Following the disastrous ending of The Devil’s Only Friend, John and Brooke are out hunting Withered on their own.

On top of John’s sociopathy in the previous four books, we now have Brooke with a supernatural cousin of multiple personality disorder as she has to deal with the fallout of ten thousand years of Nobody’s memories and suicides. It’s also interesting to watch John try to figure out how to deal with this, both as a source of information in his hunt against the Withered but also as Brooke’s friend.

On one hand, plotwise, it’s a really depressing book. John has basically no support structure left, either in terms of family and friends (other than Brooke/ Marci and they need all the help they can get) or in the terms of the resources he had with the FBI. They’re homeless and nearly penniless, hitchhiking across the country. It’s an interesting storyline, but certainly not an uplifting read.

Perhaps the most interesting twist in the entire story comes about because Brooke has the memories and personalities of all of the people Nobody killed over the years. That of course includes Marci. How in the world do you deal with your now dead girlfriend manifesting as a personality of your only living friend in the world? I feel like that could have been a bit more core part of the book, but it’s still done pretty well.

Overall, I still love the series. I look forward to the conclusion (so far?).