Title: Drought
Author: Pam Bachorz [website] [twitter] [facebook]
Genre: Dystopian
Publisher: Egmont USA
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Parental Advisory: slavery, drugs, alcohol, violence, self-mutilation
Teachable Moments: spirituality, persecution, leadership, slavery

“I screw off the top and peer inside, even though I know I won’t see anything in the dark — unless it’s nearly full to the brim.  There’s only darkness.  I roll back my left sleeve — the arm I haven’t already cut for Mother tonight — and hold my arm over the opening.  My skin is smooth, even though I’ve cut it in this place hundreds, maybe thousands, of time.  My body heals just as fast as the Water heals everyone else.”

Summary (from the publisher):
Ruby dreams of escaping the Congregation.  Escape from slaver Darwin West and his cruel Overseers.  Escape from the backbreaking work of gathering Water.  Escape from living as if it is still 1812, the year they were all enslaved.

When Ruby meets Ford — an irresistible, kind, forbidden new Overseer — she longs to run away with him to the modern world, where she could live a normal teenage life.  Escape with Ford would be so simple.

But if Ruby leaves, her community is condemned to certain death.  She, alone, possesses the secret ingredient that makes the water so special — her blood — and it’s the one thing that the Congregation cannot live without.

Opinion:
Drought is a bit of a departure for me; one that I walked into with some skepticism as to whether I would really like the story or not.  I don’t tend to gravitate towards books that focus at some level of spirituality and it was clear to me that there would be quite a bit of focus on faith woven into this plot.  I’m glad to report that I quite enjoyed Drought and it’s all due to Bachorz’s ability to create dynamic characters and intriguing sub-plots.

Primarily dialogue driven, the story still manages to paint a unique picture of life for a young girl enslaved.  As the title indicates, the story is set during a time when water is scarce and boy do we ever feel it.  Unforgiving and gritty the dust and heat jumps off every page.  I would say the vibe the book gives off is very Wild West meets Mountaineers.  In my minds eye I saw loads of dust and tumbleweeds, ramshackle shanty cabins and outhouses.  Oh, and it all worked.  It fit perfectly with the plot of the story.  Perfect.

So let’s talk plot.

The plot was simple yet powerful.  Ruby is special, as the child of a Messiah she’s been propped up as the stand in savior for her Congregation.  Much like her father, Ruby’s blood is the key to everyone’s survival, a key their slave master has yet to discover. He (Darwin) is under the impression that the magic to their longevity is based on a combination of ruffage and what little water there is to be found in and around the land they all live on.

The bulk of the story is about how Darwin forces The Congregation to collect the magic water for the purposes of sale.  Who profits?  That would be Darwin.  Who suffers?  That would be The Congregants.  Suffer they do!  They endure beatings and starvation and any number of other terrifying circumstances all in the hopes that their God Otto will one day come back and save them.

What I found most interesting about this book was Ruby.  She was enslaved not once but twice over.  The Congregants were all hostages of Darwin and forced into slave labor for the benefit of his wallet.  Yet Ruby, she was a captive of The Congregation as well.  Raised to believe that she was as happy as the others, free to do as they did (which wasn’t much by the way), but really the obligation to sustain them until Otto’s return held her even more stagnant than if she had been any typical Congregant.

Of course she never realized this fact, at least not until she met Jonah.  This happenstance is what opened her eyes to the possibility of a better life, a life of freedom in the outside world.  One where she could be who she wanted and not live every day for everyone else. So starts the romantic aspect of the story.

I worried that it would be misplaced in a story that was so stark, but I’m glad to say that Bachorz did an admirable job of making it fit the overall tone.  Ruby and Jonah were tentative with each other and with their circumstances — he being a guard for Darwin and she being a Congregant.  There were boundaries that each were cautious about crossing but once done they couldn’t help but be drawn to each other.  Even so, there wasn’t much in the way of schmoopy love struck behavior their interactions were demure and exploratory.   I was so glad that the love story was written as gently as it was.

Drought is not for the faint of heart nor the person who wants a quick, light and fluffy read.  Well plotted and characterized it’s thoughtful and carries with it deep insight.  Great for book clubs and classrooms there is no shortage of topics for discussion.