Not a Drop to Drink

I finished this one like a month or so ago. Yep, I'm behind on my updates and reviews. So here goes.

If you know me and my reading tastes, I will rarely turn down a dystopian story. They're as addicting as Oreo cookies. At least for me. Sometimes they turn out to be all fluffy, frosting cream centers (so not my favorite part). Sometimes they're just the chocolatey cookie (which really, I find fabulous all by themselves). And then there are the few that are the perfect combination. Not a Drop to Drink is one of those.

It's a story about survival in its simplest form. Survival where your safest choice is isolation, because trust? Trust in other people? That kind of trust can get you killed. Instead you learn to only trust yourself and your instincts. That's how Lynn grew up. That's what she was taught. And then one day, because life in a dystopian world is never, ever fair, Lynn is forced to rethink that tendency not to trust. Otherwise, that survival she desperately strives toward won't exist. Watching Lynn work her way through relearning and diverging from what she had always known was a journey all of its own.

One of the major reasons I liked this one is because while it's considered to be YA, it didn't focus on that. Yes, the main character is a teen, but it's never about her age or even coming of age. It's about the threats and fears and finding happiness in little things. And it's about developing relationships and feelings and trust. Which, yeah are all things common place in YA, but in thise case they are different. The sometimes rocky psuedo-parent/child relationship between Stebbs and Lynn was by far my favorite of the book. They bicker and exasperate each other and yet still have each others backs through the end. I could have done without the required YA romance that really didn't develop all that well, but it was a small thing. Easily ignored or gotten over. Lucy was sometimes too precocious for my tastes, but that could be because we saw her through Lynn's eyes. Lynn had nothing else to compare it or Lucy to. Again, something I could easily let go. This is a character driven story and those characters, for better or worse, easily have their hands on the wheel.

Of course there were a few problems story-wise. The world building was weak. I kept wanting to know the why of it all. What happened that to put all of them in this dystopian setting? There was some vague mention of cholera - thus the importance of water and the pond- but it was hard to tell if that was the origin or just part of the aftermath. Also, the author is from Ohio but at times it felt like she didn't bother to do anymore than look at a google map. That's not to say it's not a well well set story(in the immediate sense). Lynn's farm, the surrounding area, even the small town in the near distance felt close and accurate. It's only when you went outside the circle that things got wonky. (Dear authors who live in Central Ohio...Northern Ohio is different environmentally, setting wise from your backyard. And Lake Erie is HUGE. It's not anything like say Alum Creek Lake. Rowing across it in a couple of hours is so NOT do-able. Visit the Great Lakes before you set your story there. Thanks.)

Overall, this is a coming of age story, but it's more than that too. It's a journey worth reading.