Starred Review In an unusually dark and brutal outing, the creator of the Septimus Heap and Araminta Spookie series sets a persecuted family and friends me of whom have been genetically altered into big flying insects disparagingly known as Roaches a dismal dystopian town called Hope that has huddled under a force field since a contagion swept Earth generations before. Nearly all the major characters take narrator or point-of-view turns, but Maximillian, a young bug damaged in both body and spirit after being brought up by a toxic mother sets the mood: "Roach and Wingless alike, we are all prisoners of Hope." Sage exploits both sides of this double entendre by pulling out an improbably happy ending from a tale in which blood, vomit, poisons, cruelty both physical and psychological, wanton destruction, terror, torture, a parental rift that has deepened into psychotic hatred (on one side, anyway), and a barely averted mass killing of children all feature. Shaken readers, at least those of an analytical bent, will appreciate the author's dexterity, as well as the way she uses mistaken, misunderstood, or misconstrued incidents as an ongoing motif. On a deeper, less technical level, watching Maximillian escape the influence of his demonic mother to rediscover loving connections with a long sundered and unusually diverse four- and six- (or in his case, five-) limbed circle give the tale a sweet aftertaste.