GUEST REVIEW: In A Handful Of Dust - Mindy McGinnis

GENRE: Futuristic/Dystopia
PAGES: 384
PUBLISHER: Harper360
FORMAT: Paperback
RATING: 4 Stars

Read Sofia's review of the first book, Not A Drop To Drink.

This book is not currently available through Waterstones. Expected publication: 23rd September 2014.

SUMMARY

The only thing bigger than the world is fear.

Lucy’s life by the pond has always been full. She has water and friends, laughter and the love of her adoptive mother, Lynn, who has made sure that Lucy’s childhood was very different from her own. Yet it seems Lucy’s future is settled already—a house, a man, children, and a water source—and anything beyond their life by the pond is beyond reach.

When disease burns through their community, the once life-saving water of the pond might be the source of what’s killing them now. Rumors of desalinization plants in California have lingered in Lynn’s mind, and the prospect of a “normal” life for Lucy sets the two of them on an epic journey west to face new dangers: hunger, mountains, deserts, betrayal, and the perils of a world so vast that Lucy fears she could be lost forever, only to disappear in a handful of dust.

REVIEW

After finishing Not a Drop to Drink, I immediately asked YABirmingham if they had a proof copy of the sequel and they did! Unfortunately for some reason, I was busy when I first got it so I only just got to reading it last week. Yes, it took me over a week to finish it but that is simply because I’ve been busy. This was a great sequel to a fabulous book and I can’t wait for any future books by Mindy McGinnis.

The sequel follows another character who appears in Not a Drop to Drink and that is Lucy. I loved reading from Lucy’s point of view because she’s quite different from Lynn. She didn’t feel threatened by everything and everyone like Lynn did. She was a great protagonist and I definitely preferred her POV, compared to Lynn’s. Lucy was strong(not quite as strong as Lynn was) but she was trusting and kind and she didn’t feel the need to kill everything that came in her way.

The start of this book I found to be quite slow and confusing due to what was happening. We are thrown back into the world despite missing years of their lives since this one takes place quite a while after the first one ended.It deals with illnesses and medicine and gives a lot of biology related facts that just went over my head(I strongly dislike biology). However, once the actual story started, it really picked up and I found it addictive. What I love about these books is the writing. Mindy McGinnis’ writing is stunningly beautiful and it keeps you captivated when you’re reading. I was worried slightly when I found out there was a companion novel to Not a Drop to Drink because I loved Not a Drop to Drink as a standalone and usually sequels aren’t as good. However Mindy McGinnis proved me wrong because this book was just as good as Not a Drop to Drink, if not slightly better. I came out of this book wondering why I couldn’t write like her because her writing is one of my favourites to read and I shall be definitely be picking up her future books.

The thing that stopped this book from becoming a 5 star read was the supporting characters. Stebbs wasn’t around for most of the book and he was one of my favourite characters in the first book. As for the new characters we meet, I didn’t particularly like any of them for some reason. We didn’t stick with one character long enough to grow an attachment to someone and when I did start liking someone, they left. However I did really enjoy Fletcher and I thought he was an interesting character. I’d love to have a whole book about his story because there was a lot more to him than we got to see.

Another amazing part of this book is the plot. I can’t tell you what happens because that would be spoilery but you will find it hard to guess what happens in this book. There were so many twists that you couldn’t predict. It was so unpredictable which added to the fact that it was fast paced to make a captivating and addictive read. I wish I could talk about certain things that happened within the novel but alas spoilers.

Whenever anything weird and shocking happened, this was basically me.

I really hope Mindy McGinnis writes more within this world because it is such a unique world that I love to read about. After that ending, I can expect that there may be more books in this series if this one does well so definitely go buy it when it’s out on the 23rd September. I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars and I highly recommend it.

- Sofia.

GUEST REVIEW: Not A Drop To Drink - Mindy McGinnis

GENRE: Dystopa/Futuristic
PAGES: 352
PUBLISHER: Harper360
FORMAT: Paperback
BUY IT: Waterstones
RATING: 4 Stars

This book will be published 25/09/14. Preorder now in store.

SUMMARY

Teenage Lynn has been taught to defend her pond against every threat: drought, a snowless winter, coyotes, and most important, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty--or doesn't leave at all. Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. But when strangers appear, the mysterious footprints by the pond, nighttime threats, and gunshots make it all too clear Lynn has exactly what they want, and they won't stop until they get it. . . .

REVIEW

Recently, I received a copy of Not A Drop to Drink and I couldn’t have been more excited to read it. Ever since I heard about this book last year, I was so excited to read it but I never ending up getting my hands on it. But now I have one and I’ve read it. I absolutely did adore this book.

This is a great dystopian novel that is just simply a story of survival. What I did love about this story was that it was just about a girl who was doing whatever she can to survive. When I first started reading this book, it took me a while to get into it but once I got into it, I couldn’t stop reading because it was a fast paced dystopian novel. I have missed reading fast paced dystopians so this one was amazing.

I think Lynn was a great main character. She was strong and she knew what she had to do in order to survive. She did grow throughout that book as she started off as a very lonely and isolated character but she grew to let people in. However she didn’t lose her essential desire to survive. She didn’t let people do things for her, even at the end as she is a very independant person who likes to be in control. However, when she first comes across the other characters and starts talking to them you realize just how much she doesn’t know. Living with her mother in an isolated house for her whole life meant that she wasn’t aware of things that we all know such as flirting or sarcasm. This made her a very weird person around others as she didn’t understand fully. I still did really enjoy Lynn as a character and I think in the second book, I will like her more.

Whenever Lynn would talk to anyone throughout the book this gif ran through my mind(and not just because it has Dylan O’Brien)

Most of the side characters were good too. I loved Stebbs, Lucy and Eli. I feel like they all bought out a new side to Lynn and they did change her quite a lot. Stebbs made her open up and let people in because he convinced her that she needs to start talking to other people. Lucy made her realise just how much she enjoys the company of others and how she can still take care of others while protecting herself. Eli just changed her and made her better because he helped teach her new things that she wasn’t aware of and he taught her how to love. I really didn’t understand Neva and I didn’t like her character at all.Even after what she did at the end, I didn’t like her. The final side character that appeared was Vera. However, she only appeared about 80% through the book and I hardly got to know her but for now I like her.

This is only a four star read because at the start, I found it to be quite slow until the thing happened that completely changed the book as a whole as well as the pacing of the book. It is also only four stars because I felt as if the ending of this book was too rushed. If this book was slightly longer and the ending was spread out over possibly 100 more pages, I would have enjoyed it a lot more and possibly have given it 5 stars. I also really didn’t like the thing that happened to a character at the end. Why did that have to happen? I felt as if it was unnecessary and the response to what happened was too quick to really appreciate why it happened.

When that thing happened at the end, I didn’t feel overwhelmed with sadness. This was basically me when it happened.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I am very excited to get my hands on the second one and read it as soon as possible. Thank you for reading and see you soon with another post.

- Sofia.