Drought

Drought
Pam Bachorz
January 2011

Summary:

Ruby dreams of escaping the Congregation. Escape from slaver Darwin West and his cruel Overseers. Escape from the backbreaking work of gathering Water. Escape from living as if it is still 1812, the year they were all enslaved.
When Ruby meets Ford--an irresistible, kind, forbidden new Overseer--she longs to run away with him to the modern world, where she could live a normal teenage live. Escape with Ford would be so simple.
But if Ruby leaves, her community is condemned to certain death. She, alone, possess the secret ingredient that makes the Water so special--her blood--and it's the one thing that the Congregation cannot live without.
Drought is the haunting story of one community's thirst for life, and the dangerous struggle of the only girl who can grant it.

Review:

Drought is a book that is extremely difficult to review. My feelings are so incredibly mixed about this book; one part of me wants to give it a raving review, but the other part of me has reservations about that sort of review.

Starting off, I felt like the book had a lot of religious subtext. This is not something that bothers me, although I think it's necessary to mention because I know some people may not enjoy this book for that simple reason. Once the plot moved forward a bit I didn't think it was too bad, but starting off it can be a bit overwhelming.

Other than the religious content, I thought this was a very enjoyable book. The plot had me intrigued and kept me in suspense, and I genuinely started caring about what happened to the main character. However, I felt like the other characters weren't as developed as they could be. I found myself wanting to know more about Ford, especially, and yet by the end I was unsatisfied. I also felt like it was a bit of an unrealistic setting and situation. I realize that the point of this type of novel is to broaden a reader's mind and send them to a far-off reality, but this book didn't have me quite sold.

Overall, a good read. However, I must warn you that you may not be satisfied with the content, especially when compared to some of the other great dystopian novels out on the market today.

Jane