Yet Another Masterpiece, Dry by Neal Shusterman
Yet Another Masterpiece, Dry by Neal Shusterman
By Felix Lee
Imagine a situation where water stopped running from faucets and you were left without water. What would you do in order to survive? This scenario is depicted in Dry by Neal Shusterman, a realistic fiction novel. The book begins with the California drought escalating to catastrophic proportions as the taps run dry. All of a sudden, with the realization of the lack of water, people begin to panic. They start doing whatever they can to ensure they have enough water to survive, and as the options dwindle down, they become more and more desperate. The story follows the perspective of two different main characters, Alyssa and Kelton, as they struggle to survive. Alyssa, a 16-year-old high school student, and her family are caught off guard by the water shortage. On the other hand, Kelton, Alyssa’s neighbor, who has a major crush on her (to the point of literally stalking her every action), comes from an extremely prepared family; prepared to the point where they’ve predicted and prepared for any future crisis that may arise. When Alyssa’s parents disappear in search of water and her family’s water supply is contaminated, Kelton decides to try to help Alyssa and her brother. However, as circumstances worsen and urgent requests for water from other neighbors turn into desperate rebellions and raids, will they be able to survive in this chaos? The novel comes to show that even the most prepared aren’t ensured survivability in a time of crisis and what measures people go to in times of extreme desperation.
Like many other Neal Shusterman books, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Despite the title, the plot of this book is in no way dry, as the events of the story provide an abundance of plot twists and action sequences that keep the reader’s eyes glued to the pages. Throughout the process of reading the book, I kept on wondering, “What are they going to do next now that this happened?”, convincing me to read even more. The constant perspective change provides a greater sense of what’s going on, as well as the thoughts and concerns going through the characters’ minds. What’s horrifying yet so intriguing about this book is its accurate ability to predict exactly what would happen if this scenario were to be the case in the real world. It’s also scary how this could easily happen in our world of limited resources. Finally, the novel’s incorporation of romance makes it even more enticing, and the detailed descriptions within the text compliment all the amazing aspects of the story. As much as I hope this doesn’t happen any time soon, I can’t help but love this book. I give it a 10/10 rating.
This sounds like a very good book Felix! I feel as if its almost a warning for humanity to start making changes in the way we do things before we get to a point like the one portrayed in the book. All its different elements make this novel seem very interesting too so i'll be sure to look into it more!
ReplyDeleteI can relate to the book, since i lived in California, with periods of severe drought that lasted years, and short periods of rain. There were certain schedules that had to be followed for when we are allowed to use water, posters everywhere encouraging people to finish a shower in five minutes, gardening companies who came and replaced live grass with plastic grass, and many fees for using a lot of water. I don't think it was as bad as said in that book, but I was so upset because I thought it was dumb that no one moved away, or seemed to move and evacuate.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds interesting and leaves a good message at the end of the novel - it also can elicit the emotions one would get from reading a dystopian novel, and its additional detail of romance is just another reason of the book's high emotional factor. Great review!
ReplyDelete“Dry” seems like an interesting book as it covers a topic that is not commonly written about in that way. As there is currently a large drought in much of the western United States this book may really show what will happen if we don’t do something about the lack of water. Although I do think it would not be as bad as shown in the book. It seems as if Shusterman does a good job of tying the problem into the every day life of the characters.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of dystopian books like this can show how quickly societal norms break down. It can serve as a warning of what can happen if we do not take action against climate change while still being an intriguing story. I might need to check this book out sometime; good post!
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