Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman
YA Science Fiction, 2018 by Simon and Shuster, 390 Pages
What I Didn’t Like:
- This book is a close to future dystopia, in other words it’s something that absolutely could happen to our society in our lifetime. That alone makes it a little hard to read. Of course, that was the point, but it’s worth mentioning as a sort of content warning.
- I am still not entirely sure what I think of the little Snapshot chapters. They felt unnecessary, taking this little peek into someone who isn’t a major character, but they also added that overall sense of what was happening in the bigger picture. I’m still divided on those, I think.
- The ending felt a little too neat and tidy for the story we were telling. It almost felt like pulling that last punch in a fight because your message was so strong before that but you sort of ruined it by taking the safe ending. No spoilers, so that’s all I can say.
What I Did Like:
- Relevant and important. Like Violent Ends which also featured a chapter from Shusterman, this book isn’t exactly easy to read but it’s PACKED with messages and things readers need to face head on.
- Characters to love. I don’t even think I realized how much I was falling in love with all these characters until I thought we were losing one. One mark of good writing is when I feel actual pain when I think a character is in danger and this book delivered on that.
- Realistic. Of course we aren’t in this dire situation (yet) and haven’t seen a drought go to quite this level before, but the course of action the author plays out in this book is absolutely realistic if it gets this bad. From the reaction of the water starved people and the rioting to the wildfire and climate consequences, this could all happen. You can tell the author(s) did their research on this one.
Who Should Read This One:
- Dystopian fans who want something a little closer to our current timeline.
- Fans of hard hitting novels that make you look at the world a little differently.