Omar El Akkad is uniquely experienced to write this dsytopian tale of America slowly destroyed by the same influences it has visited on the Middle East. Having reported on the war in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay prison, and the Arab Spring, he has seen first hand the effects of war on civilians, both physically and psychologically, the scars that visit and revisit families, until they become part of society and culture. Add to that the consequences of global warming set in motion through an economy and culture addicted to fossil fuel, and you have the milieu of the Second American Civil War, 2074-2095, and its tragic coda, the Reunification Virus.

Sarat Chesnut, her twin sister Dana, and older brother Simon live with their parents in the remaining part of Louisiana, on the encroaching waterfront. Ocean waters have engulfed both coasts, all of Florida, and a third of the southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. MAG (Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia) have seceded, becoming the Free Southern State (FSS), in protest of the Sustainable Future Act, a law prohibiting all use of fossil fuels. President Daniel Ki, supporter of this law, was assassinated by a suicide bomber from the FSS. As the guerrilla war and instability moves south, the family decides moving north is their only chance for survival. The father goes first, hoping to send for the family. Once the mother determines that he has been killed, she moves the family to Camp Patience, a refugee camp on the northern border.

Sarat comes under the influence of Albert Gaines, who through his careful tutelage, corrupts her curiosity with his version of southern history, framing the dismal and violent conditions of the camp as part of the north's ongoing and historic mistreatment of the south. He is training Sarat to become a terrorist, one of many human tools he has developed in his war against the north. Sarat meets Albert's friend Joe at this time, a figure who later takes advantage of a broken Sarat to strike a deadly blow against the newly reformed United States, an agent from the Middle East where a weak and crushed U.S. will strengthen their position in the world.

While Sarat will remind you of other female dystopian heroines, such as Katniss of The Hunger Games, here she is victimized, taken advantage of, emotionally manipulated to believe that the suffering and loss she has endured could be redeemed, only to suit the ends of others, and suffers the greatest losses of all as a result of actions taken under the mistaken belief that she will bring about justice. Everything is taken from Sarat, all in the mistaken belief that her violent acts are heroic self-sacrifices, worthy of a greater cause. Akkad truly has the insider's view of what motivates terrorists, the despair of refugees, the societal and cultural costs of war.

This is not a great novel, as the character development and plot progression is weak, when read on the story level. Read on the larger level of how easily these events could take place, the frightening realism of survival under these circumstances, and how quickly and readily precarious circumstances could lead to a spark that ignites decades of human suffering and destruction; this is where the novel is most effective. This story is one possible scenario, that shows the United States is not immune to nature or psychological realities, writ large. It urges one to look at headlines abroad with a less than comfortable, cheery remove. Yes, it could happen here.