Wednesday 1 March 2023

Thirsty Animals by Rachelle Atalla


THE WORLD IS RUNNING OUT OF WATER.

With supply in the Scottish cities drying up, Aida is forced back home to live with her mum at their rural farm. For now, they are safe with just enough to get by.

Yet at the border, tensions are close to breaking point as more and more southerners chase the delusion that Scotland is an eternal spring - while fewer and fewer are allowed through. The service station where Aida works grows emptier with every day. Then, when suspicious strangers arrive at the farm asking for help, Aida and her family face a terrible decision. How much water can they afford to share?

AND THEN THE TAPS ARE TURNED OFF.

Now they must survive long enough for the rain to come.

Completely compelling, devastating and thought-provoking, Thirsty Animals takes us on a captivating journey of survival and self-discovery.

Between this and Rachelle's previous book, her style is becoming very clear; Rachelle does not use any kind of speech marks in her writing. This makes it very difficult to follow; there's a lot of pausing, rereading, double checking and mapping out sentences, which really throws a reader out of the story.

It's a shame, because the plot is great, well researched, plausible, with information given at just the right rate to keep us from either getting bored or overwhelmed. It's easy to imagine that the world is heading the way of this plot, and it all makes perfect sense - and it's very tense reading! I didn't want to put it down as I was reading.

I really enjoy the stories, but the writing style doesn't suit me at all. I'll probably still try her next one, because I really do think she's good, but I may not stick with it if it's the same as this. That's just my opinion though, and I will definitely be recommending this to others to read.


Thirsty Animals publishes on the 16th of March, 2023. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.

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