Dry Review: Because I needed another end of the world book

I listened to the Barnes and Noble podcast where Neal and Jarrod Shusterman discussed this book, and I was immediately hooked. Shusterman does an amazing job with dystopia, and so I just knew he’d do an amazing job with the drought apocalypse. And they did an amazing job.

I can’t decide if this book is enjoyable. It’s good, but it had me on the edge of mI can’t decide if this book is enjoyable. It’s good, but it had me on the edge of my seat in a very uncomfortable way. This book is tense, and it should be because there’s a deadly drought in California! So it’s a GOOD book, but it’s so tense I can’t say that I enjoyed it. Do you know what I mean? I hope so because even though it’s tense and slightly crazy, you HAVE to read it as soon as possible.

I’m always interested in how children or teenagers handle the end of the world, and it was so cool to read a book about the actual end of the world in CI’m always interested in how children or teenagers handle the end of the world, and it was so cool to read a book about the actual end of the world in California. It was eerie because the rest of the world was living a normal life while people were dying in California because there wasn’t enough water. It was EVEN eerier because I can totally see this happening. That’s what Shusterman is so good at though, realistically creating futures that don’t take all that much imagination. Freaky right?

I really liked how we follow characters who aren’t very likable at the beginning, and some of them never are likable–I’ll let you discover who.

KeltKelton was my favorite character because I had never read about a doomsday prepper and so his perspective was super interesting, but I felt that I knew a Kelton who was really smart, slightly annoying, but also hunts?? Yeah, I went to high school with that guy. It was really cool how Shusterman nailed a character like that, AND that we not only got to see him from others’ perspectives but also his.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator for Kelton was incredible. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator for Kelton was incredible. I sometimes don’t like the voices for audiobooks, but I cannot imagine a better voice for Kelton. I’m not going to go into all the characters, but they’re also interesting and compelling as people.

I think Shusterman and Shusterman are bringing apocalyptic and dystopian books back into the mainstream in the YA world, and I am HERE for it.