Raindrop Parade: Synopsis
How do the triangles etched in crystals work? Who is the bearded man in the abandoned house? Is my brother an arsonist? Why I do I keep dreaming about the miniature skeleton found in the Wildlands? Will Seth ever like me?
These are the kinds of questions that plague Sable Donnellan. After finding a message in a bottle that reads “Find S,” she is determined to get to the bottom of the mysteries that surround her quirky hometown of Glorietta (a small, fictional city in Southern California). Residing in her self-proclaimed “Circus Tower,” she concocts schemes to find answers through her synchronistic timing and psychic powers. But through her lists and anonymous letters, she discovers a yearning stronger than solving the secret riddles of her town: Who is her tribe and where can she find them? She dreads her greatest fears will stay true—that her childhood room is the only place she’ll ever belong and the only people who will ever love her are her parents.
Loosely based on the award-winning short story, “S,” Raindrop Parade captures the essence of longing as characters search for meaning, purpose, and anything to quench the pangs of loneliness and isolation that at some point everyone feels. It’s about experiencing the awe and wonder at both the grand scheme of nature and the seemingly ordinary occurrences in daily life. Filled with gripping tension and whimsical humor, Raindrop Parade considers the obligations of friendship, the family’s role, and the price of satiating one’s curiosity.
It is 1986, before email and mobile phones, and we follow Sable throughout her sophomore year of high school grappling with modes of communication. She can’t explain why she doesn’t have any real friends despite her close proximity with her classmates. We see her dangerous encounters with fire, sex, criminal behavior, alcohol, a partial skeleton, voyeurism, and the dark and mysterious places in which she often finds herself—intentionally or otherwise. She invents projects to help her piece her world together, searching for clues around the “outlets” of her town. These clues are anything she feels is mysterious and meaningful that can somehow help her to find her place in the world and the tribe of friends she longs to be with. She is especially attached to a quartz crystal which contains triangle etchings that she believes carry messages for her sent from another world.
Sable tries to make her mark in subtle ways, desperately attempting to connect with others while at the same time understanding the world around her. She combs through the streets on her bike, Whiz, and conducts controlled experiments in her private Salt Cave. But the innocent scavenger hunts of her youth turn dark when rubbed up against the trials of teenage life. By sneaking through alleys and spying from rooftops, Sable’s path crosses with other players, each with their own agenda. In her quest to belong, she discovers that her thirst for knowledge has a price.
Sable’s main desire is Seth, the boy she’s eyed since the seventh grade. Seth starts off unattainable, but after several awkward and failed attempts, Sable finally meets with him one-on-one in a risky venture involving fear and reputation.
Despite her deep crush on Seth, Sable is also obsessed with Skot who is a senior at her school and whose bedroom she can see from her own. She denies her physical attraction to him, rather she feels connected to him on an indefinable spiritual plane. Her obsession becomes heightened when she is suspected of breaking into his house in attempt to understand their true connection. Later when they reunite, Sable discovers that he is not who she thought he was and that so much of life is based on misunderstanding.
Suzanne (secretly nicknamed “Pony”), is Sable’s lab partner and rival for the attention of Seth. Through key dramatic scenes, we learn that Seth’s best friend, Ian, complicates her character.
Robin is the wild girl that Sable envies and fears. Sable is seduced by her but always seems to end up disappointed. Robin is uninhibited and spontaneous but longs for the kind of stability that Sable has. She is promiscuous and can be forceful but shows her tender side when she is alone and vulnerable. Sable tries to remain open to Robin’s passion but gets confused when she receives mixed messages.
Wynn, Iris, Mercer, Vale, and Ruby come from Sealand, the big city over the bridge from the small peninsula of Glorietta. Sable meets them on a magical rainy day after she is feeling at her lowest. They see Sable with fresh eyes and appreciate her quirkiness more than most have. Wynn reveals his free spirit and contrasts with Sable’s internal, analytical tendencies. Together they clash and yet balance each other in a way we haven’t seen with Sable before. We find out later that Sable reminds Wynn of his late ex-girlfriend, Azure. Sable questions whether this troop could be her tribe, but feels threatened when she gets a taste for Wynn’s true colors and thinks he sees her for someone she is not. Sable and Wynn eventually form a partnership when she reveals her strange discovery in the fields of Glorietta: a pile of small bones. The tables turn when Sable begins to take her scientific search to the next level and neglects to factor her role as a friend.
Alexis and Roxanne (self-proclaimed “Sexy Lexy” and “Foxy Roxy”) are the inseparable babes of Glorietta High. Alexis is the one in control while Roxanne follows her lead. Lexy sees Sable as both a target of ridicule and an accomplice to her own desires.
A mysterious man, later identified as Silverwolf, lies at the heart of the novel. With brief, enigmatic encounters, Sable wonders if he has spiritual lessons to teach her or if she is being led on a path of deceit.
Throughout the book we get scenes of Sable’s middle-class home and family. Her family serves as a kind of support system that she has yet to fully realize and appreciate. Her mother, Dora, always wanted to be a glamorous actress with a fur coat (which is why she names her black-haired girl “Sable”) but ends up being a housewife and often projects her fears and desires onto her children. Sable’s father, Anthony (Ant) is in the Navy doing “top secret military operations” and shares the same birthday with his daughter. Like Sable, he has an inquisitive, scientific personality, but he is less prone to the whims of imagination, art, and other-worldliness that possess his daughter. Sable’s brother, Clark, is one grade younger than her and has a network of close friends. His role is fairly small until Sable discovers a drawer full of matches in his room and starts to question how well she knows her own brother.
With hints of Daniel Clowes’ Ghost World and David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, Raindrop Parade is charged with fascination, sexuality, curiosity, longing, and fear, with a paranormal cherry on top. Through the episodic chapters, we latch onto Sable’s sharp, idiosyncratic voice, which tells a genre-bending story with an ’80s soundtrack in the background. On one level, it’s a coming-of-age mystery as we see teenagers struggle with identity and finding their place in the world. On another level, it’s a complex metaphysical love story based on uncertainty and obsession. It’s about searching for solutions to unsolvable riddles and the ramifications of inventing answers to the unexplained. Is it admirable to find meaning in everything? What happens when answers are based on misunderstanding? How does love, in all its many forms, fit in with the quest for purpose? Sable aims to find out, her quirks and subtle charms leading the way.
To read more of Raindrop Parade or to inquire about representation, please contact Alika Yarnell.
Raindrop Parade
