Not a Drop to Drink is an exception to my general rules in a couple of ways: It's YA that I really enjoy (like Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, which I also read recently) and I listened to a huge chunk of the audiobook while I was driving to Dallas and still liked it. I've discussed my audiobook issue before, but suffice it to say that if I listen to a book, odds are I won't like it. Anyway.
This book is dystopian, set after some sort of water shortage has forced most people to move into military-controlled cities with insene water prices. Some, though, still live out in the country, like Lynn, a sixteen-year-old girl who has lived in a house with a pond for her entire life. Her mother has taught her that all who approach are a danger, and her policy was to shoot on sight from a perch on their roof. The only neighbor with whom they associate, Stebbs, lives a short distance away, but they almost never communicate. Not too far in, Lynn's mother is killed by wolves. Lynn can get by on her own, but she comes to trust and appreciate Stebbs. They see smoke near a stream not far away and investigate to find a young girl, her pregnant mother, and her uncle. Lynn and Stebbs agree to help them, and Lynn essentially adopts the girl. There are threats everywhere, and Things Continue to Happen. A really interesting backstory is woven into the plot, but that's best discovered while you read, so I won't talk about that here.
I generally love dystopian novels – I've written about that before, too – so I'm not surprised that I enjoyed this one. It certainly doesn't qualify as disaster porn, as the only talk of disaster involves wars over oil and water in the past. I'd compare it to The Road, but it's nowhere as bleak. It's also the first book in a series, the second of which is due out later this year, I think. I'm really looking forward to it, though I'm not sure I'll like where it's going from here. I'm getting a Walking Dead-minus-the-zombies vibe that worries me. But we'll soon find out, as I'm really eager to read the next one.
I'm writing these posts out of order. I'm not sure why, but I've put off this one for a couple of weeks. I listened to most of it while I drove to Dallas and back, and here I am, now, in the Atlanta airport sans free wifi. But! I went to Dallas, and I must show some photos:
Obviously, we went to the zoo. The Dallas Zoo, this time, though I think we both agree that the Fort Worth Zoo is superior. Dallas's relatively new Africa exhibit is pretty stunning, though.
(Oh. And please excuse any terrible formatting issues. As I wrote the book part, I was in the Atlanta airport with no Wifi. Now, I'm in a hotel, but I only brought my iPad Mini, and the app I'm using, Blogsy, is temperamental at best.)
