This book made me thirsty.

I read a lot of dystopian fiction. I have read about the super flu, zombies, the earth’s rotation slowing down, nuclear wastelands, and government created vampires. This was my first foray into dystopia via climate change fiction, and parts of it were terrifying.

The part that scares me the most in these dystopias are the scenes on the crowded highways. Where are you supposed to go if you can’t get there? These scenes scared me in The Stand and in World War Z — something terrible happens, and you have to leave… but everyone else is leaving too, so the roads are jam packed and nobody gets anywhere, leaving people to die in their cars on the highways. UGH. I’ll stay up at night for hours thinking about this.

This book has some highway scenes, but thankfully, they aren’t as bad. I got nervous when I started to read about the cars packed on the roads, and am grateful that the authors found another way to describe those scenes, and made the best out of a terrible situation.

The Dry is about California in the near future. What would happen if one day, there just wasn’t any more water? And what if FEMA had their hands full with another “Once in a thousand years” hurricane on the east coast, and just couldn’t get to California in time to help?

How long would it take for society to break down? How long would it take for your body to break down? And how far would you go to get a single sip of water for yourself or someone you love?

The plot of this book was great. When Costco runs out of water, what happens next? The story brings together kids from different backgrounds — a brother and sister looking for their parents, their neighbor who lives with a father who is a doomsday prepper, and a sociopath genius who will do whatever it takes to stay alive — all looking for one thing: WATER.

I appreciated that these kids acted like kids. They made mistakes. They hurt people and watched their friends and neighbors do the same. I also appreciated although one of the characters had a long-simmering crush on another, THERE WAS NO LOVE TRIANGLE in this book, and really, no romance at all. Such a relief.

I really only have one complaint about this book, and sadly, its a big one.

The writing is crap.

This book is written by Neal Shusterman and his son, Jarrod. Lots of times when books are co-written, its hard to tell where one author ends and another begins. I can’t say the same for this one. The writing style would suddenly change completely, from beautiful descriptions of the abandoned streets to stilted and clunky dialogue. Its too bad, as I found it pretty distracting from the plot at times.

CBR10 Bingo: Cover Art.
I kept seeing this book cover around and knew I wanted to read it even before I had a clue what it was about.  WHAT WILL YOU DO WHEN THE TAPS RUN DRY? Creepy.