Gritty, propulsive, and emotionally unrelenting.
A shadowed avenger and a city on the edge of ruin bring Brigham’s dystopian saga to a tense and deeply satisfying close. The city of Hebenon is on the verge of falling. Power grids fail, resources dwindle, and factions—brako, the Nau, and the Voices of Faith—battle for control. Amid the chaos, Rhyd Ballard has fully embraced his identity as Scarecrow, a relentless avenger shaped by loss and vengeance. When Jaron vanishes, his quest for Vanderwall turns into something far more personal—a battle that blurs justice and revenge. As innocence is lost and loyalties fracture, the myth of the Outside offers both fear and hope.
This is as much a story of survival as it is of transformation. Scarecrow is no conventional hero. His arc is steeped in obsession, his justice as destructive as it is righteous. There’s nothing simple about Vanderwall either. He’s also been shaped by violence, loss, and ambition. Their final clash is not just physical—it’s a collision of convictions, each hardened in the fire of a collapsing world. The secondary characters add layers of humanity, grounding the larger struggle in personal stakes.
Brigham’s prose carries the tension of a city on the brink of collapse—tight, evocative, and unflinching. She moves between breathless action and stripped-down moments of stillness, letting grief and grit live side by side. When the Outside is finally breached, it doesn’t offer comfort. It offers space—wide, indifferent, and honest. The survivors carry no triumph, only breath, scars, and the terrible freedom of what comes next.
The novel works as both a dystopian thriller and a character-driven drama. It asks difficult questions about what it means to lead, to protect, and to fight for justice in a world that no longer values it. Scarecrow’s journey is as much about confronting his own demons as it is about defeating Vanderwall, and in that duality lies the novel’s power. For readers who have followed the series, this final chapter offers a satisfying, emotionally charged payoff while leaving just enough ambiguity to keep the story alive in the imagination. Fans of N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy and R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War will discover plenty to savor in this series finale.
A deeply human story set against the collapse of a society built on control, fear, and fading myths.
Pub date May 30, 2025
ISBN 978-1737186984
Price $30.00 Paperback, $10.00 Kindle edition
