Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Dry

Author: Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Publisher: Walker Books Australia
Release Date: October 1, 2018

Pages: 399 pages
RRP: $16.99

Everybody’s going to remember where they were when the taps ran dry.

The drought-  or the tap-out, as everyone calls it- has been going on for a while. Life has become an endless list of dont’s: don’t water the lawn, don’t take long showers, don’t panic. But now there is no water left at all.

Suddenly, Alyssa’s quite suburban street spirals into a war zone of desperation and violence. When her parents go missing, she and her younger brother must team up with an unlikely group in search of water. Each of them will need to make impossible choices to survive.

My Review

Thoughts on the book: Dry is the new novel from New York Times Bestselling author of Scythe and Thunderhead Neal Shusterman and his brother Jarrod Shusterman. Set in Southern California, Dry tells the story of the day the taps are turned off and water becomes scarce. Told through the eyes of Alyssa and her neighbour Kelton at the start and later on through Jacqui and Henry's as well, we see how when water is no longer available readily the dramatic effect it has on our world. When the taps first get turned off people believe that everything will be ok and that it's not a big deal. But as more time goes by we see that people become desperate and the friends and family we thought would always protect us somethimes don't. When Alyssa and Kelton's supply of water runs out they decide to travel to Kelton's families bug out and survive their until the taps get turned back on. Neither of them believed that it would be as hard as it turned out to be and that they would come to rely on strangers to help them make it through. But when they get down to the last dregs of the water will they be able to share it or keep it for themselves? In a world that has turned into every person for themselves will this ragtag team be able to come out of the tap out alive and the same person they were before?

A massive thank you to Walker Books Australia for sending me a copy of Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman to read and review. Wow all I can say is wow. Dry is an epic novel that will defiantly stay with me for a long time. I read it over a few days and I can tell you that I had a few days where I woke up and wondered if there would be water coming out of our taps and even one day where I had obviously dreamed that I had drank the last of my water bottle and was searching around for more but not finding any. This certainly makes me believe that this book is going to have a lasting effect on people like it did me, either that or I'm just weird. The topic of water scarcity is very relevant now as there are a lot of places where the water levels are lowering and I know where we are sometimes we have had to ration our water and not use as much because our water levels were running low. This is especially hard in summer when all you want to do is have a nice cool shower or water your lawns and gardens because they are looking a bit on the brown side. But I totally get it and I think the way Neal and Jarrod Shusterman have written about this issue and the story they have created is very relevant and makes you appreciate the water that you have.

There were so many moments throughout the book where I was glued to the pages just quickly flipping through them to find out whether the characters I had grown to love would survive this massive tap-out and the amount of times that I was blindsided by something unexpected happening in the book were often. There was one massive moment that had me gasping and then in tears and feeling so sorry for that character and what happened next. Each character, besides I think one of them, overcame so much and grew as a person by the end of the book. The authors packed so much into those 399 pages and everything was tied up neatly by the end of the book which was so refreshing. I certainly can't wait for this duo to cowrite again.

Rating: 5/5