Philbrick has written an imaginative, disturbing story about a bleak and dangerous future world. A teenage boy called Spaz, because of his epilepsy, undergoes a journey to find his adoptive sister, Bean. Spaz still has his memory because he cannot take the drug-like mindprobes that turn the others into zombies. Ryter, an old man, accompanies Spaz on his adventure because he is one of the few people who still remembers and values books. Lanya, a female "proov" (genetically improved human), takes the group to Eden, an idyllic proov community that is different from the dangerous toxic Urbs where "normals" live. When Ryter is killed by a mob, Spaz must tell his story in "the last book in the universe."--Ministry of Education website.

English language arts grade 9 (2009).