Lauren Hall is having nightmares. Or visions. She’s not really sure which. But they are terrifying her nights and occupying her daytime thoughts. Her mind is filled with vivid mental pictures of her beloved friends, close since their college days: bleeding, crying and in pain. Images of burning buildings, explosions, and people lying dead on the sidewalk haunt her days and nights. But even though these visions are pervasive, and real, she doesn’t really need to tell anyone. Right? 

Lauren and her friends --- Dan, Skylar, Tommy, Allison and Jack --- gather for a week together at the beach, with a full slate of memorable activities planned before Dan’s surprise proposal to Skylar. Each night, they gather on the beach for a campfire and a time of sharing memories, reminiscing about their college days and their lives. And each night, Lauren feels the pressure of her visions, but doesn’t want to disrupt Dan’s carefully planned engagement surprises for Skylar. So she waits.

"Thrasher tells a convincing and potent story, and you won’t be able to put down this startling, intriguing and moving book until you complete the last page."

Time passes. Soon, it’s time for Skylar and Dan’s wedding celebration. Allison is longing for an engagement ring from Jack; Tommy has a secret love for one of his dear friends; and Lauren’s nightmares have returned. She hasn’t shared them with anyone except her boyfriend Blake, and she is dreading joining her friends for the celebration. Now she’s even seeing the visions in the daytime. How is she going to get through this wedding?

It turns out that’s not really the question she should be asking. The wedding ceremony is completed, and the reception begins. But before Lauren has found the perfect moment to share her visions and her fears with her friends, the unthinkable happens. Lauren and a lot of other people are suddenly gone. And her five friends are left to navigate a harrowing world, where tragedies are hurtling down on every side. Lauren, Skylar’s parents, and thousands or millions of others are just…gone. What on earth is going on, and how are the five friends going to survive it?

“Then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to blow their mighty blasts.”  Revelation 8:6 (NLT)

Travis Thrasher’s latest book begins with this quote. We’re introduced to one person’s imaginings of what things might look like as the events of the Bible’s Book of Revelation unfold. We meet characters who know Christ, and others who do not. What will happen to them when the angels blow their trumpets? 

Dan, Skylar, Tommy, Jack and Allison experience shock, fear, grief and terror beyond their wildest imaginings. Earthquakes, hail and fire, and devastation rock the earth and those who seem to have survived thus far. Skylar is the first to figure out that these are not only events of a Biblical proportion; they are events right out of the Bible --- the real-life enactment of visions given to the apostle John and recorded in the Book of Revelation. The group finds other survivors nearby, but worse events are on their way. 

Yet there is still hope to be sought, and found, in the midst of this terrible crisis. Will Dan, Skylar, Tommy, Jack and Allison be destroyed by the events around them, or will they find and grasp this hope, and the One who holds it out to them?

THE REMAINING is a highly readable novelization of the film of the same name. What would happen if the end of the world came during a celebration of love that was attended by a couple’s dearest friends? Thrasher tells a convincing and potent story, and you won’t be able to put down this startling, intriguing and moving book until you complete the last page. Find a copy and read it now. You won’t regret it.