First chapter review of ‘After the Green Withered’ by Kristin Ward

We’ve all heard the stories of how it began, but no one really knows the truth because no one ever owned up and took the blame. Anyone who was there when it all started is long dead and all that remains is their awful legacy. All I know that is real, true, is that the world wasn’t always like this. It used to be green.

So begins the prologue of After the Green Withered, a YA novel set in a future United States where a devastating drought has completely changed the way people live. The author, Kristin Ward, has carefully considered the impact of water scarcity on ecology, politics, human geography and the daily existence of individuals like seventeen-year-old Enora Byrnes. She lives in the town of Prineville with her world-weary parents, who work in the local textile mill. The climate is hot and dry. Every day is a parched struggle, particularly Tuesdays, when there is no water at all.

This novel has some features of a dystopia. For example, the government can track people via microchips, a one-child policy is in force, food thieves are executed and no one is allowed to leave the town – but then no one would want to leave the town, as it’s even worse outside. Water is the currency, the most valuable substance. Water and many other things are controlled by the sinister-sounding Drought Mitigation Company. All these are negative outcomes of the failures of previous generations (that is, us) to safeguard the Earth’s natural resources. Enora describes the difficulties of her life as the ‘inheritance’ from us. Clearly this novel is a warning. To avoid eco-disaster, we need to further invest in renewable and sustainable energy sources as the global population expands, or else we’ll be in deep trouble when the non-renewable sources run out.

After the Green Withered was published independently last year and is available to buy on Amazon. This post is part of a blog tour organised by The Write Reads. This tour is huge! Running from April 1st – 10th. This is day 4 of the tour…

About the author

Kristin Ward has loved writing since middle school but took thirty years to do something serious about it. The result is her Best Indie Book Award-winning novel, After the Green Withered, followed by the sequel, Burden of Truth. She lives in a small town in Connecticut with her husband, three sons, and many furry and feathered friends. A SciFi geek to the core, she is fuelled by dark chocolate and coffee and can be heard quoting eighties movies on a regular basis.