Read any of the other reviews I've written about author Jonathan Maberry's body of work and you'll see I have an affinity for his unique brand of intriguing characters that find themselves in extreme circumstances that smack of the real or at least feasible world. He spends time crafting something that stays with you after you turn the Kindle off or close the cover on the last page - he's done it again in this e-book mini set in the YA world of Benny Imura (Rot & Ruin / Dust & Decay / the forthcoming Flesh & Bone). In this story, we spend time with Riot...a girl we're told we will meet in Flesh & Blood...who has an intriguing story behind why she's walking The Ruin --- what the survivors of the Apocalypse called the remnants of the former US. Sister Margaret to some, Maggie to others, and now Riot to the new-found friends she meets in the wastes, the girl is vibrant and real and Maberry works his usual magic with her. I learned a lot about her character in those 80 or so pages of the book - a great self-contained story and a good character study - and yet I couldn't wait to learn more. For someone who's mastered the telling of a chilling horror story (Pine Deep trilogy), a fast-paced tech thriller (the Ledger series), and horror-action (Dead of Night), amongst others, Maberry deftly presents a young-adult world accessible to both the target YA audience and those of us on the upper-end of the adult demo, with young characters that spring off the page and edge-of-the-seat pacing. The upshot here is that even if you have never set foot in Maberry's Ruin-universe before, the tale stands on its own, but you pick up lots of color and background for areas hinted at in the previous books. This e-book is a must-buy for fans and newcomers alike.