Review: The Water Wars - Cameron Stracher

Genre: YA, dystopia
Pages: 240
Published: January 2011 Sourcebook Fire

Welcome to a future where water is more precious than gold or oil-and worth killing for

Vera and her brother, Will, live in the shadow of the Great Panic, in a country that has collapsed from environmental catastrophe. Water is hoarded by governments, rivers are dammed, and clouds are sucked from the sky. But then Vera befriends Kai, who seems to have limitless access to fresh water. When Kai suddenly disappears, Vera and Will set off on a dangerous journey in search of him-pursued by pirates, a paramilitary group, and greedy corporations. Timely and eerily familiar, acclaimed author Cameron Stracher makes a stunning YA debut that's impossible to forget.

Plot:

Good blurb

My thoughts:

Things have gone really bad in this book. The polar ice has melted and been harvested, dams have been cut off, and rivers are dry. The world has been through wars and what once was the US is now a couple of smaller countries. Vera and her brothers live in Illionowa. They are normal kids, except for being thirsty all the time, eating bad food, and worrying about the future. But they still seem hopeful, and love to watch YouToo. Kai is a mystery kid that Vera meets. He keeps his secrets close, and I like him.

You will also meet a pirate (liked him too), bad people who blow up things, and hear tales about the evil Canadians..what?! Oh yes, Canadians are really really bad in this book. I found that really fun actually.

One thing though, these kids are way too lucky, but then again if they weren't lucky they would have been dead long ago during their little adventure. So I can deal with that, they are kids, it's a YA book, and there are some really bad people here. They need friends on their side and get out of situations more easily.

I liked the take on water in this book. Because it is a very likely scenario that plays out in this book. It could happen, it is also critical of the government and even of those trying to save the nature, the paramilitary group, everyone have something to gain, and the goals are not always in the best interest of the many.

The end is an end, but still there is an opening, for things to get better, or get really really bad.

Recommendation and final thoughts:

An easy YA book that gave you something to think about at the same time. I could see teens reading this one in school and discussing afterwards why things went bad, how to stop them, and different scenarios.

Ps. There is a map, I love maps, yay for the map.

Reason for reading:

I like dystopian YA

Cover:

Kind of ..meh