Dry Review

Title: Dry
Author: Neil Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
Publisher: Walker Books
Publication Date: 01 October 2018
Source: Pan Macmillan South Africa
Format: Paperback
Pages: 399
Rating: 3 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis:

Everyone'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 don’ts: 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 quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone 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.

Book Review:

Pre-reading Thoughts:

Drywas my book club pick of the month for the Topping the TBRonline book club that I run with RubyRaeReads. Last year, a bunch of influential readers received an ARC of this book. So many people loved it and I cannot wait to see what I think of it!

Thank you so much to Pan Macmillan South Africafor providing me with a copy of this book. Just a quick disclaimer for those reading this review, I have received this book for free. Please note that this does not affect my opinions in any way. All thoughts are my own.

Writing Thoughts:

In all honesty, I don’t know how I feel about the writing. I liked how well the writing flowed, which meant that the pace was well done. But the dialogue felt odd and strangled at times. This made the characters seem stiffer. I liked the detail that was used to describe what had happened. I also quite liked how the authors used the snapshots to create a wider picture. 

Plot Thoughts:

The plot was interesting. The book addresses the important topic of global warming and natural resources such as water diminishing. I think that the plot does a great job of walking us through the likelihood of it. I found the plot to be realistic and believable. The plot is the one thing that kept pulling me back to finish the book. I found myself asking, how far would humanity go according to the authors. I liked how the authors followed different possibilities and they didn’t just show the bad parts of humanity but also the more redeemable parts as well. 

Character Thoughts:

I found the characters in this novel to be underdeveloped. None of them felt accessible to me and I found myself struggling to form connections. I also thought that the characters in this novel were very bland. They felt as though they only existed for functionality and beyond their functionality or purpose, they were just empty husks. This could be because there was a huge focus on creating believability around the plot of the novel but there was not enough focus placed on the characters. 

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I didn’t love this book. I found it interesting and definitely holds merit. However, I found myself asking what people were raving about last year. The writing was okay, it had its moments, but nothing grabbed at any point. The plot definitely kept me going but the main interest point for me was the possibility of it all and the exploration of humanity. I didn’t connect with the characters, they felt like empty shells that simply served a purpose. I was disappointed by this book. However, when it comes down to it, it just wasn’t for me. Thank you so much to Pan Macmillan South Africafor providing me with a copy of this book. 

Yours in Reading,

Melleny