"The authors do not hold back." --Booklist (starred review)

"The palpable desperation that pervades the plot...feels true, giving it a chilling air of inevitability." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The Shustermans challenge readers." --School Library Journal (starred review)

"No one does doom like Neal Shusterman." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

When the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, one teen is forced to make life and death decisions for her family in this harrowing story of survival from New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman.

The drought--or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it--has been going on for a while now. Everyone’s lives have become an endless list of don’ts: don’t water the lawn, don’t fill up your pool, don’t take long showers.

Until the taps run dry.

Suddenly, Alyssa’s quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbors and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don’t return and her life--and the life of her brother--is threatened, Alyssa has to make impossible choices if she’s going to survive.

NEAL SHUSTERMAN

Born November 12, 1962, in New York, NY; son of Milton and Charlotte Shusterman; married Elaine Jones (a teacher and photographer), January 31, 1987; children: Brendan, Jarrod, Joelle, Erin. Education: University of California, Irvine, B.A., 1985. Politics: "No." Religion: "Yes."