Review for The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher

The Water Wars
By Cameron Stracher
Published by Sourcebooks Fire
Won from Brenna (Thanks!)
240 pages

"Welcome to a future where water is more precious than gold or oil-and worth killing forVera 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."-Goodreads

The Water Wars is a compelling story that if it were to come true - be devastating to our planet! A very scary scenario to think about!

I would like to begin the review by saying that I hope to not offend anyone. I will aim to make this a helpful review - showing areas that I think people should know about.
Characters. I believe character building is fundamental to a story. Sadly, the characters were horrible. They had no personalities, no backgrounds, no realistic actions, and some were just comical. I can see some creativity with coming up with such characters but it was just lacking. I had no personal interest in them. The main character Vera, I have no idea who she is and I in no way at all connected with her. The only person that had an inclining of a personality was her brother Will - he was the most memorable character. The 'love interest' Kai, we don't even get to know anything about him! Nothing! Like zilch! Ugh, the romance was horrid - we have one encounter we read about and bang! they like each other. Overall, a very bland cast to play in this story.

The plot was packed. The MC's Vera and Will were jumping from action scene to action scene - the thing is, for me there was no action. My attention wasn't grabbed, I had to force myself to continue. The biggest thing for me was the contradicting - like to open a hatch they author says to turn clockwise and Will turns it to the left and it opens! It may be a small thing but it makes it very hard to visualize the world. The world building I have to commend the author for their planning out (on the governmental aspect) but again something was lacking.... I had no image of what this future world was like.

Here is how I would sum up the book (personally): it was like I was watching what was happening, but didn't experience it and frankly didn't care what happened - a deadly combo for a reader. I don't know if I would recommend it, but there were some who enjoyed it (a lot) more than I did. So, if you are interested in dystopian - give it a try. I don't want to be a total heartless reviewer - it wasn't that bad but it wasn't great either. It just was too boring for me.

Excerpt:

We lived then in a time of drought and war. The great empires had fallen and been divided. The land was parched and starved for moisture, and the men who lived on it fought for every drop. Outside, the wind howled like something wounded. Inside, our skin flaked, and our eyes stung and burned. Our tongues were like thick snakes asleep in dark graves.
That's why I'll never forget the first time I saw Kai.