John is down to the last few Withered and he’s got a lead. One thing leads to another and he ends up in another small midwestern town, working at a mortuary. Sound familiar? It’s a nice blend of old and new and works well as a conclusion for the series.

Eventually, the FBI show up and help to wrap up that storyline through the previous three books. We meet a handful of new Withered (including some surprising new powers) and get a bit more backstory. It doesn’t explain as much as I still want to know, but it’s more at least.

The ending and the whole concept of the last Withered were… interesting. I’m impressed that Wells managed to not only make me care about a teenage sociopath, but also about not one but two arguably evil ten thousand year old immortals. That’s something.

On the other hand, the entire series is about a teenage sociopath that struggles to connect with other people. And now suddenly he’s trying to convince the FBI _not_ to kill the last Withered? And we get a happy ending? That's... kind of strange. It doesn’t really take away from the series, but it does feel a bit out of place.

If you’ve read this far, you’re going to read this book. Overall, it’s a solid end to a solid series.

Things that I didn’t like about this book / the series in general:

- We never did find out anything more about the woman in the wall back in book #3. Guess we never will.

- So what happens to Brooke? We get a bit of off screen closure, but I want to know more about that. Perhaps a spin off series some day?

- How did the Withered come to be in the first place? I guess it seems more magical this way and you can’t be disappointed with some magical maguffin, but I still want to know more.

- Why are all of the Withered in the US? Given that they’re ten thousand years old and (theoretically) originally from the Middle East, wouldn’t one expect to find at least a few around the world?