Lips flatlined. Lips flatlined. Lips flatlined. Lips flatlined. Lips flatlined. Lips flatlined. Lips flatlined. Lips flatlined. Lips flatlined. Lips flatlined. Lips flatlined. Lips flatlined. Lips flatlined….. See how annoying that is, Misters Russell & Holden? Not to mention it’s a stupid, non-sensical description of someone’s lips. Why in the world would you think it’s ok to use the phrase once, let alone 50 times over the course of the series?? Stop, for the love of God! Made me want to stick forks in my ears every time by the end.
Anyway, got that out of my system! Lordy!
Ok, the compound’s not featured much in this book, which makes you wonder why it’s so important by the end. The focus is on two towns — one has been taken over overnight by a couple psychopaths with everyone following along because why not, and the other is the supposed good guys town whose mayor is related to old Farmer Frank in the compound, though they don’t get along. Drama!
One of the psychos is Gary, former resident of the compound and best friend of Abram. The guy has nine lives. Spends the entire book strong-manning, murdering, and basically being the psycho muscle for the main REAL psychopath, Palmer (aka Black), who is the new walk-on leader of the bad town after murdering the original beloved leader, who also seemed to have no qualms killing folks in his neighboring towns if they didn’t do what he wanted. The reader patiently waits the entire book for their come-uppance.
Here’s perhaps the biggest writer’s no-no of the series (SPOILERS AHEAD, if you care)…… If you build up these two REALLY bad guys all series, and point us toward an ultimate showdown with the good guys (i.e. Abram & Nick), then you have to give the readers a satisfyingly grand finale showdown! However, in a complete thud plop of writing prowess, main psycho Black dies in a confusing train accident (granted grotesquely) with barely anyone noticing or caring. And Gary just dies (I guess?) when his SUV drives into a bottomless puddle of radioactive waste? We’re not even “shown” him dying. Did I miss a final chapter from his perspective? I guess we’re supposed to assume it was the same death as Black, melting off into the sludge. Is there a Book 4? Will he use one of his nine lives (again) to come back and seek revenge on the compound? Hopefully not. Just let this series melt off into its own radioactive sludge.
I should also mention that I didn’t care for the narrator. He didn’t distinguish between the voices enough, so it was very confusing at times as to who was talking or thinking, when I cared enough.