written by James Patterson
illustrated by NaRae Lee

What if you woke up one day to find that everything you’ve experienced over the last several months was all a dream? Well, that’s exactly what has happened to nearly the whole of the Flock. Right when Max’s anxieties were getting to be their worst, what with an army of mechanical Erasers, Fang wanting to let the world be destroyed, Angel’s betrayal, etc. Well, at least they spared her such a major headache.
 
Save for Angel, Max and all the others have been in an artificial dreamscape, created by --- you guessed it --- Jeb, Anne and a man Max and Nudge had recently learned of in their research-within-a-dream, Roland Ter Bortsh. Itex has been experimenting on them to see if they would be of any use in the “new world” they intend to create. How would they create a new world, you ask? By killing at least half of the world’s population!
 
Ari and Max share a couple of times together as the Flock are awaiting their execution, as Itex has no intention of keeping “useless beings” alive, having served their purpose as test subjects. He informs her of the impending fate Ter Bortsh is planning for humanity, as well as the fact that all of them have a built-in expiration date --- the only reason he is still alive is that his time is near, so they won’t waste the resources killing him. The Flock, however, is slated for execution, and almost nothing can stop it.
 
Max, being who she is, will never give up when the lives of her family are at stake. The question is, then, is there anything she CAN do in this situation?
 
James Patterson’s fifth installment of his brilliant fantasy series leaves off at a critical, pivotal point in the story’s plot. The character design is charming, but still provokes negative emotions when dealing with the evil scientists out to destroy most of humanity.

-- David Gromer

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