In an America on the edge of extinction, Thomas La Stella serves as a Deportation Force officer. Tom is old enough to remember America before Dayton Day, the attack that finally brought the country to its knees, and the earth towards its death. Still fighting for hope, Tom clings to his pregnant wife, Riley, and begrudgingly serves a government on the brink of revolution. When the president of the country goes missing, a new, radical force rises from within and threatens every hope Tom has for a better future. In Failed States by Justin O'Donnell, we experience a grim, fast-paced speculative thriller in the vein of Cormac McCarthy's The Road . It is a tale that deals with political, religious, and violent themes ranging from cannibalism to abortion, while calling into question the fundamental clash between security and liberty.