Matt McAvoy Book Review

Galina, Arizona 1960. A town of economic hardship and racial tension experiences a mysterious storm of red hail, and out upon the mesa three children are spoken to by beings they can’t describe. Then follow four stages of an illness so inexplicable that even the local wildlife is affected.  But is the problem physical, spiritual, or something else entirely? Researchers in both 1960 and 2020 try to explain it as magic, curses, fungus, infections, illness, psychology, and finally aliens.But be careful of your hypothesis at this point; the conclusion is not what you might imagine.

Red Hail is a very interesting, well-planned and executed novel.  It paints a vivid social picture of a small American town sixty years ago and believably shows how the fear of an unknown phenomenon eventually provokes violence against its less-dominant voices. 

The only issue I had with an otherwise excellent work was the technique of swapping chapters alternately between 1960 and 2020. Does it increase dramatic tension or put the handbrake on? What drives the reader? I wanted to follow the two protagonists from 1960 and 2020 emotionally, and, with the time changes, I wasn’t quite able to do that. However, the plot is pushed along very well and, it may be that, because the chapters are short, other readers may feel that the momentum of the novel is not lost.

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