Lunatic: The Lost Books - 5
by Ted Dekker & Kaci Hill
Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009, 304 pp., paperback.

Ted Dekker's popular Circle Series is accompanied by the youth fiction "Lost Books" series. Originally planned as a six-book series, it bogged down at four until Kaci Hill joined with Dekker to release the final two books a year after the middle two.

Book Five is called Lunatic. Book Four ended as our heroes secured all seven Books of History, saving earth. Unlike the original four books, this one takes place entirely in the future world two thousands years from now, a world of Forest Dwellers, the Horde and Middle Forest. Johnis, Silvie and Darsal are the main characters, returning after an absence of five years in that world. The mysterious Shaeda, pictured on the cover, is also a major player in the story.

The three friends return to find that the Horde has overrun Middle Forest. Thomas Hunter is missing, and albinos are being slaughtered. Will the friends overcome the odds, be crushed by the persecution, or be seduced by deception? The challenges are many, and a desperate plan Johnis concocts for survival carries grave risks. Not everything will be resolved until Elyon, so the books must be read as a pair. Young readers should enjoy the stories, although some of the violence is graphic enough that I'd recommend limiting the books to high school readers or unusually mature junior high readers.

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