Review: Water Wars

THE WATER WARS
Cameron Stracher
Young Adult/Dystopian
240 pages
Sourcebooks Fire
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY
The world is shaped differently now. New borders exist between new countries made up of previously independent states, and new rules exist to regulate and control what's left of the world's almost non-existent drinkable water supply.

For Vera, this is simply life as she knows it, but when she meets Kai her entire world view shifts. He claims there's fresh water left and he can find it. And then just like that he's gone, leaving behind a ransacked apartment and little else for Vera and her brother Will to help them understand what happened to him.

Convinced he's been kidnapped for his water knowledge, Vera and Will set out in search of him but instead find themselves in the middle of a battle for power, struggling to live long enough to find their friend and the boy who just might be capable of saving them all.

MY THOUGHTS
Water Wars presents us with a rather bleak future, one we can’t really say we’re overly shocked to see laid out before us given the predictions of many a current environmentalist, and one where guilt is a tangible entity on our shoulders as we read, pointing things out as we go to show us just how responsible we as a whole are for the state of this fictional world. Water is the currency for Vera and the rest of the inhabitants of this vast dry and cracked empire–worth more than gold, more than morality and ethics, and more than life itself—as it is dammed and hoarded, stolen and polluted, and then rationed to the very last drop. All we can do is lick our lips to wipe away the dust and dryness that isn’t there while swearing the paper gets more brittle with every flip of the page as though the story is sucking the very life out of them just as our characters are being so brutally robbed of it themselves.

Though the premise certainly brings to light a future scenario that has every possibility of truly coming to pass–carrying with it a message of weight and importance–it remains simply a story; black and white letters on pages that progress in ascending numerical order. Vera and Will never feel quite real, instead reading of them is a bit like standing outside in the pouring rain where there is infinite potential to absorb what’s falling all around us, but instead of wearing short sleeves we are outfitted in waterproof jackets, forcing all the conflicts and emotions of this world to bead up and slide right off instead of seeping into the skin on contact. We want to care and we want to be horrified at the damage caused by humanity’s abuse of natural resources, but without that thriving connection to our main characters the intensity of their circumstances is significantly muted.

In addition to a bit of character detachment, there’s also a small believability issue when it comes to some of the events experienced by Will and Vera on their search for Kai. Granted, a great deal of the fun with reading comes from the temporary suspension of belief for the duration of the story, but the extraordinary nature of the crashes, floods, escapes, and general trouble Will and Vera find themselves in and manage to survive stretches our willingness to believe almost to its breaking point. Both Will and Vera live through a multitude of life-threatening situations, and while they don’t come away unscathed, their fairly severe injuries don’t appear to hinder them all that much, and they (along with the people they befriend) carry on with few side effects despite the loss of blood or the broken bones. In a world that is for the most part reality-based with no paranormal or supernatural happenings, the fantastical nature of the continuous cycle of peril and survival creates additional distance between the story and us as readers.

Overall, Water Wars is well written and forces us to have a new appreciation for the availability of precious H2O in our homes and lives, we just can’t help but wish we could unzip and remove our weather-resistant coverings so that we feel every nuance of the story without a barrier in between.

Rating: 3/5

Cover Critique: 2011 Top Six Part 1

Since we're rapidly approaching 2011, I thought I'd spend this week and next week's cover critiques highlighting some of my favorite covers I've seen for books coming out next year. 2010 has had some amazing covers and I'm thrilled to see the trend of beautiful design is continuing into 2011, so below you will find the first three of my favorite covers that have been released so far.

1. THE WATER WARS




I adore this cover. There are a plethora of young adult covers out there that focus on either a partial or full human face, and after a while all the features start to blur together until no single cover stands out for me. This face however, has a very unique addition as the eyelashes are replaced by water splashes to create a truly stunning visual effect. The cool grays evoke a sense of foreboding that compliments a title with the word "war" in it, and I love the contrast between the very dry, chapped lips and the saturated wetness of the eyelashes – almost as though the war is being visually emphasized since one part of the face is obviously in need of moisture, and the other part has an abundant supply of what is needed most.

Furthermore, I enjoy the androgynous quality to the face, it adds an anonymity to the character, as though this person is just another nameless face in the battle; one who fights but whose individual efforts won't necessarily be celebrated or even acknowledged. The dimpled chin and strong jaw suggest a male, but the full lips and wisps of blond hair floating down behind the title suggest female, making this cover all the more interesting to look at as we try to decipher everything we're seeing.

2. SLICE OF CHERRY




For me, the simplicity of this cover is what makes it so visually powerful. At first, we see cutely patterned teacups stacked together and think how adorable they are and how maybe we'd like to own them ourselves. Then we notice the font for the title doesn't quite fit with the adorable vibe of the striped and polka-dotted teacups and we are further put on edge by the presence of a puddle of blood and the drips running down the sides of formerly pristine china.

There are just so many questions raised by such a seemingly uncomplicated design. Whose blood is it? The whole tea party element suggests a child is either the owner of the blood or the one responsible for its presence, either option being equally disturbing, and leaves us all the more grimly fascinated by the unknown.

3. SWEETLY




I'm a huge fan of illustrated covers, and the first cover in this series, Sisters Red, was one of my favorite covers of 2010. Though the purple would not have been my ideal choice, the illustrator's use of both positive and negative space is just gorgeous. In the positive space, we see the stark black branches stretching eerily across the dusky purple of an early night's sky, but then upon further inspection, a face starts to form in the negative space. The crooked branches form the eyes and mouth, while three falling leaves form nostrils, together giving the overall illusion of distinctly female features staring out at us. The crooked nature of the trees and their barrenness have a sinister quality, as though whatever presence is watching over this quaint cottage is not someone we want to meet in a dark forest. Love it!

What do you guys think? Do you have any favorites so far for 2011?