by Virginia Bergin
Review by KM
I remember seeing H2O on an endcap at Barnes and Noble last Fall. The cover is astounding and it stuck out among all of YA Romances it was surrounded by. I didn’t get a chance to grab it then; I had hardly a thought about it within the past year. Two days ago, I saw the sequel sitting on the new shelf, pretty as a book about the apocalypse could be. Without delay, I grabbed H2O, bought a frappuccino, and spent the next three hours chowing on the book. I only wish I’d had enough time to do the same with the sequel.
Summary
.27 is a number Ruby hates.
It’s a number that marks the percentage of the population that has survived. It’s a number that means she’s one of the “lucky” few still standing. And it’s a number that says her father is probably dead.
Against all odds, Ruby has survived the catastrophic onset of the killer rain. Two weeks after the radio started broadcasting the warning, “It’s in the rain. It’s fatal and there’s no cure,” the drinkable water is running out. Ruby’s left with two options: persevere on her own, or embark on a treacherous journey across the country to find her father-if he’s even still alive. **
Musings
I absolutely love this plot. There are a million and one dystopian teen novels out there, but this is the first one I’ve encountered that really left me thinking. I can make plans on how I’d survive The Hunger Games or the Divergent series, but I really have no idea how I’d survive without water. My husband and I spent the night discussing how we know how to purify water with Iodine and how to make 2 liter water systems to clean salt water, but we have no idea how to compete against a bacterium that can’t be boiled out of water.
In the end, I said I’d have drank some contaminated water within the first few weeks; I am so not suited for the apocalypse.
Ruby has a lot of faults. As a character, I didn’t like her, but I felt sympathetic for her at the same time. I kept thinking to myself, “Wow, I wouldn’t be friends with this chick if I was fifteen,” but then I’d stop and think, “Well, I probably wouldn’t want to be friends with my fifteen year old self now that I’m twenty two.” I think she has a strong personality, with all the self-absorption and teenage angst that belongs to a fifteen year old. Her voice is solid and believable. I’m hoping she remains the narrator of the second book.
H2O is a great start to what I hope remains to be a great series. And OH MY GOSH, apparently the sequel, The Storm, isn’t actually out until October 6th. But I know for sure that it was out at my local Barnes and Noble last night, so hopefully I can head up there tomorrow and it’s still there. I’m not sure I’ll be able to wait otherwise.
**Thanks for the summary, Amazon.
Readcommendations 