I was fascinated by this story. Eric Thomas tackles current issues and spins them in a way that I could too easily see playing out for real. While the basics are routed in a political environment, I found the story more about the sociological and psychological aspects of group behavior. Through the characters and the plot, we explore how fringe groups turn into cult movements, and how, under the right conditions, people will blindly follow a leader. We see the best in people, when they work together toward a common goal, and the worst in people, when they use their power for personal gain.

The plot moves quickly and, in parts, contains gruesome detail. I'm not squeamish, but some of the scenes made me cringe. Still, they worked within the frame of the story and weren't added simply for the fear factor.

There is no standout main character, which is normally a problem for me. However, the approach works here, as the story belongs to an entire community.

I badly wanted to give this book 5 stars. It is truly memorable and moving. But I had some problems along the way that detracted from the experience. First, this one needs some good editing. The punctuation was often missing or placed wrong, sentence structure was sometimes off, and other minor details that, combined, interrupted the flow of the story for me. The other thing is I wanted more from Max. I needed to see how he got to where he was and what drove his behavior.

Despite these minor issues, I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an unforgettable story. ( )

The story revolves around an outbreak of the ebola virus that is exploited by a drug company, and much of the US population believes there is or will be an apidemic. This drug company has a vaccine that will cure the infected and inoculate the healthy, but it is so expensive that only the wealthy can afford it, at $60,000 per dose. Max, and the Citizens use the people's fear that they will be unable to afford the vaccine, and so will die just for the unfortunate reason of being poor, to recruit people from all walks of life to join their group and steal the drug and give it away for free. I don't want to give away too much of the story. But, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is squeamish. It gets pretty gruesome as the book advances.
I enjoyed the book. It kept me turning pages from the beginning and it was very difficult to put down. The story was interesting, and it felt like something that could actually happen. It had plot twists that made me say outloud "Oh My God", and my physical reactions while reading the book intrigued my husband enough to ask about what was going on. As I described it to him he also thought he would enjoy the book. I think he would enjoy it even more than I did, because the gruesome parts wouldn't bother him. I did have to skip over a little bit of the detailed violence. Just to tell me it happened would have been enough knowledge for me, the descriptive bloody detail was too much. But that will suit others very well, I am sure.
In my opinion, this could be a 5 star book with a more thorough editing.
I was given this book for free in exchange for a review. ( )