Every last drop of water is gone from Southern California. Every. Last. Drop. Or at least that’s what it feels like when the pipes stop running with water and millions of panicked citizens rampage looking for any last semblance of a water source they can find. In just seven days, the gentile of society, the saintly neighbourhoods, and virtuous citizenry devolve into dangerous hordes with only one thing on their mind: thirst.

For Alyssa and her brother, Garrett, once-familiar streets, shops, and even people become ruinous and destitute. As all the Government’s desperate attempts to assist – desalination equipment, water drops, evacuation centres – begin to fail, anarchy ensues. What happens when a body requiring a water-loading of 60 per cent is reduced to less than 50 per cent? A zombie apocalypse, or more accurately, a water-zombie apocalypse where even your spittle is coveted and could be viciously sucked from you at a moment’s notice.

Struggling in a world gone mad, Alyssa and Garrett join an unlikely troupe of fellow teenagers in pursuit of the holy grail: a bug-out in the mountains stocked for many months of survival, long enough to wade out the brunt of the ‘Tap-Out’. To get there means going beyond the ransacked houses, the dry lakes and creeks, and avoiding the spontaneously erupting fires.

Dry speculates on the idea that climate change is thrusting us towards devastating disasters. In particular, it explores the insidiousness of drought and the gradual disappearance of water; a resource we simply take for granted. This book will have you thinking about ways to protect a natural resource that could easily dry up.

Review by Tamantha Smith
Age Guide 14+