Title: Spring Storms: When March 31 Attacks
Author: Gaia Terra
Publisher: Cosmos
Rating: 4 Earths out of 5
Review:
Don’t let the weatherman fool you. Rainy days aren’t just for April anymore.
To be perfectly honest with you, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this very much when I first picked it up. Gloomy, damp, Thursday mornings are such a longstanding tradition in the Spring Storms series that I couldn’t imagine how anyone could put a fresh spin on them. Skipping volume 12 after finishing the first eleven instalments was unimaginable, though, so I kept going. Wow, am I glad I did! The narrator really pulled out all of the stops in this edition. Her gentle use of chilly breezes was just as refreshing as how regularly she turned the rainfall up and down to suit the general mood of the storm.
With that being said, I did have a few issues with how the clouds were used. Do all of them actually need to be so dark and heavy? I completely understand why you’d need some puffy, foreboding clouds in a storm like this one, but sometimes they floated into downright torrential territory without any warning at all. Ms. Terra could have easily made her point perfectly well without being quite so heavy handed. In fact, making me work a little harder to figure out when it was raining and when it was only threatening to rain would have easily earned this blustery day a higher rating. Everything else about it was exactly what I would expect from the end of March.
I do have to admit that the fog was perfectly handled. It hung around menacingly in the background without ever trying to take centre stage. That is exactly the kind of fog I’d expect for this kind of nuanced weather, and this is coming from someone who normally can’t get enough of foggy days.
Who should jump into Spring Storms: When March 31 Attacks? Anyone who has a strong umbrella, a solid pair of rain boots, and the uncanny ability to keep their electronics tucked away in a dry, secure place until the sun comes out again.