Along the way, the siblings pick up three teens: their survivalist neighbor Kelton, unpredictable lone wolf Jacqui, and calculating opportunist Henry. When their parents vanish while seeking desalinated water, 16-year-old Alyssa and 10-year-old Garrett embark on a harrowing journey, searching for their parents and fending for themselves as society deteriorates. In Neal Shusterman (Thunderhead) and son Jarrod's near-future or alternate-present America, a prolonged drought ('the Tap-Out') results in the sudden curtailment of Southern California's water supply. 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. Suddenly, Alyssa’s quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation neighbors and families turned against each other on the hunt for water.

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. The drought-or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it-has been going on for a while now. 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. “No one does doom like Neal Shusterman.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“The Shustermans challenge readers.” - School Library Journal (starred review) “The palpable desperation that pervades the plot…feels true, giving it a chilling air of inevitability.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review) “The authors do not hold back.” - Booklist (starred review)

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