Dry

** spoiler alert ** Decent book but the main character, Alyssa, is the worst. First thing she does when being allowed to stay in her neighbors well-stocked house is to steal a backpack full of water to give to their other neighbors then just a few pages later she is disgusted by others stealing water from each other and she says " I would never take water from someone to give to someone else" but it's literally the first thing she does when around some water! So annoying.

This book had me at the edge of my seat. As with most cli-fi novels, this one will leave terror in your parched throat and hope in our young people. Lots of commentary about gun violence and media and what it means to be prepared. A cross between the Walking Dead and a bit of Stranger Things or Stand by Me or whatever other text that involves a gang of unlikely friends coming together to solve a lot of adult caused problems- this is a must read. Not for the faint of heart and have your water bottle nearby! Always.

2.5 stars - TLDR: It started off so well but towards the end, I forced myself to just get it over with and finish it. Characters were okay apart from one, loved the premise & story, and I love that everytime I pick up a Neal Shusterman book, I learn a lot about some topics. Overall, an alright book.

Long(er) review: This book is about there being no water in Southern California. We follow 4 main characters Alyssa, Kelton, Jacqui, and Henry (and once very randomly, Garrett). Although this is a dystopian book, it feels like a very, very probable situation. Reading about people being thirsty all the time had me drinking water so much, I can't believe it myself.

I absolutely love how Neal Shusterman writes dystopian/speculative fiction, asking the right questions and coming with receipts on how certain things would be tackled should the world be thrown in these situations. There were some things that were getting to me.

SPOILERS

One of them was Alyssa being annoying af. Another was Garrett having weird impulses that were like... Why? And about 70% into this book, things started to get boring. It was all about their journey to the bug out, which lacked in action or thrill. Also, Jacqui (I liked her btw) was presented as a badass character, but she did almost no badassery. It felt like she was mostly bark but hardly bite. Kind of disappointing tbh.

END SPOILER

At some moments I even found myself skimreading because towards the end, almost nothing happened that shook me.

I am glad I read this and I have Roxy, Game Changer and Challenger Deep on my tbr. Hope I enjoy them.

"When we’ve lost the strength to save ourselves, we somehow find the strength to save each other." (Dry, Page 372) Semuanya bermula dari Keran-Mati, yakni keadaan dimana California Selatan dilanda bencana kekeringan dan berusaha bertahan hidup di tengah krisis air. Sama seperti genre apocalyptic pada umumnya, ceritanya benar-benar chaos dan konsepnya sangat mungkin terjadi di kehidupan nyata. Menurut saya premisnya menarik, sayangnya kurang eksekusi. Di bagian awal mungkin terasa membosankan karena terlalu banyak yang dijelaskan, kemudian berubah seperti tengah menonton film, lalu pace-nya kembali slow dan ditutup dengan happy ending yang ... terkesan dipaksakan, I guess? Seperti standar novel pada umumnya, meski masih banyak hal-hal yang rancu dan tidak dijelaskan, saya akui detailnya layak diacungkan jempol. Building character-nya pun tidak kalah keren. Bagi yang sudah membaca Salt To The Sea mungkin tidak akan terkejut lagi dengan perpindahan sudut pandang di novel ini. Meskipun cukup lelah membacanya karena chaos di sepanjang cerita, diksinya yang ringan dan alurnya yang mengalir tanpa membuat kebingungan sangat menolong pembaca. Ceritanya pun minim romansa karena lebih fokus pada sisi kemanusiaan. Tragis yang berujung manis.

** spoiler alert ** [♾️ stars ⭐️.] This book was MIND-BLOWINGLY amazing, just over the top stupendous. I don't know why, but before reading this book, I just had the feeling that I would love this book. I don't know what told me, but I'm glad I listened because..it was just jaw-dropping..it was just one of the best books I've ever read. The characters felt like real people in the sense as if I was actually there in the book. The writing was one of the reasons the book was really hard to put down, the other reason was the plot. The plot scared me for a bunch a reasons, but I'm not gonna list them all. The main reason I was kinda scared was because of how real this story felt, and it could easily become our reality, especially since we know this Earth's water situation. It felt so real, I kept water near AT ALL TIMES. This book also made me think about how as humans, we take water and not just water, but most things for granted, and it made me think deep about it. This is definitely one of my new favorite books of all time, and I just feel really thankful that I got to read this book. It's definitely made me think/learn more about not taking things for granted and to also be grateful for everything that you have because this book taught me that you don't know how desperate you are until you are. This book has undoubtedly taught me life lessons.

That was tense, dark, emotional YA dystopia. Grab a huge bottle of water and read this MUST read bcuz it will be our future. :/

This book is super good but hits really close to home so caution. Global warming is completely terrifying and books like this are important in showing us where we're going, and how fast we're going there.

Seru banget ceritanyaa!! Jadi ikut ngerasain gimana rasanya kalo daerah aku dilanda kekeringan juga kek aakkkk, perjuangan merekaa :") so happy alyssa dan kelton omg💖

Neal Shusterman is officially one of my favorite authors! This was SOOOOO GOOD!!!

This book will make your mouth dry. Worth reading.

3.5 Read it for school. Not something I would usually read at all but it got at least ok by the end of the book and I was semi-invested in it.

Die Bücher von Neal Shusterman sind für mich immer ein wenig eine Glückssache: Einige wie die ersten beiden Scythebände gefallen mir, andere wie das erste Buch aus der Unwind-Serie find ich eher „meh“. „Dry“ hatte ich zufällig in der örtlichen Bibliothek entdeckt, was die Entscheidung, es zu lesen, recht einfach machte. Charaktere Da es sich um ein Jugendbuch handelt, erleben wir die Katastrophe aus Sicht von vier Jugendlichen und einem Kind mit unterschiedlichen Lebenshintergründen. Alyssa und Garrett gehören zu den durchschnittlichen Familien: Sie sind sich der Gefahr bewusst, haben aber nicht vorausschauend gehandelt. Keltons Eltern wiederum gehören zu den sogenannten „Preppern“, zu Menschen, die jederzeit mit dem Weltuntergang rechnen und entsprechend darauf vorbereitet sind. Henrys Vater scheint ein großes Tier und ein erfolgreicher Geschäftsmann zu sein, der seinem Sohn schon früh das Handeln mit Gütern beigebracht hat. Jacqui ihrerseits ist Einzelgängerin und hat sich bislang mehr oder minder erfolgreich selbst durchs Leben geschlagen. Egal wie sehr sie sich der Situation gewachsen sehen oder nicht – sie alle müssen lernen, dass in einer Situation, in der es um das reine Überleben geht, Menschen zu Monstern werden können und die Instinkte den Verstand irgendwann überlegen sind. Setting Shusterman kreiert mit einer Wasserknappheit, die für alle absehbar war, aber viel zu lange ignoriert wurde, ein sehr bedrohliches, aber dennoch sehr realistisches Szenario. Unsere Umwelt, wie wir sie kennen, steht auf der Kippe, wir alle lesen täglich vom Klimawandel, doch selbst die Warnung der Wissenschaftler, die das Phänomen schon seit Jahren beobachten, findet kein Gehör. Wir nehmen es als eine weitere Schreckensnachricht unter vielen wahr und ignorieren sie ansonsten. Doch was passiert, wenn unser Leben tatsächlich auf dem Spiel steht? Werden wirklich die meisten Leute zu egoistischen Ungeheuern oder lernen sie, zusammen zu arbeiten, um sich gemeinsam aus der Lage irgendwie zu befreien? Wünschenswert wäre natürlich Letzteres, aber ich befürchte, wir werden merken, dass der Überlebenswille grausam sein kann. Leseerlebnis Ich fand diese Erzählung unglaublich bedrückend. Sicherlich war sie stellenweise sehr abenteuerlich, bewegte sich aber immer sehr nah an dem, was wirklich denkbar wäre unter solchen Voraussetzungen. Ein paar Mal hat Shusterman mich eiskalt erwischt, indem er ziemlich überraschend und brutal die Situation extrem zuspitzte. „Dry“ hat mich sehr beeindruckt und mir einmal mehr bewusst gemacht, wie nah wir uns am Abgrund unserer Geschichte befinden und das wir das, was wir noch haben, schützen und bewahren sollten. Sehr empfehlenswert.

2019 Popsugar Reading Challenge - a "cli-fi" (climate fiction) book

Probably more like 3.5 stars because a great setup and storytelling got wrapped up a little too neatly and a little too quickly. Really interesting concept that explores a darker side of humanity, but falls just a little short.

LOVED IT. FAST PACED, ACTION PACKED, DYSTOPIAN NOVEL. Based on a world with no more drinking water, with chaos everywhere we follow the story of several characters and their journey to receive life saving water. This is a must read and potentially the best book I’ve ever read.

This book was a whirlwind. I hate that I enjoyed the ending, because other than that it was not the greatest. Kelton and Henry were super annoying, over time Kelton got more tolerable, but I still held a grudge from how annoying he was in the beginning of the book. I can say that I did really enjoy Garrett as a character, as young as he was, and I enjoyed the mix Jacqui brought to the storyline as well. I think Jacqui is the only reason I continued and finished this book.

The human body can only survive about three days without water. What happens in the six days in which this story occurs borders on apocalyptic. When disaster strikes, some will respond by adding to the destruction, some will ruthlessly act in only their own best interest, and some will respond with kindness. I thought about what my response would be. Would I do whatever it took to meet my own needs and those of my immediate family, or would I tend to the needs of others too, at the expense of having the resources to care for my own? It's difficult to say. I really appreciated that some of the characters in this story decided to help others no matter the cost. Six days may not seem like a long time, but six days without water means death. In the story, many thousands of people died of dehydration within the first couple of days of the disaster. Some survived because they prepared ahead of time. Some survived because they worked together as a team. In the end, when it seemed like all was lost, there were some who found hope.

** spoiler alert ** This sounds very terrible and unsettling, but I'm kind of disappointed practically everyone survived. Maybe that was the point, that humanity can make it through the rough patches, but I feel like there was barely any consequences to the book.

Except for the ending this would have been 4 stars. A great "what if" book, in this case if the taps run dry. It all is extremely plausible and I can see how some people would put this in realistic, while others in dystopian. Bit remind me of the (superior) "Blindness" of Saramago. The ending was where it all fell down for me. Seriously? It's all wrapped up and tied up in bows in a couple of weeks, both sets of parents survive and the worst that happens is a divorce and some deaths? Oh and a mention of PTSD. You see I don't see how a bit of martial law and mandating that the river is no longer diverted is going to fix what is essentially a huge long term problem. But then again it's a YA book so I guess we need to have hope.

3.5-4

A story of survival and human nature. ‘My dad always told me that there are three types of humans on this planet. First there’s the Sheep. The everyday types who live in denial. (...) Next you’ve got your Wolves. The bad guys who abide by no societal laws whatsoever but are good at pretending when it suits them (...) And lastly, you have people like us. The Herders of the world.’ KELTON

maybe one day, when i find kelton less creepy and alysson less annoying, i will come back to this.

*3.75*

4.5 stars