History Literature / StrangeWeather

* DrivenByALoveInterest: Aubrey has based his entire life around getting together with his crush. While part of it is because she was leading him on, he eventually realizes his attitude is unhealthy and that he needs to move on with his life.

* ApocalypseCult: A minor one is operating in Honeysuckle's neighborhood in ''Rain''. They don't appear to be much more than the stereotypical weirdos who wear silvery robes and tin plate hats and who conduct strange ceremonies, but their leader spent time in jail many years prior for abusing his wife and daughters as part of his strange beliefs, and three members try to abduct the protagonist so that she can be forcibly converted into their fold.

* ApocalypseCult: A minor one is operating in Honeysuckle's neighborhood in ''Rain''. They wear silvery robes and hubcap-like silver caps, and see the crystalline rains as the final sign of an impending doomsday.

* GeniusLoci: The mass of cloud-like substance that Aubrey lands on in ''Aloft'' is [[spoiler:the repository for an alien intelligence that has been isolated for a long, long time]]. It responds to Aubrey's desires, producing furniture (including a bed) and a kind of replica for his friend Harriet, but the "food" it produces does a horrible number on him.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:''Loaded'']] ends with nearly a dozen people dead, including one child (namely [[spoiler:the killer's own son]]), and the killer confronting [[spoiler:the journalist and her daughter]] on the last page, with the near-certainty that they are going to be killed as well.

* MurderByMistake: In ''Loaded'', [[spoiler:Kellaway]] ends up killing three people by accident, two due to mishearing a witness during the mall shooting and one due to firing through a door without checking to see who was behind it (he intended to kill [[spoiler:his ex-wife and her sister]] but didn't know [[spoiler:his son]] was standing behind the door when he shot through it).

* ValuesDissonance: InUniverse example in ''Snapshot''; the story is set in 1988, but narrated by the now adult protagonist in the present day, so several times he points out these differences between the two era's, like how calling someone a "fag" wasn't as much an issue in 1988 as it is today.

* RainOfSomethingUnusual: The premise of ''Rain'' -- storms begin to rain needle-like spikes of a fulgurite-like crystal.

* ChekhovsGun: The typewriter that Templeton writes his stories on in ''Rain''. It's missing a couple of letters, which is how [[spoiler:Honeysuckle figures out that his mother used it to write the notes that ultimately lead to worldwide devastation]].

* EagleEyeDetection: In ''Rain'', Honeysuckle reaches Yolanda's family home in Denver only to find her father dead, at the bottom of the stairs with a broken neck. A watch with a broken strap lies among the junk on the floor of Yolanda's bedroom, and Honeysuckle sees a neighbor glancing at his bare wrist (as if to check the time) and his daughter wearing one of Yolanda's bracelets. She quickly figures out that the neighbor had robbed the house, gotten into a fight with Yolanda's father and had his watch ripped off, and pushed him down the stairs.

* {{Frameup}}: [[spoiler:The ultimate cause of the worldwide disaster in ''Rain''. Ursula Blake is bitter over the fact that her late husband, a chemical engineer, had his work stolen by his employers and was then fired before they moved overseas to Georgia. She uses his chemicals to seed the clouds and make them rain spikes, then plants evidence to frame Georgian terrorists for the attack and tricks the president of the USA into bombing the country off the map. By the end of the novella, several other countries have blown each other away and civilization has fallen into chaos.]]

* EagleEyeDetection: In ''Rain'', Honeysuckle reaches Yolanda's family home in Denver only to find her father dead, at the bottom of the stairs with a broken neck. A watch with a broken strap lies among the junk on the floor of Yolanda's bedroom, and Honeysuckle sees a neighbor glancing at his bare wrist as if to check the time. She quickly figures out that the neighbor had tried to rob the house, gotten into a fight with Yolanda's father and had his watch ripped off, and pushed him down the stairs.

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: In ''Rain'', anyone who is unlucky enough to be unable to shield themself from the crystalline rains is turned into a human pincushion or worse. One city is devastated by a rain with spikes the size of carrots, and another receives a rain with spikes described as being like broadswords, killing 3 million people.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/strangeweathercover.png]]

** Near the end of ''Snapshot'', [[spoiler:Michael uses the Solarid camera to wipe the last of Mrs. Beukes' memories. With her brain essentially wiped clean, she soon dies.]]

* ApocalypseCult: A minor one is operating in Honeysuckle's neighborhood. They wear silvery robes and hubcap-like silver caps, and see the crystalline rains as the final sign of an impending doomsday.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:''Loaded'']] ends with nearly a dozen people dead, including one child, and the killer confronting [[spoiler:the journalist and her daughter]] on the last page, with the near-certainty that they are going to be killed as well.
* GeniusLoci: The mass of cloud-like substance that Aubrey lands on in ''Aloft'' is [[spoiler:the repository for an alien intelligence that has been isolated for a long, long time]]. It responds to Aubrey's desires, producing furniture (including a bed) and a kind of replica for his friend Harriet, but the "food" it produces does a horrible number on Aubrey.
* HauntedTechnology: [[spoiler:The Solarid camera doesn't contain mechanisms.]] When Michael finally destroys it, [[spoiler:he finds inside a black liquid with an eye in the middle.]]
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Anyone who is unlucky enough to be unable to shield themself from the crystalline rains is turned into a human pincushion or worse. One city is devastated by a rain with spikes the size of carrots, and another receives a rain with spikes described as being like broadswords, killing 3 million people.

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:Michael is able to take the Solarid from the "Phoenician" and gives him a dose of his own medicine]], leaving him extremely addled but still functional enough to drive away. He then, eventually, uses [[spoiler:the metal the stuff inside the camera dries into as a means of creating super-efficient software for computers and smartphones, so that no one will ever have to forget anything that they don't want to ever again.]]

* ANuclearError: Thanks to a combination of mass hysteria and anger (not helped at all by the President's deranged warmongering), nuclear exchanges break out which devastate entire countries. They also manage to kill [[spoiler:the scientists who created the crystalline seed compound, meaning almost everyone who could have come up with a way to stop them is dead]].

* ApocalypseCult: A minor one is operating in Honeysuckle's neighborhood. They wear silvery robes and hubcap-like silver caps, and
* DownerEnding:
* GeniusLoci
* HauntedTechnology:

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: The Solarid camera rips memories out of people's minds and imprints them on the photos it produces. [[spoiler:The "Phoenician" has been using it to essentially mind-wipe anyone who knows of his existence.]]
* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:Michael is able to take the Solarid from the "Phoenician" and gives him a dose of his own medicine]], leaving him extremely addled but still functional enough to drive away.

** Near the end of ''Snapshot'', [[spoiler:Michael uses the Solarid camera to wipe the last of Mrs. Beukes' memories. With her brain essentially wiped clean, she soon dies]].