[R] In a Handful of Dust, by Mindy McGinnis

In a Handful of Dust
(Not a Drop to Drink #2)
by: Mindy McGinnis

3.5 of 5 stars

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.

my thoughts

"Because I've learned a lesson, and more than once. If you have something, someone will take it from you, and with the loss comes suffering. It's best to be beholden to nothing."

I have really serious issues with this book and the last one. I didn't know if you read my review of Not a Drop to Drink, but I did like the book, but hate the outcome [its ending]. I thought that maybe this book would be my salvation and make everyone happy, but no, it made me mad and without conclusion.

"And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust."

This time around, 12 years [more or less] pass, Lucy is a grown up girl and Lynn a grown up woman that actually looks like Lucy's mother. People began to die... polio they said. Vera and Stebbs are immune because they had vaccination, but Lynn and Lucy aren't that lucky, so what they do? They flee. Searching for what they been hearing from years. That in California there's water, there's electricity and that anybody can live happy. So, off they went and the whole book is about their journey. With only desert in from of them, will they make it?

"Those who reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it."

There are new characters, old characters, good and bad ones. I certainly expect the book to be better than it was, because I hoped for something good. For my dissapointment it was just the same as the one before this one. It involve different problems, scenes and situations, but the outcome was the same. Lynn cried in the book before and now it was Lucy's turn. I hate the idea of reading a good book as this, but hating its end. I love the poetry in this one more. There wasn't much romance here apart from the love of mother and dauhter [which I liked, but I wanted a real couple]. I miss Stebbs dialogues, but we got Fletcher for that. I really like that character and it was sad when he had to take his way and the girls another. I hate so much that authors made us like a character and then dissapear it from our faces.

“I’ve been trying to do better about killing people,” Lynn said. “Then fate puts you in my path.”

If you want a real dystopia with not so much a good ending, these books are your pick. Plus you have a lovely writing, lovely characters and lovely poetry, BUT horrorific endings. Wish you luck!