Among the Betrayed

Couldn't put it down! Haddix moves her lens to Nina from the last book and into the Population Police's prison. Effectively explores issues of trust and betrayal in a way any reader can understand, and even makes the reader question the validity of circumstantial evidence. Highly recommended to middle school students who have read the first two.

This one annoyed me. I hated how they took the attention away from the "star" and completely refocused the saga, but by the end of the series, I was ok with that. It showcased how one person rarely makes a difference and true change is a collaborative effort without any kind of Christ-like savior.

(see Book 1) Nina as protagonist, who has to decide if saving herself is more important than saving Matthias and his 2 younger friends. This may be the darkest of the books (despite the events later) because of the direct presentation of physical and psychological torture (at a junior level, nothing they can't handle).

Among the Betrayed is the best book in this series so far. I loved the different perspective, but I really didn't like the main character. I thought Nina was a bit too whiny and spoiled. I'm sure she was created that way to show how much all the situations in this book changed her for the better, but it got a little overbearing sometimes. She herself was a third child, and she was having a tough time choosing whether or not to help the other third-children in the jail. I just thought it'd be like second nature for her to help children in the same situation as her.

I also believed the whole "trial" thing Jen's dad did to Nina was a bit much. He made a twelve-year old girl do things no child should ever have to experience, so when the end show more of the book came around and we had a big ball dropped on us I was glad to be done with the book.

Besides those two things though, I did enjoy it. I enjoyed the way Nina changed, and I'm really happy she came to her senses and realized these were people she wanted to help. I'm super excited to see where this series ends up! :) show less

Thirteen year old Nina is a Shadow Child. After hiding for years in a house with her three aunts and her grandmother, she is presented with a fake I.D. This golden ticket allows her to assume a new identity, stop hiding and no longer be seen as illegal. She ends up safe but alone at Harlow boarding school for girls where she believes that all the other students are also Shadow Children. After picking up an intriguing note to discuss “shadows”, she meets with students from Hendricks School for Boys. She is immediately drawn to Jason, the charismatic leader of the boys who says that they should work towards a revolution to change the unfair laws. One frightful day she is arrested by the Population Police and taken to a dungeon. She is show more shocked to find that the police do not know she is a shadow child, but rather believe she was working with Jason to betray legal children by making it appear that they are third children in order to obtain rewards from the police. They tell her they will kill her unless she acts as a spy on shadow children prisoners to find out their real identities and the names of those who helped hide them. She is to gain their trust and then betray them. With these instructions, the guards toss her back into a cell with ten year old Matthias, nine year old Percy and six year old Alia. Having been betrayed all her life, will Nina now betray others? show less

I try to express only my most honest opinion in a spoiler-free way. Unfortunately, there is still always a risk of slight spoilers despite my best efforts. If you feel something in my review is a spoiler please let me know. Thank you.

This book told the story from a different person's point of view, but still a shadow child. I liked the switch up, and the ending was amazing. These are short and easy to read books with a scary kind of plot. I'm excited to see how it progresses.

The third book in the Shadow Children series follows Nina, a minor character in the second book, as she is imprisoned and given the chance to save her life by betraying three other prisoners. She struggles with her conscience, her survival instinct, and her feelings of betrayal by the boy she loved.

As with the second book, this book was not as good as the first, but I still enjoyed it reading it.