Review: Dryland

Dryland by Sara Jaffe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I would give this 3.5 stars if I could. :) It took me a while to get into this one. Although I appreciate stream of consciousness/diary-like writing, I tend to prefer books that are dialogue intensive. I realize that's partly a personal preference, as a former theater and chorus nerd. I loved Julia as a character from the beginning, and the book has a beautiful, lyrical writing style. Plot wise, I didn't really know where the book was going at first. But I'm glad I kept reading it, and it'll be super fun to discuss at book club tomorrow, especially since we're going to talk about it in context to the YA literature genre. At the end of this novel, I felt like I had finished a puzzle, as all of the plot points came together into a very satisfying end. As a former distance track runner and summer swim team kid, I could relate to finding your stride, both as a distance athlete and as a teenager. Overall, this was a worthwhile read, and I'm glad I went on this journey with the author. It's probably not a book I would have picked to read myself, but the beauty of book club is that it encourages me to explore novels I might otherwise overlook. Plus, I enjoyed reading about the early 90s from a teenager's perspective, as I was in late elementary/early middle school during this time. I remember the AIDS epidemic and understood the seriousness of it, along with discussions of global warming, but this book helped me to develop a deeper understanding of the AIDS epidemic and how it affected people. I also enjoyed the depictions of the west coast and of Seattle, a city that I truly love.

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