“Niko’s eyes flashed to our faces, one by one.”

From Emmy Laybourne’s Monument 14: Savage Drift.

After facing life and death together, first in the Monument, Colorado superstore while the world fell apart, and then fighting to reach safety outside the contamination zone, the unusual group of teenagers (Dean, Niko, Jake, Astrid, Josie, and Brayden) and kids (Alex, Sahalia, Chloe, Batiste, Max, Ulysses, Caroline, and Henry) have seen enough horror to last a lifetime.  While most of the fourteen have made it to the relative safety of a refugee camp in Canada, Josie’s absence is most notably felt, especially by Niko.  However, when Niko finds out that Josie is alive and being held against her will, he decides to leave the refugee camp and go rescue her.  When Niko tells his friends, Astrid (who also wants to get away from camp because of everyone’s over-interest in her pregnancy) decides to go with him, and Dean and Jake refuse to let her go alone, so they join Niko as well.  Trapped because of her blood type and the reaction it causes whenever it interacts with the dangerous leak from a NORAD facility, Josie has given up all hope of freedom.  As Niko and the other race to find and rescue Josie before it is too late, each will have to face even more terror than they’ve already endured.

This final book in Laybourne’s thrilling post-apocalyptic trilogy is a full throttle ride from start to finish.  As with the previous two books, this story is so terrifying and thrilling because everything in the book seems so possible.  The reader’s familiarity with the characters at this point really helps to create higher stakes both as the story develops and comes to a close.  Savage Drift is a must-read for fans of the series or anyone looking for an exciting story.