Dry

   

 Neal Shusterman is an author I am quite fond of. I've read his book series Scyth, however after finishing the books, I only recently went to read another piece of writing by him. The book Dry was written by Neal and his son Jarod (never before heard of a father-son duo teaming up on a book), and it was placed in modern-day California. The book starts off by following the day-to-day life of Alyssa, your average teenager living in your average Subarbun town, however, one day the water in her kitchen sink stops...  

In the days leading up to this water stoppage, news is spreading about a water reservoir in Nevada running out of water. At first Alyssa, just like many others, doesn't think too much of this, and she blames the stoppage of water on reason renovations her Dad has had on the house, however, news spreads that California would be running out of access to water, and this wasn't some simple renovation mishap.  Immediately, Alyssa just like many others in her town rushes to supermarkets to find any source of water possible, whether it be through ice or even soft drinks. 

    

    After a couple of days of no water, word breaks out about how the government set up machines in Laguna Beach to filter ocean water to clean drinking water in California. After hearing this news, Alyssa's parents set out for what should've been a day-long trip to bring back some very much-needed clean drinking water, however, they never came back. After a couple of days, Alyssa and her brother bike out to Laguna Beach themselves to look for their parents, instead though, they only find the leftovers of a calamity as all the water filtering machines are broken down, and hundreds of abandoned vehicles are left lying around, many in poor condition. Now without guardians, Alyssa returns back to her neighborhood and resides with her overly-prepared neighbors who've been saving up a water source for times just like this, yet, she can never seem to catch a break as her neighbor's house gets raided as it's one of the last places in town that still has any source of water. From here on out Alyssa embarks on a wild road trip with her brother and neighbors, making friends and enemies along the way, trying to find water, and her parents.

    Overall this book is a good read, and it's quite captivating however, it seems more like a movie-based plot rather than something you'd want to see in a novel categorized as dystopian. Also, I don't know how much of an impact Jarod Shusterman had on his father's writing, and how much he actually contributed to the book, but Dry is significantly worse than some of Neal's other works, not only in terms of the story itself but the writing style as well. All in all, this is still a good read nonetheless, and I recommend it to anyone who's looking for a captivating book with a good storyline. The apocalyptic vibe really gets a reader thinking and imagining what they would do in similar scenarios, and the authors do a decent job of depicting the chaos of a situation like this, and what it turns everyday humans into. 7.3/10

    -Muhammad