Drought by Pam Bachorz

Bachorz, Pam Drought, 386 p. Egmont, 2011.  $17.99.  For two hundred years, Ruby and her fellow Congregants have lived under the harsh mastership of Darwin West, their captor and the overseer, who demands that they scrap the moisture off of the leaves every night so that he can sell water that is supposed to keep someone alive forever.  But the water’s properties and harvest are based on a lie that Ruby, her mother and her fellow captives have kept for all of these years – instead, the water needs blood – Ruby’s blood – for its preserving properties.  While I like Ruby and her guts and her love, I had a very hard time buying into the basic premise for the world – Otto, the Congregants religion, and how they got into Darwin’s power in the first place.  Because the foundation is so weak, the book as a whole does not hold up, unless you love Ruby.  HS – OPTIONAL. Cindy, Library Teacher