By: David Oppegaard
Synopsis
The Despair has plagued the earth for five years. Most of the world’s population has inexplicably died by its own hand, and the few survivors struggle to remain alive. A mysterious, shadowy group called the Collectors has emerged, inevitably appearing to remove the bodies of the dead.
In the crumbling state of Florida, a man named Norman takes an unprecedented stand against the Collectors, propelling him on a journey across North America. It’s rumored tat a scientist in Seattle is working on a cure for the Despair, but in a world ruled by death, it won’t be easy for Norman to get there.
My Thoughts
This was a pretty interesting book. The premise was somewhat unique (at least to me). I liked the main character, Norman, and the secondary characters, Pops and Zero. They were fairly well fleshed out. The storyline was good, but needed to be fleshed out more as some scenes felt rushed, and it left me with quite a few questions. How did they come up with their plan to destroy the Source? How did they know what they needed to do? How did they know what would happen to Norman when he was collected? If they weren’t sure what was going to happen, that could have been stated as well and would have added to the tension. I also wish there had been an explanation for what the Source was and where it came from. Why did it need suicide victims? What was its purpose/goal? Why did the collectors walk into the ocean at the end? Why did Seattle get destroyed? What became of Zero? Overall, I enjoyed the book, but I think a bit more detail throughout would have really gotten the reader involved more and made it more interesting.