Release Date: January 1st, 2011
Genre:  Dystopia, Action
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Pages: 240
Rating:
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Summary:

Welcome to a future where water is more precious than gold or oil-and worth killing for

Vera and her brother, Will, live in the shadow of the Great Panic, in a country that has collapsed from environmental catastrophe. Water is hoarded by governments, rivers are dammed, and clouds are sucked from the sky. But then Vera befriends Kai, who seems to have limitless access to fresh water. When Kai suddenly disappears, Vera and Will set off on a dangerous journey in search of him-pursued by pirates, a paramilitary group, and greedy corporations.

Review: I was so excited about this book. Y'all know I'm a sucker for dystopia. However, this one really let me down.

For one, it was WAY too short. I usually don't like books under 300 pages (Clarity was a nice exception). But that was the least of its problems.

The biggest problem was that this book was very episodic. (meaning that it read like a bunch of TV episodes) Each chapter/episode had its own story and it made the book very jerky, and it also detracted from the overall plot. A book that is only 240 pages long really can't contain so many little episodes.

I also felt like the author was trying to fool me. I felt like he was going out of his way to trick me into liking the characters. He tried to make the romance very compelling by making it kind of cutesy and cheesy. But the truth was, I didn't know Kai long enough to care that he was missing (which is supposedly what drove the plot).

Also, nearly EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER ended with some kind of dramatic cliffhanger-- i.e. "He raised the gun to my head and the world went black." end chapter. "There was a flash of white and the world disappeared" end chapter. "I didn't have time to scream before they were upon me" end chapter. It just got SO OLD! I kept thinking "really? You doubt your story's ability to keep me engaged SO MUCH that you're going to try to FORCE me to read the next chapter? Do you really think I'm going to get bored that quickly?" Have some confidence in your story!

And there was quite a lot of the "humans are bad for killing the earth." Which I respect, but gets on my nerve.

Wasn't a whole lot of redeeming stuff for me. I think I only finished it because it was so short. I'd skip this one.

UNLESS, this might be good for a middle-grade reader. The action would definitely keep them interested, if the convoluted story didn't get them lost. And I think this would make a good kids cartoon.



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