Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman (Simon & Schuster for Young Readers, 2018) is futuristic dystopian young adult novel, but it portrays what could be real life in the Western United States. Water becomes a scarce commodity in California when neighboring states turn off access to their water reserves. When the “Tap-Out” begins, the whole state must deal with the instant consequences of not having running water.
Then Alyssa’s parents don’t come home from their trip to the refilling station, so she must find a way for her and her brother to survive on their own. Their community and even local society quickly devolve into chaos. Thankfully, Alyssa’s next-door neighbor Kelton lives in a family of Prep-ers, so he knows just what to do during disaster.
I found Dry to be fast-paced and eye-opening. I’ve often thought that such a draught is inevitable in the west, although I’ve always felt it is more likely to be in Arizona or New Mexico. In the novel, the characters face different stages of thirst, and it also shows others in different desperate stages of survival. Each section of the book shows a different stage for our group of teens as they grasp for survival. I loved seeing all the ideas they had to survive. There were a few sad or disturbing parts, such as death, dead bodies, abuse in exchange for water, and a tiny amount of violence.
As for the characters, there were self-serving characters as well as generous and kind people. Our main characters even teamed up with characters with unknown pasts. It felt very realistic for people to quickly begin distrusting each other as desperation builds among those dying for lack of water. The ending was mostly satisfying, although the “after” section felt too rapid. I believe it would take years for the messy chaos to be corrected in the state after such a trauma, not just in physical disaster relief but also in terms of the collapse of society and mental health recovery. All that said, Dry is a great look at an environmental crisis that very likely could become real in the not-so-distant future of the United States.
