Published by the brilliant Sourcebooks Fire on Oct 7th – and to celebrate, it’s going on tour . . . virtually!

That means a whole lot of blogging, a whole lot of Q&A, and a whole lot of thoughts about why I wrote this story: the themes in the book, the characters (particularly Ruby!), the mind-melting research, what I like to read, how I write. There’ll even be a little bit of advice from a début author (me!) for even newer writers – or anyone who’d like to write . . . er, and a response to a tricky question about cupcakes. I’m still thinking about that.

But to kick it all off . . . H2O had the most wonderful review from The Horn Book Magazine:

“Of course Ruby Morris heard about the asteroid that almost collided with Earth: “We’d seen the stuff about it on the Internet,” Ruby says, “and honestly, it was boring.” But years later, while Ruby is lounging in a hot tub with her crush, dust from that boring asteroid bonds with the atmosphere, infecting water molecules with an alien virus that kills humans on contact. Ruby escapes the first deadly storm by the skin of her teeth, but soon afterward she is alone and thirsty, stranded in a grisly suburban landscape littered with the bodies of her friends and neighbors. Bergin presents Ruby’s story as a firsthand document of life after widespread disaster. The diary-style narration emphasizes Ruby’s distinctly teenage response to society’s end—she rescues too many abandoned pets, loots her favorite boutiques without shame, and holds tightly to the unlikely hope that her father is still alive—and her strong, spontaneous voice lends a touch of dark comedy to the post-apocalyptic doom and gloom. The challenges Ruby faces on the road to locate her father are significant, but watching Ruby draw strength from her ability to tell her own story is as inspiring as it is harrowing.”