Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman – review

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 war zone 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.

I love Neal Shusterman's writing, as his books always contain believable worlds and compelling characterisation. I think this is my favourite yet because it's terrifyingly believable and the characters are well-developed. 

The way society deteriorates so quickly in Dry struck me as frighteningly realistic. The book makes the reader feel very close to the main characters' actions and reactions, as well as capturing what's happening in the world at large. There are some unsettling parallels to the tragic fires affecting California and that brings home how topical this book really is.

There are a lot of characters to focus on in this book and each of them is developed really well. I liked trying to work out if we knew everything about a character and watching them grow and adapt as the story progressed.

A really effective device is the use of snippets of storyline about characters who aren't in the central group. It allows interesting insights into the wider world and it's fun trying to work out how these snapshots will impact on the main plot.

Dry is a gripping, almost unbearably tense book that made me think a lot about what we can do to be kinder to the planet. I hope there'll be more books in this series, but in the meantime I'll read Thunderhead, the sequel to Scythe.





Thank you so much Walker Books for the review copy!