REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: In A Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis

IN A HANDFUL OF DUST

By: Mindy McGinnis

Publication Date: September 23, 2014

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAQQt2zvq8s]

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.

ABOUT MINDY

Mindy McGinnis is an assistant YA librarian who lives in Ohio and cans her own food. She graduated from Otterbein University magna cum laude with a BA in English Literature and Religion. Mindy has a pond in her back yard but has never shot anyone, as her morals tend to cloud her vision.

Jaime’s Thoughts:
In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved Not A Drop To Drink by Mindy McGinnis and I’m not going to lie, I was a little sad when I didn’t see a follow up to it when finished reading it.

But then…

Then… a short while later, it was announced that there would be a companion novel and I maybe possibly most likely cheered out loud when the summary and title was announced.

In A Handful of Dust picks up years after the end of Not a Drop To Drink… Lucy has grown and her life has been, for the most part, fulfilling. She has her friends, and her family and the water they need… but she can’t help but wonder what else is out there.

When a sudden illness hits the community, Lucy and Lynn have no choice but to set out on their own and head towards what used to be California. But the journey won’t be easy … whether it’s the elements that are against them, or people they encounter along the way, Lucy and Lynn have to work together to find where they belong and who they belong with.

The thing I love about McGinnis’s writing is the raw feel of it, and we definitely get that same feeling in this book. One of the best things about this story though was that it was told in third person. It really allowed me as a reader to not just focus on one single point of view which I think was important because of the arc of the story. While this is essentially Lucy’s story, it was important to also get more than just her point of view.

Once again, there is a hint of a romance in this story, yet it isn’t at all the focus nor does it really take up much of the story. What the story did focus on were the trials and tribulations that Lynn and Lucy encountered along their travels, and it was definitely and intriguing story. While I wasn’t all that fond of Lucy… I think that was mainly because I loved Lynn so much in the first book, I still found her interesting. The struggle she had with having to give up the life that she was accustomed to, the people she had grown to love and knowing she would most likely never see any of them again was such a big part of her story.

McGinnis fills this story with action as Lynn and Lucy persevere the brutal world they have come to live in and the pacing of the story was wonderfully done. I was riveted to their story and couldn’t read fast enough.

If you haven’t read Not A Drop To Drink, it isn’t absolutely necessary to read that prior to this one, but I don’t know why you wouldn’t. Plus, it sets the stage for the story that McGinnis tells here.

This series definitely has a place on my favorites shelf and I can’t wait to see what else McGinnis writes for us in the future.

Thank you to Harper Collins for the advance copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.