Review: In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis

Release Date: September 23, 2014

Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books
Pages: 384
Source: eARC for Review

ISBN-10:  006219853X

Rating: 5 Hearts

Book Description

"The only thing bigger than the world is fear.

Lucy’s life by the pond has always been full. She has water and friends, laughter and the love of her adoptive mother, Lynn, who has made sure that Lucy’s childhood was very different from her own. Yet it seems Lucy’s future is settled already—a house, a man, children, and a water source—and anything beyond their life by the pond is beyond reach.

When disease burns through their community, the once life-saving water of the pond might be the source of what’s killing them now. Rumors of desalinization plants in California have lingered in Lynn’s mind, and the prospect of a “normal” life for Lucy sets the two of them on an epic journey west to face new dangers: hunger, mountains, deserts, betrayal, and the perils of a world so vast that Lucy fears she could be lost forever, only to disappear in a handful of dust.

In this companion to Not a Drop to Drink, Mindy McGinnis thrillingly combines the heart-swelling hope of a journey, the challenges of establishing your own place in the world, and the gripping physical danger of nature in a futuristic frontier."

Review

Short and Sweet:

In a Handful of Dust is an amazing journey. A story that not only does justice to its companion: Not a Drop to Drink, but meets and surpasses expectations. Mindy McGinnis weaves another dark, dangerous and surprisingly hopeful tale of a difficult, thirsty world all too easily imagined.

To Elaborate...

Not a Drop to Drink was one of my top 2013 reads, so I was beyond excited to read this companion novel continuing Lynn's story with Lucy. 

It begins many years after the events in NADTD.  Lucy is now a teenager and the narrator of this story; though Lynn is still very much present and important. Polio is sweeping through their village and a heartbreaking series of events leaves Lucy and Lynn with no other choice but to leave their safe haven in Ohio in search of something else. 

 They begin their dangerous journey into the unknown and very soon run into a woman named Joss who remembers the world before the water shortage. She tells them that there are rumors of settlements in California that have learned how to desalinate ocean water; places you can want something more than a drink. So Lucy and Lynn begin to head west through a difficult landscape of mountains and deserts.

Along the way they experience many struggles. From the people with ill intent that they meet on the road, to the hardships of traveling by foot that you would expect in this world. It's never certain that they will make it another day, let alone all the way to California. Every page of this book is full of the potential to harm, yet somehow you still hope for these women. You want there to be something more for them.

I am literally having a hard time coming up with unique ways to describe the awesomeness that is this story. There were moments that stunned and horrified me and moments that were so hopeful that I cried. Mindy McGinnis can certainly tell a story that will make you feel and I recommend In a Handful of Dust just as highly as its predecessor.

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