Dry

Alyssa Morrow is a 16-year-old junior in high school, the older sister to Garrett, and a neighbor and schoolmate of Kelton. A point-of-view character and one of the main protagonists of Dry, she’s a romantic interest of both Kelton and Henry. Although her family isn’t as prepared for the Tap-Out as Kelton’s, Alyssa is smart and resourceful. Jacqui notices this shortly after first meeting Alyssa, thinking, “[S]he’s shrewd. Which means she could be a problem” (133).

Because of her intelligence, Alyssa initially poses a risk to Jacqui. However, Alyssa’s personality is far less selfish and self-interested than Jacqui realizes. Alyssa’s first impulse for much of the novel is to help others, especially those less fortunate than herself. When the group of kids leaves an evacuation center, Alyssa can’t help those still stuck there. Kelton thinks:

For a girl like her, whose first instinct is always to fix a situation, the “nothing at all” choice isn’t easy. It’s painful. But after everything that’s happened, she realizes that her and Garrett’s survival requires the kind of aggressive hardness she usually reserves for the soccer field (266-267).

In the world of the Tap-Out, where danger and dehydration lurk around every corner, Alyssa must evolve her thinking to protect her brother and survive.