Spoiler-Free Review + Favorite Quotes: Dry - Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman


Hello everyone,
I received a copy of Dry by Neal Shusterman and his son, Jarrod Shusterman, provided by Walker Books a month before the release date, and now that it's out we shall talk about it! Thank you so much for sending me this book!

Title: Dry
Authors: Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
Published by: Walker Books
Pages: 399 | Publication date: October 1st 2018
ISBN13: 9781406386851
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.


Let's just start by saying what an incredible ride this book was! I'm truly astonished!
It deals with the possible reality of a world without water and all the problems that surge from the lack of it. It is a tough read that'll keep you up all night and it'll remind you to drink water (while you have it) and to be more eco-friendly. 

Dry truly is an eye-opening apocalyptic book that centers around a neighborhood and three main characters in it  Alyssa and her brother, Garret, and Kelton, the boy next door  who go on a journey of self-preservation and search of water. But, don't worry: Dry doesn't have absent parents and running wild teenagers... Nope, we do have the different family dynamics and all the fun (or not) around it. 

But it won’t get that without a fight. I don’t slow down. I don’t accept the pain. I crash through the burning void toward the waters of heaven.


I must admit that the characters aren't what makes Dry great. They are crucial to make sense of what's happening, but I didn't feel a strong connection or emotion for either of them... which is okay, since I understand that the focus is on the plot. However, the multiple POVs worked great to create the full picture of what was happening in this story.

Okay, so if the characters weren't the strong-point of this book, the plot definitely was! I mean, there wasn't any clue of what would happen and how everything would unfold, so my mind was going wild: "Are they going to make it or are they already dead? Will everything go back to normal or is there really a way to come back from this?". The tension and the thrilling were crazy, thus I wasn't joking when I said that it'll keep you up all night!  

I realize that this is the true core of human nature: When we’ve lost the strength to save ourselves, we somehow find the strength to save each other.


And the ending was brutal! While the first half of the book wasn't that emotional, for me, the last half was ridiculously exciting to read and I couldn't keep my eyes off the page for an instance. Also, the collaboration between father and son was magical, and their work blends together perfectly. Since I already was a fan of Neal Shusterman, because of his masterpiece Scythe, now I'll be on the lookout for his son's work. 

Dry is a standalone about surviving that it isn't focused on the romance, but on the trust and love required to have when you have everything to lose, even yourself. 

What about you? Have you read Dry? If so, share your thoughts! If not, do you plan to pick it up? 



More favourite quotes, because there are sooo many!

Sometimes being the hero means going down with the ship


Sometimes you have to be the monster to survive


The human body is sixty percent water? Well, now I know what the rest is. The rest is dust, the rest is ash, it’s sorrow and it’s grief. . . But above all that, in spite of all that, binding us together. . . is hope. And joy. And a wellspring of all the things that still might be.


4 comments

  1. I'm so excited to read this!! Neal Shusterman is my favourite author (I think I maybe mentioned that on your Scythe or Thunderhead review?) and I just bought this, so I'll definitely be reading it as soon as I can!

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    1. Omg you totally should! YES, you did! And Scythe still owns my heart regarding Neal Shusterman's finest work, but Dry is pretty great too!

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  2. I love what if survival scenarios. I live out West, so an extreme drought would be absolutely terrifying.

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    1. Wow I would freak out if I read a book like this one then! But that is me, you should try it because it's AMAZING! XD

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