Among the Hidden...when I first saw this title, several questions came to mind. Who is being hidden and why? Are they voluntarily hiding or were they forced into it? Why would people be hiding? I thought of many possible reasons why people hide and I kept coming back to one thing - FEAR. Sure enough, Luke is being hidden by his family due to fear that the government will find out that he exists and take him away or worse...get rid of him and punish his whole family. To me, this is a futuristic society where the population needs to be controlled. Families cannot have more than two children or they are jeopardizing the entire society. Sound crazy? It's not. There are many governments across the globe who exercise their own forms of population control. Do a little research and find out more...
Anyway, throughout the story, many questions kept arising while I was reading. What was it like for Luke to not be able to go outside? (I thought this as I was sitting on my patio enjoying a beautiful summer day.) What was it like to not have a friend to play with? to talk with? to confide in? to goof around with? All of these things set the stage for me, and it was easy to sympathize with him. I also wondered something that is from my history background. How much of what a government tells us is really true? In this story, Luke's parents believe everything that the government says. However, Jen's family is way more lenient. Can the government really track them? Does our own government track us? There are a lot of parallels with this story and our society today.
This was a great novel and I think most of you will really enjoy it. It is suspenseful and has several twists and turns. I like books that are not predictable. The great thing is, if you really enjoy this, there are several more, as it is the first of many in a series.
I hope this was helpful and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did!!
Happy Reading!!
Mrs. Fusaro :)
