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I love novellas, I really do. All of the story, none of the padding. Although I hesitated a bit as I typed that last line, because Rain could, I suppose, technically be shorter and tighter. Plot-wise, it could be condensed down to a short story... but the purpose of a novella, I think, is to explore emotion and mood and the small places of ambiguity in ways that an even more limited word can't always achieve. And Gunn succeeds in that very well here, both in what she writes and what she chooses not to write. Her wording is so compelling, and the repetition of all that water imagery provides thematic emphasis without becoming tiresome or laboured. Really it's just beautifully told. The sadness and shock inherent in the story - and it's certainly a confronting narrative in a number of ways - is sanded down into restraint and allusion, turning firmly away from melodrama. It's lovely, quiet, and polished.