Dryland

A Novel

By: Sara Jaffe

Narrated by: Carly Robins

Sara Jaffe's engrossing debut novel, Dryland, is a smart coming-of-age novel that charts the murky waters of adolescence.

Anything can happen when Julie hits the water.

It's 1992, and the world is caught up in the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the Balkan Wars, but for Julie Winter, 15, the news is noise. In Portland, Oregon, Julie moves through her days in a series of negatives: the skaters she doesn't think are cute, the Guatemalan backpack she doesn't buy at the craft fair, the umbrella she refuses to carry despite the incessant rain. Her family life is routine and restrained, and no one talks about Julie's older brother, a one-time Olympic hopeful swimmer who now lives in self-imposed exile in Berlin. Julie has never considered swimming herself until Alexis, the swim team captain, tries to recruit her. It's a dare and a flirtation - and a chance for Julie to find her brother or to finally let him go.

©2015 Sara Jaffe (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Unique Layout

Enjoyed the uniqueness of three layout. couldn't stop listening. does leave you wanting more. feels a bit incomplete. enjoyable none the less.

Odd, but I liked it

Strange. Doesn’t really have a plot with beginning, middle, and end. More of a snapshot of a moment in time. A girl’s coming of age, trying to figure out where and how she fits in the world, in her family, in her school, and with old and new friends. Who is she in the shadow of her much older elite athlete brother? What doesn’t she know about him? He is in many ways a stranger, having vanished from her life to live his. Are new “friends” interested in her because of who she is or because of who her brother was? Throw in high school parties, and drinking, and drugs, and budding sexuality and it’s one big confusing mess no one has figured out yet.

Narration by Carly Robins is perfect.

Leaves me feeling unsettled and still thinking about these people. I guess that’s what art is supposed to do, make you think and feel. No happily ever after tied up with a bow here.

It just ends without an ending

A few books have done this before, but this caught me completely off guard. It’s like the author decided she just didn’t want to write anymore. Your in the middle of this young girls story of discovery and the book just ends with no rhyme or reason. Hated it for that reason alone. So many story lines were left completely unresolved.

Sum up the story

I am not a writer. I am not a huge reader. I am an avid listener. This was a tough listen. To say that the author over used the word "said" would be a vast understatement. I said, she said, he said...over and over and over. I gave it a chance, it was not worth the time spent.