Review: Dustborn by Erin Bowman

This was a book I needed the moment I heard about it. As I am a huge fan of Fury Road. And a bigger fan of Erin and her books. I knew this new one by her would be amazing. So I could not help but request it the moment that I could. And very thrilled that I got accepted to read it early. Very much worth it. Giving it four stars.

Pretty much perfect to me. The writing was so stunning. Had no problems at all with connecting with the characters and the story. The world building was amazing. I loved the setting so much. It was awful and depressing and I loved every moment of it, haha. This book was filled with hope while they all lived in a bad place.

And I enjoyed reading every moment of this book. It takes place in a world like ours, set far in the future. The place in this book is all desert. Barely any water left to find. No green anywhere they know of. This is the world Delta lives in. And oh, how I loved it. It was a horrible life. A life I would not have survived living in. But Delta and her pack did. She lives with about fourteen others. Her mother and sister. They are doing their best to stay alive. While hearing stories about other people getting raided and killed. Hoping it will never happen to them. Knowing they will have to move from their homes soon, as their water is almost gone. Their home is in the desert. And though it was a very hard life most of the time, it was their life, and they were as happy as they could.

For a while. Until another short desert storm arrived, and her sister got into labor. Where things went wrong and Delta had to travel with her to get help when the storm passed. She wants her sister saved more than anything. It is a days journey of walking to find what passes for a doctor in their world. Delta makes it there with her sister. But her sister dies and her baby lives. Delta wants nothing to do with this baby. Yet she takes it with her, to bring to her mother. But when she arrives back home, no one is there.

Which is what starts this journey. Delta and this tiny newborn journey to try finding her mother and their pack. To get them back from this general person, whom she had never heard of before. It is a hard and difficult journey. And so much happens in this book. Gosh. I shall not write much more about it. Just a few things. It was such an interesting and exciting book to read. So great reading about the desert and how much Delta had to travel through it. How she was always thirsty. I could never have lived like this. Gosh.

There is so much going on in this book. I loved how much we got to know Delta. How she has a secret brand on her back, which her pack put on her when she was a child. How this is included in this book. How they are searching for a better place to live. How that search ends. Sigh. This book was awesome. And I liked it so very much. There is also a boy. Asher. And he and Delta shares a past. They were best friends until they turned nine. When Asher and half the pack stayed behind while the rest moved away.

I loved reading about Delta and Asher. I loved learning more about their past. When they meet again in this book it was not a good first meeting. Ha. And I loved it very much. They have some issues to work through. And I liked that very much. There is some small romance too. And it was so very sweet. Sigh. There is a villain in this book. I wish there had been more about him, as he was very in the background. Yet so interesting too. Not sharing much more about this. You all need to read it. It was very good. Eee.

I'm giving it four stars, because even though I loved it, I was still hoping for a little bit more. A little darker. A bit happier conclusion. A bigger battle at the end. Yet this was such a stunning book and I loved every moment of it, despite wishing for more at certain times. Because this book was also enough. Characters were awesome. And I very much enjoyed reading about this world. I just wanted even more of it all, haha. I wanted to feel more connected to the other characters. I only really cared about Delta and Asher. Oops.

But even so. Dustborn was everything I wanted it to be. Fully exciting with characters I adored. Such a stunning yet horrible world. It was a book filled with hope for a future that seemed lost. There were some awesome twists along the way and I enjoyed them very much. Made me a little sad too, haha, as these twists were rude. But so well written. So glad I read this lovely book. Huge thank you to HMH Books for Young Readers for accepting my request to read it early via Edelweiss. You all need this great book too.

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