This book is fast paced and attention grabbing. I personally found the book to be a bit graphic for my taste, but as that is a personal preference, it doesn't take away from the quality of the writing and the storyline. Kent Wascom has a talent for description and story telling. The book is exciting, and one that you don't want to put down. Well done.

This was a rowdy, compelling near-future history that centers more on the perspective of those with the power to change it than the politicians normally centered in these stories. This book is a bit on the graphic side when it comes to gore and sexual assault but it doesn't detract from the storytelling or message. I would highly recommend.

I do not deny the author's enormous talent that is radiant in this book, but for me, it was too violent. Personal taste here, as for others it might be a great read.

The novel begins and ends in a blood bath of violence, and random violence is scattered in the pages between. There is also enough sexual violence--not graphic, mind you, more like references to it in passing--to be an issue for some.

Still, it's a riveting, fast paced, heavy on action story set in the barely-future (2026) about a 13-year-old boy, Rally, who is being rescued for the second time. The first time he was saved in a family massacre as an infant. The time that dominates this book he is rescued from a deranged, cruel, and violent family by Rodney (another survivor of the family massacre), who is either his uncle, cousin, or father. (Not sure if I was just confused by the many convoluted family entanglements or if it was meant to be confusing as to the true relationship). Regardless of blood connections, Rodney acts like a father to Rally, the youth who is the narrator and center of the story. They are--to say the least--a nonconventional family unit, caught up in a violent attempt to create a new state--West Florida--which triggers a kind of civil war between the warring factions. Cynical look at politics (how else could one look at politics these days?) and bitter, cynical look at religion, culture, and the future make this a dark book. But the "what happens next?" qualities are outstanding, as are the characterizations and the world-building.

It is a brutal, intense novel with sprinklings of magical realism and harsh views of the future. It's hard to read, but harder to put down. Totally compulsively page-turner quality to this tale.