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Protagonist archetypes
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Synopsis
The Key to Survival Rests in the Hands of Shade's Children In a futuristic urban wasteland, evil Overlords have decreed that no child shall live a day past his fourteenth birthday. On that Sad Birthday, the child is the object of an obscene harvest resulting in the construction of a machinelike creature whose sole purpose is to kill. The mysterious Shade — once a man, but now more like the machines he fights — recruits the few children fortunate enough to escape. With luck, cunning, and skill, four of Shade's children come closer than any to discovering the source of the Overlords' power — and the key to their downfall. But the closer the children get, the more ruthless Shade seems to become...
Is Shade's Children appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 15 and up.
Parents should know this book contains disturbing themes of children being harvested on their 14th birthday to create killing machines, with strong violence, body horror, and dark dystopian content throughout. The premise is fundamentally about child death and survival.
What to know going in
This book has strong violence, no sexual content, and mild language. Content notes include child harm, graphic violence, gore, child death, and death (see the full list above).
Who'll love this
Teens will find a gripping, dark survival story where kids must fight evil overlords in a dystopian wasteland, featuring action, mystery, and a mysterious AI mentor figure.