A review by zoejjj
Dry by Jarrod Shusterman, Neal Shusterman

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

This is the most infuriating end to a book I’ve read in recent history. I almost quit at the end of the climax because I was SO MAD. Anyway. I would not actually recommend this book. The preachiness of climate change and virtue signaling and everything that goes along with that made it very, very hard to get into the book at the beginning. The plot itself was a 3.5, if it had ended the way I thought it should, probably would’ve been a 4 even with the preachiness! Now it’s a 2

There are things good about this book. I liked that the kids had to face decisions that made them “monsters” and how they dealt with that. I like the way stories interconnected. I like that the drought brought out the actual core of people making the good even better, pushing them to make the right choice. 

every single thing that could possibly go wrong went wrong. Which was fine. Shooting Brady, the bug out being ransacked, that’s all fine and good. It made sense. I don’t mind everything going wrong because I was tenseeee. I get mad when Alyssa was literally about to SHOOT HER BROTHER and magically!! A miracle happens and the plane drops water on them. No!! This whole book was about how no one was safe, everyone suffered and 9 in 10 people wouldn’t get water. Commit to the incredibly dark and real this book has been and make her shoot him. You want to preach about serious climate change is? Then why did Every. Single. Person. Live. Kelton could’ve died at least. Jackie living is a joke. Everyone’s parents living? Basil living? I don’t think so. The twist that Henry was actually 13?! Hated it. 13yr/o’s are so dumb, they’re not going to be able to manipulate people like that. Kelton and Alyssa admitting that they mean something to each other and that in “30 yrs they’ll dance with each other” is the most annoying thing ever. I wouldn’t’ve minded the conversation if it ended with “can I have a kiss to hold me over?” or “can I kiss you before then” because the author just admitted he’s scared to commit to to killing of his mc’s bc this is a kids book, but he’s not going to let his mc’s be kids and have a SINGLE KISS?! The more I think about it the more I dislike this book.
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