Aurelius

Red Rain #3.5

by Rachel Newhouse

Eighteen-year-old Stanyard Dass had every intention of leaving his past behind when he fled a religious containment camp. But his assimilation into society is threatened when his old neighbor Philadelphia, on the run from the law, begs for his help. She carries the key to a chemical superweapon, and the government will kill to get her back. Stanyard agrees to take her to safety—but when everything goes horribly wrong, he must decide which one of them will make it out alive.

Aurelius is a companion story in the Red Rain series, a fast-paced Christian sci-fi series for middle grade and young adult readers.

Genres: Dystopia

69 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 1, 2022

About the author

Rachel Newhouse is an author, wife, secretary, and Sunday school teacher from Kansas City, Missouri. Her obsessions are sci-fi, dystopian, and kid lit. When she’s not writing, she’s cooking Asian food, growing chilis that are too spicy to eat, and watching wildly age-inappropriate shows like My Little Pony and Gravity Falls with her husband, Joe. She also really likes glitter. You’ve been warned.

Reviews

[Kate Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I KNEW.

If you don't usually read supplemental stories to a series, I highly suggest with this one you do. It just adds so much, and it's always fun to see the same events from a different point-of-view. ;)

[Jessica Goeken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Believable and genuine.

I like the way the author portrays Stanyard as a weak believer. It’s easy to relate to him as he bows to outside pressure and deals with the emotions that arise from that. His moment of repentance feels genuine, and his growth into someone readers can root for is well done.

[Jonathan Lovelace · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Just add epicnuance." Or, "everything you thought you knew is now in question."

"Aurelius" is the latest entry (and the fifth, I think, released or rereleased this year in Rachel Newhouse's return-with-a-vengeance to print and "virtual print") in the series that began with Red Rain. While earlier books and stories added background or provided an alternative perspective on previously-seen events, this tightly-written 14,000-word story throws a number of bombshells that show just how little Philadelphia Smyrna knew. (None of which I will spoil here.)

In this story, in stark contrast to Crook Q, Prisoner 120518, and Andromeda, there is essentially no "on-screen action", as the events of previous entries in the series are summarized with admirable brevity (enough, one hopes, for readers who missed those prior stories) in our narrator's flashbacks and media-viewing. But again and again, in the middle of a concisely condensed account of what took tens of thousands of words to tell the first and second time, Mrs. Newhouse drops a bombshell that reveals that what we thought we knew wasn't actually so.

If this were just another alternate perspective, I would recommend it for die-hard fans only; "that's been done." But this isn't just another perspective adding some nuance, this is a gallery of paradigm-shifting revelations, stopping just short of too much "intensive recomplication". Brava!, and I look forward to seeing where this series is going to go next.

This review is adapted from a longer one on my blog. I received my copy of the story at no additional cost because I support Mrs. Newhouse on Patreon.

[Rachel Newhouse]

**9/29 reread: Listened to this again to find Stanyard's voice... because there may or may not be another Stanyard POV book in the works...**

This is still easily my favorite "half" book... and Adam is such a perfect voice for Stanyard that it's like my little cinnamon role has come to life. *dramatic author tears*

*cough* All of that to say... this book will be out on audio within the week! :)

[Angie Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh. My. Word. I went straight from Andromeda into this one, and I immediately did a double-take because--wait, what??? WHAT??? And ahhhhhhhhhh, how did I miss that?!? And of course he was!!!!! (And also, I don't disagree with the choice, because as hard of a time as Phil had trusting someone she had no reason to doubt at the moment, trying to re-earn her trust over a forbidden chat she's a second away from just deleting would probably not have ended well. But now I need her to KNOW this yesterday!!!)

Ahem. Okay, yes, I have always felt for Stanyard, and it hurt to see how his choices in the first book had fallen down around his ears. I did feel like I needed some more information on what exactly they felt like they were escaping--was their dad supposed to be actually abusive toward them in some way? Because I felt like I never really connected the dots, and I don't know whether that initial choice is supposed to be sympathetic or not--obviously not from Phil's perspective, but even from Stanyard's perspective, I still didn't quite understand all of the motivation. However, his moment of surrender was so real and beautiful, and I can't wait for more of him in the future!

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great addition to the series to get insight into Stanyard's journey. The motivations behind his actions add so much to the story and the entire series.