Copyright: 2002
In a world where families can only have two children, Luke Garner struggle to live like an ordinary child, despite his being illegal. Luke is an illegal third child, living silently and secretly. The only people who know about him are his parents and older brothers. He’s never been off of his property. Never been to school, never had a friend. But what Luke does not know: there are others like him.
When the woods behind Luke’s farmhouse are deconstructed, Luke is forced to stay indoors at all times. Eventually, he can’t look out a window, eat breakfast with his family, or even leave his room in the attic, due to the worry of people working outside seeing him.
One day, though, Luke discovers vents in the roof of his attic room, where he can see out. During his time inside, Luke can see the houses that replaced his woods, and in a few months, he can watch the new neighbors going about their daily business. Peculiarly, when all of the neighbors are at work or school, Luke spots a light left on in one of the rooms of the houses, and shortly after that, the blinds fluttering. Assuming that there is another third child in the house, Luke plots for weeks in his room how and when to escape his house for the first time in months to meet them.
The day Luke manages to escape, he meets Jen, the other third child, who teaches him about Shadow children, and why they are illegal. Jen and Luke become fast friends, and Jen shares her plans with Luke about the Rally, a scheme to stand up to the Government and free all third children.
When the rally fails, Luke narrowly escapes the Population Police with his life, and with the help of Jen’s father, without his name.
When I first picked up this novel, I never expected it to be so good! Usually, I find that the first novel in a sequence is always the slowest, and the author takes their time to introduce all of the main characters and the major conflict or plot. Fortunately, this rule did not apply to Among the Hidden! Every chapter kept me hooked. There was really no part in the novel that dragged on, and each sentence, I wanted to read more. It was always a bother to put the book down, or even to finish a chapter. I think the author chose a very interesting and possibly realistic view of the future, and gave the readers a good picture of this conflict’s consequences, if it were one day to happen. When the novel narrated from Luke’s point of view, it really made me put myself in Luke’s ‘shoes’, because I could actually imagine what it felt like to be cooped up inside for months, and finally breathe fresh air; that is how well the author described things. I would recommend this novel to almost anybody, or whoever is interested in reading a gripping novel that they can’t put down. I look forward to reading the rest of the series, and hopefully the novels following Among the Hidden are as good as itself.
To Read Not to Read
I really want to finish this series but I can't seem to catch on to the book and stay on the book.
ReplyDelete