Dry by Neal Shusterman & Jarrod Shusterman @NealShusterman #JarrodShusterman #AudioBookReview #YoungAdult #Dystopian

Hello everyone, hope you are having a fabulous day!

I’m super happy to bring you this fantastic Dystopian read from the brilliant Neal Shusterman.

If you haven’t read any of his books before I would highly recommend it, my review for his other book Unwind is on the blog somewhere.

⭐⭐⭐⭐·5 Thirsty Stars

The drought—or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it—has been going on for a while now. Everyone’s lives have become an endless list of don’ts: don’t water the lawn, don’t fill up your pool, don’t take long showers.

Until the taps run dry.

Suddenly, Alyssa’s quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbours and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don’t return and her life—and the life of her brother—is threatened, Alyssa has to make impossible choices if she’s going to survive.

My Thoughts

⭐⭐⭐⭐·5 Thirsty Stars

Do you know what’s lovely? being able to go to the tap…turn it on…and water come out of it.
To be able to fill your glass and quench your thirst with a lovely cool glass of water.

To be able to run a bath, or have a shower, an extra long shower at that!

But what would happen if that all of a sudden stopped one day, without even a warning, just stop!

I mean there has been a drought in the area for a while, everyone knows that, and the usual bans have been in place, don’t water your lawn, don’t take long showers, don’t fill your pools…..but this is… different!

You’d check around your area right? Then you’d check the news to see if something was wrong. Then you’d see that there was a “Tap-Out” and the water had been turned off, so you sit and make a plan.

You would obviously then run to your nearest supermarket to stock up on bottled water right?

But everyone else has the same idea, and there isn’t enough water for everyone, so you manage to buy a few bags of ice and get out of the store before the fighting and riots start.

You keep checking the news but it’s not even mentioned on there, just a throw away comment about 3 million people without water.

And even though the government say that water is on the way, there is a heatwave and you are…just…so…thirsty!

And days…weeks later…there is Still. No. Water!

So what would you do for a sip of water?
Ask someone nicely?
Beg someone?
Lie to someone?
Steal from someone?
Hurt someone?
Kill ……….

This is what our characters have to deal with, and there are a lot of characters, we have 4 main ones, but it also jumps between others so that you can see how the Tap-Out is affecting everyone.

After always having the rest of the neighbourhood laughing at him because of him preparing for an Apocalypse, Kelton is the one having the last laugh as he and his overprotective father sit and drink their water from their self sufficient, no-thanks-I-don’t-need-your-electricity-I-have-my-own house.

On the other side of the street however Alyssa and Garrett are not having such a great time, their parents are who-knows-where, and they don’t have any water…

Jacqui is a badass, nothing more needs to be said about her, you’ll love to hate her, she’s a bitch, but she’s brilliant!

The “Water Zombies” are just scary, again because it could be any one of us.

I can’t tell you how many gallons of water i must have drunk listening to this, it just made me so thirsty, and the thought of not having anything, and how quickly this can escalate made me very uncomfortable.

Neal Shusterman is a master at these sort of stories, Unwind was the first series of his i read, and it soon turned into one of my favourites.
He makes you want to discuss the book, they are fantastic for Book Clubs, because even though they are Dystopian reads, they could actually happen!
The fact that he has written this with his son, and that they are looking to bring this to the big screen brings me all kinds of joy.

🎧🎧 Narration – This was a full cast audio, including narration from both Neal and Jarrod Shusterman, now at the beginning it gives the “This is Audible” section, and says that it is narrated by the authors, i was a bit 😨 about that, because in *most* (not all) cases, authors that narrate their books are a bit 😲 So i was shouting “Noooooo” at my phone.

But i am happy to say that 1. There is a full cast of narrators, and they do it brilliantly, and 2. Neal and Jarrod Shusterman are FANTASTIC narrators!!

If you like a Young Adult book then you should get this. If you like Dystopian books you should get this. If you like a great story, well you should get this book!!

Drink Up!

Vicci