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“The authors do not hold back.” —Booklist (starred review)
“The palpable desperation that pervades the plot…feels true, giving it a chilling air of inevitability.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“The Shustermans challenge readers.” —School Library Journal (starred review)
“No one does doom like Neal Shusterman.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

When the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, one teen is forced to make life and death decisions for her family in this harrowing story of survival from New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman.

The drought—or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it—has been going on for a while now. Everyone’s lives have become an endless list of don’ts: don’t water the lawn, don’t fill up your pool, don’t take long showers.

Until the taps run dry.

Suddenly, Alyssa’s quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbors and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don’t return and her life—and the life of her brother—is threatened, Alyssa has to make impossible choices if she’s going to survive.

Review

* "No one does doom like Neal Shusterman... He and his debut novelist son have crafted a world of dark thirst and fiery desperation, which, despite tendrils of hope that thread through the conclusion, feels alarmingly near to our future." ― Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

* "The authors do not hold back... Lovers of horror action fiction will feel right at home with this terrifyingly realistic story of our tenuous relationship with the environment and of the resilience of the human spirit in the face of desperate situations." ― Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

* "The palpable desperation that pervades the plot as it thunders toward the ending feels true, giving it a chilling air of inevitability... a study of how extreme circumstances can bring out people’s capacity for both panic and predation, ingenuity and altruism." ― Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

This superb mini-apocalyptic cautionary tale is sure to please all readers ― School Library Connection

Dry could play out tomorrow morning... With strong characterizations, a timely topic, and decisions to debate at every turn, this is a prime candidate for YA book clubs. ― BCCB

The Shustermans challenge readers... This survival tale is packed with themes and allegories that will attract fans of literary YA as well as readers seeking a good adventure. ― School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW

About the Author

Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty award-winning books for children, teens, and adults, including the Unwind dystology, the Skinjacker trilogy, Downsiders, and Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award. Scythe, the first book in his series Arc of a Scythe is a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. He also writes screenplays for motion pictures and television shows. Neal is the father of four, all of whom are talented writers and artists themselves. Visit Neal at StoryMan.com and Facebook.com/NealShusterman.

Jarrod Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling coauthor of the novel Dry, which he is adapting for a major Hollywood film studio with National Book Award winner Neal Shusterman. He is also the coauthor of the accoladed novel Roxy. His books have all received critical acclaim and multiple starred reviews. Jarrod wrote his most recent title, Retro, with Sofía Lapuente, and together, they teach a course on writing at UCLA. They are partners in every sense of the word, with love and multiculturalism as an ethos—living between Madrid, Spain, and Los Angeles. If they are not working, it means they’re eating. For behind-the-scenes author content and fun videos, follow them on Instagram and TikTok @SofiandJarrod.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Day One
SNAPSHOT: JOHN WAYNE
Dalton loves the way planes take off from John Wayne Airport. It’s a real trip. They call it a “modified noise abatement takeoff,” and it was specifically implemented to spare Newport Beach millionaires from having to deal with airport noise. Basically, the plane powers up on the runway with its brakes on, then accelerates at full force into a ridiculously steep takeoff, followed ten seconds later by a sudden leveling off and throttling down of the engines, which sounds, to the uninitiated, like engine failure, causing at least one person on every flight to gasp, or even scream in panic. The plane then coasts out over the back bay, Balboa Island, and the Newport Peninsula before the pilot pushes the engines back to full and resumes the climb-out.

“They oughta call it John Glenn instead of John Wayne,” Dalton once said—because taking off from there was the closest most people would ever get to blasting off into space.

Dalton and his younger sister are regular flyers, visiting their dad, who lives up in Portland, a few times a year—Christmas, Easter, most of the summer, and every other Thanksgiving. Today, however, it’s not just the two of them traveling north. Their mother is coming, too.

“If your dad won’t put me up, I’ll be happy to stay in a hotel,” she says.

“He won’t make you do that,” Dalton tells her, but she doesn’t seem too sure.

A few years back, Dalton’s mom had left him for a loser with nice pecs and a soul patch, who she subsequently kicked to the curb a year later. Live and learn. Anyway, when the marriage went south, his dad went north.

“You understand this is not about your father and me getting back together,” she tells Dalton and his sister, but for kids of divorce, hope springs eternal.

Within minutes of the Tap-Out, his mom had gone online and bought three overpriced tickets on Alaska Air—one of the few airlines that flies nonstop to Portland on a plane that you didn’t have to get out and push.

“Last three tickets,” she told them triumphantly. “You’ve got an hour to pack. Carry-ons only.”

The trip to the airport is bumper-to-bumper. What should be a fifteen-minute ride takes almost an hour.

The parking situation at John Wayne is the first indication that there’s going to be turbulence up ahead. All but one parking structure says FULL. They get one of the last remaining spaces at the far end of the last lot. As they make their way to the terminal, Dalton notes all the cars circling, like it’s a huge game of musical chairs, with no chairs left.

The TSA checkpoint is a madhouse, which never happens here.

“A lot a people are going on vacation,” Dalton’s seven-year-old sister, Sarah, says.

“Yes, honey,” their mom responds absently.

“Where do you think they’re going?”

Their mom sighs, too stressed to continue humoring her, so Dalton looks at the boards, and takes up the slack. “Cabo San Lucas,” he says. “Denver, Dallas, Chicago…”

“My friend Gigi’s from Chicago.”

The security guy double takes on Dalton’s passport, because his hair is brown in the photo, but now it’s bleached blond.

“You sure this is you?”

“Last time I checked,” Dalton responds.

The humorless TSA guy lets them get into the slow-moving crawl to the metal detector, which has issues with his facial rings. Finally they make it through security with just five minutes until boarding starts. Mom is relieved.

“Okay,” she says. “We’re here. We haven’t lost anyone. No missing fingers or toes.”

“I’m thirsty,” Sarah says, but Dalton has already noticed that the concessions they passed all had NO WATER signs up.

“There’ll be something to drink on the plane,” their mother says.

Dalton thinks that might actually be true. After all, these planes all came from somewhere else. And he is getting a bit thirsty himself.

Then, just as they’re about to start boarding, the gate agent comes on the loudspeaker and makes an announcement.

“Unfortunately, we’re oversold on this flight,” she says. “We’re asking for volunteers with flexible travel plans who are willing to take a later flight.”

Sarah tugs her mother’s arm. “Mommy, volunteer!”

“Not this time, baby.”

Dalton grins. Dad always tells them to volunteer because they give away hundreds of dollars in travel vouchers, which is always worth the inconvenience. But not today. Today it’s all about getting out. Which is why they have trouble getting volunteers. The price of the vouchers goes from two hundred dollars to three hundred to five hundred dollars, and still no one is willing to surrender their ticket.

Finally the gate agent gives up. She gets on the loudspeaker, calling the names of the last people to buy tickets. Dalton, Sarah, and their mother. Dalton feels a twisting in the pit of his stomach.

“I’m sorry,” says the gate agent, not sounding sorry at all, “but as the last to purchase, I’m obliged to reschedule you to a later flight.”

Dalton’s mom goes ballistic, and he can’t blame her. This is one time they need to fight the Powers That Be.

“No,” says their mom. “I don’t care what you say! My children and I are getting on that plane!”

“You’ll each receive a five-hundred-dollar travel voucher—that’s fifteen hundred dollars,” the agent says, trying to placate them. Their mom will not be bought.

“My children have court-ordered visitation with their father,” she yells. “If you take them off this flight, you’ll be breaking the law, and I’ll sue!” Of course, this isn’t their father’s time with them, but the agent doesn’t know that.

Even so, all the agent does is apologize, and look for later flights. “There’s a flight tonight at five-thirty.… Oh wait, no, that one is full, too.… Let’s see.” She continues to hack away at her computer. “Eight-twenty… no…”

Then Dalton turns to his sister and whispers, “Give her the eyes.”

Their mom had always told both Dalton and Sarah that their big blue eyes could melt anyone into a puddle. Not so much Dalton anymore. At an awkward seventeen, a bunch of facial piercings, a biohazard neck tattoo, and what his father calls “weed-whacked hair,” the general public isn’t melted anymore. Only seventeen-year-old girls. But Sarah still has the magical melting effect on hardened adults. So he lifts her up for the agent to get a good look at her.

“Aw, you’re cute as a button,” she says. Then rips three new tickets from the printer. “Here you go—tomorrow morning at six-thirty. That’s the absolute best I can do.”

So they wait. They don’t leave, because the crowd just grows, and they know they’ll never get back through security. They spend the night sleeping in uncomfortable airport chairs, getting sips of water from anyone who’ll share with them, and there aren’t many.

Then, when morning comes, even with confirmed tickets, there’s no room on the six-thirty flight for them. Or the next one. Or the next one.

And they can’t get tickets to flights to other places.

And the airport gets so crowded that extra police are brought in to keep the peace.

And with traffic jams everywhere, trucks with jet fuel can’t get to the airport.

And Dalton, his mother, and sister have to face the fact that they won’t be blasting off anywhere.

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Dry

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Visit the Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers Store

Dry

Product ID: U1481481975

Condition: New

Type: Paperback

^AED68⁹⁴

Price includes VAT & Import Duties

Availability: In Stock

Quantity:

Order today to get by 7-14 business days

Delivery fee of AED 20. Free for orders above AED 200.

Returns & Warranty policies

Imported From: United States

At BOLO, we work hard to ensure the products you receive are new, genuine, and sourced from reputable suppliers.

Every product in the BOLO catalogue is sourced through our Verified Global Supply Network of verified sellers, authorized distributors or directly from the manufacturer.

Your trust is our top priority, and we are committed to maintaining transparency and integrity in every transaction.

Unless otherwise stated, all prices displayed on the product page include applicable taxes and import duties.

All items are shipped by air, and any products classified as “Dangerous Goods (DG)” under IATA regulations will be removed from the order and cancelled.

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