Not Really a Review: Red Rain

I'm giving up on this book. Let me tell you why. I got about 110 pages in, finished "Part 1" and began "Part 2". I had a few problems with the writing style of the first segment, but not enough that I would have stopped, had I been enjoying the story (um... "Twilight", anyone?), but there are a few things that I just couldn't get over.

First, often when a writer transitions from writing for kids to writing for adults, they feel the need to toss in "adult" lingo. I didn't read far enough to get too much, but the single incident of the protagonist's husband oogling his assistant's... um... "t-word"s (yes, the author chose that word) was just plain annoying. The oogling I get, the using such a crude, childish word by a supposedly educated character was just silly.

Second, the story seemed (and I could be wrong here, since I didn't finish it) to be headed in the direction of a child demon who kills other children. I don't care for that, so I'm stopping before Stine has a chance to really piss me off. Children in peril are not my favorite storyline, so I tend to steer clear when that looks like the story.

Third, I just don't care about the characters. Lea, the main protagonist of Part 1, is self-centered, immature and unlikeable. Her husband is annoying and the newly introduced ominously beautiful orphan twins that Lea brings home without any adult thought or real-world legal process are spooky from the get-go, and come from a cursed island. A set-up with some potential, but I don't want to read about kids hurting or killing other kids, especially innocent ones like Lea and Mark's two kids and their baby nephew.

If you loved Stine's "Goosebumps" books when you were young, you will probably like this. I was never a big fan of his writing, so maybe that's my problem right there. Too bad. I was in the mood for something scary.