In this post apocalyptic novel every day is a struggle for survival. Water is no longer safe to drink, food is scarce, the rain is poison like acid, and the sun's rays can kill. This is the world that 15-year-old Esther lives in. This is the only world she has ever know. Kids and teenagers now make up civilization, if you can call it that. Practically all are illiterate, with the exception of a very few. Esther can read a little. Her older sister Sarah, who is 17 and reads very well, taught her. Unfortunately, it isn't a skill that is regarded as necessary in the world anymore. Children are partnered (what we would considered married), by the time they are 15 at the oldest. Very few are able to conceive, and for those that do, only 1 out of every 5 babies manage to survive. Then they have the issues of the sickness, and if someone gets that, they are immediately shunned and sent out to die. There are also the Variants to deal with, and Esther's best friend Skar just happens to be one. Variants are hermaphroditic beings that decide their sex at the age of 10. They are also partnered after that. Though they look nothing like the humans, they talk, have feelings, etc. and really, inside aren't that different. Unfortunately, the humans want nothing to do with the Variants, and the Variants want nothing to do with the humans, except for Skar and Esther that is. In fact, the Variants have been attacking the town of Prin where Esther and the other humans live and work, gleaning, searching for anything left of use to trade for water and food, which is kept at "The Source," a large complex run by another boy Levi and his soldiers. Sarah taught Levi to read when he was younger, and he has used that along with his natural abilities to become a leader, and can be a very manipulative one at that. When a strange new boy comes into town one day, everything changes. Caleb, who knows how to fight the variants, is recruited after saving one of the townspeople in the hopes of teaching them what he knows about fighting. Caleb is on his own quest though, determined to find the cause of his family's death, and little does he know many answers lie within the boundaries of Prin. One thing he did not expect to find in Prin was love, which he finds with Esther, something she wasn't looking for either, but when troubles escalates and threats and danger increase, will Esther, Caleb and the townspeople of Prin be able to survive?Wasteland is a dystopian novel that has some interesting premises. I enjoyed the beginning of the book and the friendship that Esther and Skar shared, and I did like Esther's character. Esther was more interested in having fun than working, and most of the time she did just that. I enjoyed Caleb's character also. The other townspeople were not very impressive though, and the parts of the story where Esther had dealings with them tended to be a little slow for my taste. I would have liked to have seen a little more time spent on the relationship between Esther and Caleb. One day they meet and then they are partnering before you know it, which seemed a little too rushed, missing the opportunity for some great character building, which I think would enable the reader to connect with the hero and heroine on a deeper level. I would have liked to know more about how the world got into the shape it was in also. Wasteland did have it's exciting and surprising moments to, and the ending felt satisfying. I wasn't overly impressed with this book, but it wasn't awful either, and if you are a fan of dystopia then you may want to check this out.