![\"Cover](\"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/rain-reign-300x449.jpg\")
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\n\t\t\t\tBUY ON BOOKSHOP<\/span>\n\t\t\t\tBOOKSHOP<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t& support independent bookstores\n\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/article> \n\n\t<\/center><\/div>Rose and Rain are inseparable, until Rain disappears in a storm, and Rose has to put all her planning skills to work to find her friend \u2014 which she does with strength and determination \u2014 only to face the possibility of losing Rain once more.<\/p>\nRain Reign<\/em><\/a> has many of the ingredients I love in a story: a girl on the spectrum[1]<\/a>, a strong family arc, a distinct lack of sugarcoating, and of course Rose\u2019s fascination with words. I set out to love Rain Reign<\/em>. Honestly, I wanted<\/em> to love Rain Reign<\/em>.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, I didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Because for all that Rose narrates the events of the book, and for all that there are moments when her voice is nuanced and shines <\/em>\u2014 in the guilt she feels about her mother\u2019s disappearance, in the way she tries to reach out to fellow classmates and both fails and succeeds \u2014 this is not the story of an autistic character written for an inclusive audience. This is a story about an autistic character written for a neurotypical audience. Beyond those first chapters, the nuanced scenes are few and far between. Instead, the story is written in a quintessential \u201cAutism Voice\u201d and, more and more, reading it felt like an exercise in being othered.<\/p>\n Autism Voice<\/strong>, noun<\/em><\/p>\n In Rain Reign<\/em>, all three of those aspects are present. The story is narrated by Rose, who does so very carefully, with regular signpost-y comments such as \u201cThe next part of my introduction is the setting of my story.\u201d To a degree, this is fitting. The story shows Rose to be a very careful girl, both in the way she deals with her father\u2019s drinking \u2014 knowing well when to disturb him and when to leave him be \u2014 and in the way she deals with the care of Rain. But many more characters across children\u2019s literature are portrayed as careful and determined, yet their stories are told without that added narrative distance. It\u2019s a quirk that seems to be reserved primarily for autistic characters.<\/p>\n At other points, too, it\u2019s glaring that the nuances are continuously pushed aside for a far more stereotypical narrative. While I found Rose to be a strong and interesting character, she has to be explicitly framed as other<\/em>. From the constant focus on her obsession with homonyms, numbers, prime numbers, weather patterns, and rules, to commonly understood examples of autism, like being overly literal in her reactions:<\/p>\n This might (mite) be (bee) sarcasm, which is like mockery. (p75)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n While her behavior hints at emotional responses, it has to be made clear, again and again, that she could not actually have her own feelings, beyond that which she was taught:<\/p>\n I have thought of that triple homonym before, but I know this is not the time to mention it. This is the time for the feeling of friendliness. (p185)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It is rational. It is quirky. It is different. It is Other:<\/p>\n I begin to breathe very fast. Because above all, “Autism Voice” seems to be based on one particularly pervasive stereotype: autistics do not experience emotions. We do not feel. (Therefore) We cannot be hurt. Our only understanding of emotions is one of rational definitions only.<\/p>\n It\u2019s often repeated, widely accepted, and as such, a particularly harmful stereotype. After all, what stops us from mistreating our fellow humans if we claim to know they won’t be hurt anyway? Why should you believe us when we tell you we do hurt, when every stereotype claims autistics cannot be trusted with their own experiences?<\/p>\n Right.<\/p>\n While Rain Reign<\/em> pleasantly surprised me by showing Rose’s empathy not only toward Rain, but also toward her father and uncle (both in very different ways), it continues to follow that tradition of denying autistic characters emotional agency.<\/p>\n And perhaps that is what made loving the book impossible for me. Because as an autistic person, it hurts <\/em>that people still tell me to my face that I cannot feel, that I do not experience emotions the way \u201cnormal\u201d people do. And this pervasive stereotype of the overly rational, uncaring autistic actively harms me and will continue to do so as long as it continues to be the main representation of autism.<\/p>\n For Rain Reign<\/em> it is, at best, a missed opportunity. It is, at worst, another confirmation of a harmful and problematic misunderstanding of autism. Especially in a book whose underlying moral is one of challenging ourselves to step outside of our own perception, as is explicitly stated in the last chapter:<\/p>\n A few [homonyms] make lovely connections if you\u2019re open to changing your perspective when you think about them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Rain Reign<\/em> is one of those books that, as a writer, makes me wonder about how we write diverse characters, but often, especially, disabled characters. Too often, stories about disability and disabled characters are written for a non-disabled audience. So too with Rain Reign<\/em>.<\/p>\n And perhaps this is best exemplified, not by the story, but by the Author\u2019s Note in the ARC, where the author states that she spent only a single morning talking with and observing students on the spectrum. That is not inclusion.<\/p>\n Reading this story feels like being <\/em>observed, through a very biased lens. That is not inclusion.<\/p>\n A story about us, without us, is not inclusion. And it\u2019s exactly children like Rose who crave that inclusion, recognition, acceptance, especially when they can\u2019t find it at home or at school. We owe more to them. We owe more to ourselves.<\/p>\n\n
\nI think this is a sign of panic.
\n\u201cTwo, three, five, seven, eleven,\u201d I say. \u201cTwo, three, five, seven, eleven.\u201d (p90)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n