The Night Children

The Night Children
by Kit Reed
234 pages
juvenile fiction
New York : Tom Doherty Associates, 2008

The Castertown Megamall is the biggest mall in the world. It is so large that numerous children have taken up residence, sleeping by day and avoiding security by night. Kids of all ages have been lost or abandoned at the mall, or ran away purposely to live in the mall. If they were lucky they were found and taken in by one of the good gangs, like that ran by Tick Stiles. Otherwise one of the not-so-good gangs might discover them and then who knows what would happen to them. Unfortunately for her, Jule Devereaux finds herself in the latter situation. Before she knows it she is caught between two rival gangs and running from security. Who should she trust? Her presence in the mall escalates a confrontation with the kids and the Zozzco corporation. The extremely disturbed founder of Zozzco and the Megamall is putting forth phase two of his plan to destroy all children and overtake the world! Today Castertown, USA, tomorrow the rest of the world!
I found this storyline had some interesting aspects, yet most of them were not developed as well as they could have been. The bad guy reminded me of one of James Bond's enemies, very over-the-top and power hungry all while wearing a mask to cover a hideously scarred face. His motives seemed weak compared to his actions. One last complaint, the cover just didn't seem to fit the story. An interesting idea, but not a book I would recommend.

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