The second installment of the Circle Trilogy did not disappoint but managed to choke me even more than "Black" - the first book that everyone should read prior to experiencing "Red". It has been a long, long time since a book made me tear up and this roused up with emotions and abyssal feelings that only very skilled writers can exude from their reader. This is a fascinating installment that takes Thomas Hunter, the man who lives in our reality when awake and also in another world when he dreams at nigh, on the wildest ride of his life. This can only be described as a new form of allegory; characters who understand our world are reflected in the dream world which is engulfed in a battle of massive proportions, people are no longer standing for an idea, they are someone else in the other world and if they die then those consequences spill over and threaten everything that Thomas and his sister ever knew.America is in the hot seat with the release and spread of a deadly virus, and Thomas must use his dreams to find answers and ways to stop it before he is eradicated and he can dream no more. Those who oppose him want him dead and want his dreams to stop but others who love life have nothing left but the hope that he can save them - easier said than done, Ted Dekker likes to swing his heroes and foes as deep as his mind allows, and this is one hairy book, it takes a lot of sweat and guts to take this ride.In the dream world those who rejected Elyon's waters have turned to Desert Dwellers known as Scabs, dry and disease stricken nomads, their minds and eyes are ashen with sickness and visions of death and conquests, the worship Teeleh and the Shataiki and will stop at nothing until the remaining forests and their people are destroyed. In real life Thomas is on hot pursuit to find and rescue the one person who can stop the Raison Virus; the creator of the vaccine herself - Monique de Raison. Her role in the story is much deeper than the reader might think of and I actually guessed part of her secret, it felt amazing thought to live with the characters are see how they developed and how some changed for better and some for worse. Carlos and other mercenaries of death are on hot pursuit and the reader is in for a delicious treat of intrigue, some romance and countless twists and turns.In this book Ted Dekker writes an ultimate showdown between good and evil, and it's been done to the death in books and movies but this novel is simply astounding. I read it in two days and would have read it in one sitting if I wasn't sick with a bad cold, it was truly a book that I know will stay with me forever and I am simply dying to read the last installment "White". These books are so deep and moving they are impossible to describe in a review, instead they should be enjoyed like a fine meal, one that serves more than one purpose to feed, it enriches the user forever and I feel blessed to have taken this journey with Dekker and his friends and foes. So please enjoy and take away from the riches that make the heart beat faster and the head spin - these books read like nothing else and are extremely satisfying.- Kasia S.