How does this series manage to keep getting better? I think in part it's Hill's full awareness of the story and how it's presented. In this volume he starts directly playing with the structure of the previous volumes, at times almost making fun of the stuff that's gone before, but not in a way that hurts the story. He takes previous events and jams a bunch of variations of them into a single chapter that completely blows out the world the Locke kids live in, while simultaneously progressing the story very fast without losing anything. The result is tense, and the final chapters of this volume are the absolute best so far. And holy hell does it end on a cliffhanger. I HAVE to know what happens next. And knowing I'm about to start volume 5 of 6 with a whole year to go before the next volume is released is a little too much for me to handle. I'll just have to manage.