Dry

Content Ratings

Mild Romance

Brief romantic awareness between Alyssa and a boy they encounter during the crisis is present but secondary to the survival plot.

Intense Themes

The near-future scenario of a complete collapse of water infrastructure and the speed with which civil society breaks down are presented with unsettling plausibility; children witness adult violence, death, and social disintegration.

High Violence

The novel depicts the rapid violence of resource collapse—neighbors killing each other for water, mass death, and brutal survival choices—with unflinching realism; violence is sustained and emotionally devastating.

Synopsis

When the taps run dry in Southern California and the Tap-Out begins, sixteen-year-old Alyssa and her younger brother must navigate the violent breakdown of civilization as neighbors turn on each other and the government abandons the population, searching for their parents while trying to survive. A terrifyingly plausible near-future disaster novel about water scarcity and social collapse.