Waiting for the Flood

Waiting for the Flood (2018) Alexis Hall (Spires)

The last book I finished wasn’t at all for me.

This book was perfect for me.

The waters are rising, and Edwin Tully worries more about his elderly neighbor than his own home–the home he bought with his ex. The home he thought was going to be their forever.

You don’t really fall in love with a house. You fall in love with the life you could have in it.

Each chapter opens with a description of one room of the house, and what the room meant to Edwin when he and Marius bought the house.

First, his neighbor is wonderful.

She sighed. “All right, all right, I take your point. But if I end up having to eat my own arm like a coyote, I’m suing.”
…
But now I carefully focused on Mrs. P. My friend. I thought of tea and biscuits and Sunday afternoons— not a stranger whose ease and kindness was its own threat— and pulled out my words. Slowly, knowing that with Mrs, P. they would be safe.

“Last time I checked,” I said, “you have enough Hobnobs in there to last a nuclear winter.”

“A woman cannot live by Hobnobs alone.”

“No, you need—” custard creams “— Jammie Dodgers too.”

She nodded. “And protein.”

The story itself is just lovely.

This is the story of my life: standing on the edges of things and worrying, when I’m supposed to just walk through them.

We see Edwin through his actions and his thoughts–and the words he can’t get out.

“Oh yes. I’m a—” I wanted to say badass, but I didn’t trust myself with a b and a d so close to each other, “— maverick. Mixing it up. Is totally what I do.”

This is a novella, so in some ways the story is spare, getting to the ending in just over 100 words. But it’s also perfect, focusing on the things you need, letting you fill in the gaps of Edwin and his life.

It’s just lovely and sweet and there is no boinking.

Rating: 8/10

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