Reading Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman on a hot summery day might cause severe dehydration and overheat. Read it at your own risk! But read it. As someone who enjoys post-apocalyptic stories like cotton candy, I knew I had to read this book. And I was not disappointed. So if the premise speaks to you, do yourself a favour and take the risk of making your summer even drier.

Author: Neal Shusterman, Jarrod Shusterman Pages: 390 Genre: YA, Survival, Dystopian Publication: 2018

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Synopsis:

When the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, one teen is forced to make life and death decisions for her family in this harrowing story of survival.

The drought – or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it – has been going on for a while now. Everyone’s lives have become an endless list of don’ts: don’t water the lawn, don’t fill up your pool, don’t take long showers. Until the taps run dry.

Suddenly, Alyssa’s quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbours and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don’t return and her life – and the life of her brother -is threatened, Alyssa has to make impossible choices if she’s going to survive.

My Review:

In one word: short! Dry was all I wanted to read, a survival adventure on the lookout for water. I was miles away from imagining what was yet to come, but, at the same time, I wanted more for it to be a really satisfying book.

Even though the book feels like an apocalyptic story, it’s actually not. The drought only affects California, not even the whole country, so Dry is more about survival. To be honest, the experience reading it, it’s the same. People are fighting for their lives, questioning morality and humanity, selfishness, fear, panic, desperation, the sense of the end of days. The mix I expect to read when I pick up an apocalyptic book. Although it’s not. And the difference between the two genres is one of the reasons why this book feels short to me. I wanted the journey to last longer. To have a different outcome. To not be resolved by the end of the story. I wanted to read about a world where water was rationed. Where the taps were dry. And the humans had to adapt to survive. An apocalyptic story.

The story is told from multiple perspectives. First, it starts with Alyssa and her brother searching for their parents and water. As the story progresses, more characters are added as the siblings go on their journey. It was fun seeing the group growing and them making “friends” along the way. The group had some interesting dynamics, with every character being so distinct and connecting over the will to survive.

And if the short amount of pages isn’t enough to quickly read from cover to cover, then the pace will. The story is set in the span of 2 to 3 days. And even though each day is stretched to allow the plot to unravel, the pace is actually fast. The characters are constantly on the move. Every dilemma, problem or fear is dealt with on the run, so there aren’t any dead or slow moments. I think the jumps between perspectives also help to give a sense the story is moving while nothing is really happening or new characters are being introduced.

One thing that I couldn’t get used to was the teens handling guns. I understand it’s a vision not that strange in America, and possibly criticism to gun use laws, but, as a European, it’s unsettling. I’m used to seeing adults holding guns and killing in movies, although teens and children… that’s a different story. And what I disliked even more about the whole situation was how normal all the characters acted with having underaged holding guns. It’s something that foreshadowed the entire story with the feeling that something dreadful was going to happen. And that’s why I think the authors didn’t add to guns as a way to glorify them, instead to show how dangerous and out of control humans can be with a piece of cold metal in their hands.

I enjoyed immensely Dry. It’s one of those books that you are in for the journey and for the characters. It was a fascinating adventure that I wish ended differently. And the romance – yes, there is some romance – it wasn’t enough to satisfy my sweet tooth. But, that’s something secondary when survival is in question. I understand why it wasn’t taken so far. Bottom line, I wanted more time with these characters, to have a longer journey to savour every single last moment of it.

Have you read Dry? What did you enjoy the most? Do you like survival stories? And what about apocalyptic and/or post-apocalyptic books?

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