In a dystopian near future a new pandemic begins to spread in the U.S. Only this time it affect only the young and it spreads through a meme on social media causing young people to despair and give up on living. Soon suicide rates among young people are soaring. Parents, schools, state and local governments and even Congress try everything to stop its spread but to no avail. 

In the midst of this chaos a young man named Simon Oliver decides to leave the facility in Chicago where he was recovering from his sister’s death. He joins with a man named the Prophet and a woman named Louise who are on a mission to find The Wizard, someone Louise thinks has the answers they are looking for and who just might be able to save the human race before it is too late.

Hawley who wrote the best selling Before the Fall, and the TV series Fargo, has written a powerful novel that is perceptive, imaginative and sweeping in scope. With a keen understanding he grasps the existential nature of our current condition As one of his characters says:

“I figured it out,” he repeats. “It’s grief. The five stages of death, right? Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance, but we’re all trapped in the first two stages. The whole country, or maybe the Earth. We’re in denial and we’re pissed, because something we love is dead, except, for half the country, what they’re grieving is the past they think they’ve lost, and the other half is mourning the progress they thought they’d made, but everyone feels the same way. Like someone they love is dead. And I get it. I’m grieving too.”

Prescient and insightful, this is one book that we need to pay attention to as our country and world seems to be entering even more perilous times.

Brenda’s Rating: **** (4 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Marian, Keith, Ken and Sharon.

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.