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The best kind of fiction can make its created world relevant to the reader and make the setting tangible to the visual imagery of the audience. Sometimes, however, you find a perfect storm. The general themes of this narrative make it all the more real. It is filled with characters experiencing all the global uncertainty that so many have to reckon with in today's world.
The Rickter Plague has consumed the world. It has destroyed any and all manners of civilization. All social norms from money to public safety are things of the past. Madman Stan Rickter is building himself an empire and looks to destroy anyone who challenges his vision. Maria Kaylor, a young kid forced to mature with lightning speed, is humanity's last hope as she becomes the key to the resistance. Those that are not dead are isolated and leaderless. It is a hard and terrifying existence controlled by small groupings of extremists, who are clinging to power at the expense of humanity's remaining elements. Everyone is fixated on the hopes of a miracle serum, while those that are naturally immune are left to pick up the pieces.
Themes of nurture over nature are delicately explored in this novel. The action is as fluid as the book's perilous times demand. Nothing is ever over the top, and all the elements add to the elevated nature of the story. Good fiction should be wonderful to read. Great fiction like this has the power to comfort. Diffley's is a compelling, timely tale told in the best way possible.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review