Blood and Water

By: Briana Morgan

Narrated by: Tim McKiernan

Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Seventeen-year-old Jay Harris lives in a world struck down by a deadly virus. His parents are dead, along with half the planet. When Jay's sister Maia falls ill, he must find a cure before he loses her, too. But unbeknownst to Maia, Jay is also sick...and he's running out of time to save them both.

When Jay's friends tell him there might be a cure for him in France, he must decide whether to pursue it. The journey will be difficult and dangerous, especially in his weakened state, but with little time left - for himself and for Maia - it soon becomes clear there's no other choice.

Jay leaves the relative comfort of London to search for help, knowing he may never find it. Along the way, he experiences the effects of disaster on the bonds of friendship and fluctuating notions of family. These teens, decimated by a dangerous plague, face stark choices in their search for help, not knowing if their efforts will end in loss and pain. Will Jay and Maia find a cure before the virus takes them?

©2017 Briana Morgan (P)2017 Briana Morgan

It's a shame.

The story struggles to be immersive and fails to provide on nearly all fronts, despite an upper tier performance by Tim McKiernan.

Baskerville Book Reviews

This is a DNF from me for several reasons. The first is the insufferable narrator. He reads every single sentence as if it’s the end of a paragraph, so it leads to a bunch of awkward pauses between each sentence that makes the dialogue sound stilted and unnatural.

The second is the plague setting feels a little too real in a post-plague world. While I consider that a minor issue, the biggest issue is the characters. They’re not interesting at all. I’ve been listening to this for a few days. By that I mean I began this story a few days ago and have found any excuse to pause it constantly. I haven’t enjoyed a single moment of this story. The protagonist is supposed to be nearly 18 years old but cums off as a 14-year-old. I often find this is the issue with young characters. They’re either far too childish or mature for their supposed age.

Normally, I’d listen to a 5-hour audiobook at 2.55x speed in a single sitting, write my review, and be done. This story just isn’t interesting or compelling. I found myself dreading having to listen to it, realizing that I had nothing to say about it for the reasons mentioned above.

Final note, to anybody wondering how I didn’t know this was a plague story; I read based on genre. I prefer to go into a book without reading the summary as I find I have better experiences when I go in without expectations. Summaries are also often misleading or filled with spoilers that take away from the big moments as well.

Normally, when a book is not for me, I try to give a suggestion for who I think might enjoy it but I really have nothing. I’m 16/23 chapters in and so little has happened and even less of note, I couldn’t recommend this story to anybody.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.

what if the world had died all around you

Hmm this story kind of irked me in a wrong direction… first the main character, he is 17 years old but he sounds much more mature than he was supposed to be, and more brainy if that makes sense, hmm actually he sounds older than his older sister, what he sounds his age is in his eagerness to have a romantic partner, second, in the UK even if he is 17 years old, if someone buy him a beer, a glass of wine or cider, he can drink, during a meal, he just cant go and buy it for himself, but he can drink (just google UK rules for minor age drinks) so, if a friend is 18/19 years old he can buy drinks for everyone in a pub… (yeah drinking rules are different all over the world).

Other thing that irked me was his best friend saying that “of all people he wouldn't mind his best friend having a thing for his girlfriend” (not actual quote but close enough) do you really think people would act this way? Even when facing death? Oh my gosh…

Hmm maybe this audiobook wasn't for me, and I regret that, is not that it was bad written, it was nice enough, just wasn't for me.

I got a free Audiobook copy from StoryOrigin and this is my honest opinion.

Not really my cup of tea

I received a copy of this audiobook from Story Origins. The story is about a group of friends from London in a world decimated by an incurable virus. They head to France, walking the Chunnel, to find a doctor they heard might have a cure. This is a distance of about 100 miles. Could someone who is ill make it this far? Make it they did, but just barely and they found the doctor. The rest of the book deals with their relationships to each other and to the doctor and their thoughts about death and dying. Not an uplifting book but an interesting read even though this is not my normal genre nor age level. It might be a bit intense for younger teens. The narrator did a decent job, but he didn't show much emotion. Maybe this added to the despair.

Great Dystopian Book

3.5 ⭐️’s for this book. I had the privilege of getting an ARC copy of Blood and Water. Blood and Water is a teen dystopian thriller. London has been overrun by the deadly Ebola 2 virus, which has killed millions of people including their parents. Jay and his sister Maya are both infected. With the help of their friends Sean and Melanie, they leave London for France in search of a cure. They come across a doctor named Fleur who is working on a cure. She starts treating Jay and Maya, but unbeknownst to Jay - he’s the only one getting treatment. Maya is just getting a placebo. All in all, it was a very good book, the characters evolved throughout but I wish there would have been more world-building so I could imagine what the world would be like in that situation. It’s definitely worth a read so make sure to pick it up! ⁣