Before we begin, I would like to thank @TheWriteReads for doing this #UltimateBlogTours and bringing in so many people from the #bookblogging community.

I would also like to thank the author, Kristin Ward for providing the Team WriteReads a copy of your book #AfterTheGreenWithered in exchange for an honest review.

Grateful to be a part of Day 8 of the blog tour.

Here we go,

About the Author

Kristin Ward is the author of the book, After the Green Withered and the sequel, Burden of Truth. Her debut novel won the Best Indie Book Award in 2018. She lives in Connecticut with her beautiful family. Her science fiction fantasy novel Rise of Gaia is scheduled to come out in 2019.

Synopsis

Enora Byrnes lives in a futuristic dystopian world where mankind has exhausted it’s most basic resource – water. The scarcity of a resource naturally leads to a few exploiting what is left of it. The world now runs on water credits and is controlled by a corporation called – DMC. As Enora turns eighteen, the corporation assigns her a role, to make her contribution to the new world society. However, Enora’s young and innocent eyes observes a lot and she is torn between what she must do and what she feels she needs to do. Not that she has a choice, she is just a rat running around in a maze until she decides otherwise.

Will she or will she not?

My thoughts

Narrative and plot

This is a gripping and fast paced story. It never felt like a debut novel. The narrator is an eighteen year old kid living in the aftermath. You can feel the anguish and longing in her voice mixed with empathy and the innocence of the age.

When such an emotive narrative is mixed with a strong plot, you’re immersed into this new world. The story in itself is a warning to our present. This bleak future isn’t too far from reality.

Characters and Conflicts

The central character of the story and our protagonist is Enora, a simple teenager living in a small town controlled by a Corporation. Enora is observant which elevates the narrative as a whole. And the trait is not just for the sake of story-telling, it is one of her many skills.

Even though she isn’t self-aware like any other dystopian heroine, Enora is rational and patient unlike many other heroes that we come across. Though beyond her age, the world she lives demands restrain and we feel her inner turmoils. The rest of the cast backs her up nicely. There is more to every character than what meets the eye.

As you can see from the title, the  major conflict of the book is water or rather the scarcity of it. When such an essential resource is unavailable to the masses, it is imminent that exploitation, greed, manipulation and power plays it’s part. We learn to the extent this world goes through the eyes of Enora. It is brutal and disturbing.

Aside from a few obvious loopholes in the world building, there was nothing that put me off. Even that you can overlook, considering the description of this world is given by a teenager who is still trying to figure out the system, she herself is a part of.

Conclusion

Overall this was a captivating read. The ending had me in shock. (What…where is the rest of the story?) This is the beginning of a great series. There are characters I’m hoping will come back and it is all very grey.
I am not comparing the two books, but if you’ve read The Handmaid’s Tale, you remember the occasional queasy feeling you had? Brace yourself for something similar because Enora can take you for a ride along with her in this barren land. I am already booking my copy of the sequel “Burden of Truth”.

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