we live our lives and keep our memories and how do we find the truth? It is uplifting and miraculous with plenty of surprises along the way. It is vintage Smith

—— Jackie Kay

"Winter" is an insubordinate folk tale, with echoes of the fiction of Iris Murdoch and Angela Carter... There are few writers on the world stage who are producing fiction this offbeat and alluring... [Ali Smith] intends to send a chill up your shanks and she succeeds, jubilantly... Her dialogue is a series of pine cones flung at rosy cheeks

—— The New York Times

Smith is routinely brilliant, knowing, masterful... The light inside this great novelist's gorgeous snow globe is utterly original, and it definitely illuminates

—— New York Times Book Review

The only preparation required to savor the Scottish writer Ali Smith's virtuosic "Winter" is to pay attention to the world we've recently been living in...What Smith has achieved in her cycle so far is exactly what we need artists to do in disorienting times: make sense of events, console us, show us how we got here, help us believe that we will find our way through...Smith gives us a potent, necessary source of sustenance that speaks directly to our age...Yet we, like her characters, are past the winter solstice now - the darkest part of the coldest season done. From here on out, we're headed toward the light...It doesn't feel that way, I know. But in the midst of "Winter," each page touched with human grace, you might just begin to believe

—— Boston Globe

Winter is a stunning meditation on a complex, emotional moment in history

—— TIME

Ali Smith is flat-out brilliant, and she's on fire these days...You can trust Smith to snow us once again with her uncanny ability to combine brainy playfulness with depth, topicality with timelessness, and complexity with accessibility while delivering an impassioned defence of human decency and art

—— NPR

The stunningly original Smith again breaks every conceivable narrative rule; reflecting her longstanding affinity for Modernism, what she gives us instead is a stylistically innovative cultural bricolage that celebrates the ecstasy of artistic influence. It demands and richly rewards close attention. [Autumn and Winter] each add to Smith's growing collection of glittering literary paving stones, along a path that's hopefully leading toward the Nobel she deserves. In the interim, we can (re)read "Winter" - and eagerly await the coming of "Spring"

—— Minneapolis Journal Sentinel

One of the rarest creatures in the world: a really fearless novelist...her prose is melodic, associative, wise, sometimes maddening...'she shares with Mantel and Ishiguro a sense of human caution, a need to understand, a wariness of the high-handedly authorial. All write with the humility of adulthood

—— Chicago Tribune

The second in Smith's quartet of seasonal novels displays her mastery at weaving allusive magic into the tragicomedies of British people and politics...a bleak, beautiful tale greater than the sum of its references

—— Vulture

An engaging novel due to the ecstatic energy of Smith's writing, which is always present on the page

—— Publishers Weekly

A sprightly, digressive, intriguing fandango on life and time

—— Kirkus Reviews

These individuals converge to confront each other in the big shabby house, like characters in a Chekhov play. At first, hellish implosion looms. Slowly, erratically, connection creeps in. Lux quietly mediates. Ire softens. Sophia at last eats something. Art resees Nature..."Winter" gives the patient reader a colorful, witty - yes, warming - divertissement

—— San Francisco Chronicle

With Iris and Lux as catalysts, scenes from Christmas past unfold, and our narrow views of Sophia and Art widen and deepen, filled with the secrets and substance of their histories, even as the characters themselves seem to expand. As in Sophia's case, for Art this enlargement is announced by a hallucination - "not a real thing," as Lux tells Iris, whose response speaks for the book's own expansive spirit: "Where would we be without our ability to see beyond what it is we're supposed to be seeing?"

—— The Minneapolis Star Tribune
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