Review: Dry by Neal Shusterman, Jarrod Shusterman

Summary from Goodreads:

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 from New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman.

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; neighbors 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.

Review:


What I Liked:

Audio book. I believe the best way to experience this book is with the audio book. It was so well done by the cast of narrators and it made me keep listening to it even during the slow parts. 

Characters. The strongest aspect of the novel and why I gave it 4 stars was the well-crafted characters. It follow miutiple POVS, Alyssa, Kelton, and Jacqui were the main ones and they did a great job of creating unique characters that had their own voices. I went in nervous that so many POVS would ruin it for me and ended up enjoying all of the well-written characters and their interactions with one another. 

Plot Elements. The novel had some pacing problems but still had such a unique plot. I went in blind and really liked the plot/action that happened. The whole "what if the taps turned off?" aspect was interesting to read about. It was chilling though because it felt like something that could actually happen in our society today. 

What I Disliked:

Pacing/Plot. The novel was close to 400 pages but I felt like not a lot happened by the end. I kept reading because I loved the characters but felt like parts dragged and there was not enough plot development.

Ending. I was not a fan of the ending at all. I wanted so much more from it. This seems like it is a standalone so that makes the ending even more unfulfilling for me. 

I recommend checking out the well-done audio book for this unique book.

Rating:

4 Stars Out of 5 Stars.