REVIEW: Lietaus Žemė (Rain Land) by Jurga Lago

Title: Lietaus Žemė (Rain Land)
Author:  Jurga Lago
Series: -
Genres: Fantasy
Publisher: Nieko Rimto
Release: February, 2016
Source: Hardcover
Pages: 184

// Goodreads //

BLURB: In the olden days, Lithuanians and Semogitians were in constant battle. One day the Gods, who have had enough of their fighting, sent eternal rain to the land. In the world filled with strange water creatures, talking lakes and never ending war, can a little boy and a girl stop the never ending rain? 

EXPECTATIONS: Sorry for the very lose translation of the blurb, but I couldn't find it in English. I came across this book because of Quinn, who read it and loved it. I am a sucker for pagan Lithuanian literature, so I just had to read it. In general there isn't many books talking about Lithuanian pagan times and the rich mythology that we have so I was very excited to read this book!

THE WORLD: I can't give you like a specific year, but the plot is set in this mystical fantasy land. The premise is that the Gods have sent rain upon humanity, so it's raining ALL THE TIME! So everything has sort of accustomed to the rain. There aren't horses anymore, but there are these water-horses, water-pigs, water-potatoes and things like that. I actually enjoyed the world building in this book. It was unique I feel, nothing I have read before. But I do however, feel like the culture could have been explored more. We do get glimpses of religion, living situations and the relationships between characters, but just a little.

CHARACTERS: We have a multiple characters but let me break it down: There are two sides - Lithuanians, that have their Duke Lithuanian (Lietuvis) he lives in this castle that is surrounded by a lake and only this lake can tell who is the true heir to the great Duke Lietuvis. On the other side we have the Semogitian duke Boor (Stuobrys), who is expecting to have a child. These two sides are fighting because of an incident. The only living son and heir of Lietuvis has been stolen and he blames Boor for it, and Boor blames Lietuvis for the rain. The two dukes I liked to some extend.

Then we have two main kids in this book - a girl named Lyja (Rain) she is the daughter of Boor and he basically ignores her because she's a girl and he wanted a son, so the men in his castle basically raise her. We also have Žaltys (Grass snake), a weird boy who knows the water-forest by heart and can trick you into anything.

ROMANCE: Some but not the main point.

GOOD: Just that this book exist. We have so little of such genre and Baltic mythology is super rich. I also liked the plot and the idea a lot, I fell in love with the name Lyja for a girl.

BAD: But I do however, have some negative thing to say. 1) Lack of character development - I feel that the characters were very superficial. It's almost like a type character - the mean one, the ugly one, the kind one. I mean Lyja is the main female lead and she is just annoying at times. She doesn't grow as a young woman, who understands the importance of helping her mother, the importance of the rain and why things are happening. Sometimes it would be like she will make this huge leap towards growing a little and then jumps four steps back with spitting at someone. It...it annoyed me guys. The same with the Dukes. They weren't strong leaders to me. We barely get to meet Lietuvis, and Boor is so shallow! Oh I have a daughter, oh no, I am out of here! He doesn't take the responsibility of being the father, the leader, the one who everyone looks up too! And this goes to all of the characters. 2) World building - I feel like this was just scratching the surface! So it's raining all the time, OK, so what? How do they celebrate, what kind of celebrations are there? Why Lyja and her mother are the only two women in the castle, why Lietuvis' son was taken, and who took him? I just have so many questions!!! 3) Writing - I like pretty writing, or edgy writing done well. This was neither. For example, there would be places where characters would have a heart to heart, it felt like a genuine moment and then someone says 'I shat in your milk' and I'm like....excuse me? I mean the writing I feel, was not the best. This is not adult material but it's too explicit for kids, so where does this book fall I have no idea!

OVERALL: I think I enjoyed this book just because it was about a fantasy world in the older times set in my country. I am a little bias, but if to tell you the truth, there a very limited amount of people in my circle that I would recommend to read it. It's not for everyone. But if you feel like it seems interesting, I can only hope someone it will be translated into English.

What do you think about Lietaus Žemė (Rain Land)?