It had a great premise within which questions about whether courage and the "life-wish" were the same impulse could be well-explored. A dramatic scene involving a horseback ride through a crowd of protesters leads to the conclusion. Luke, however, is suspicious that the person who has emerged as the new leader of the people is still carrying the Population Police flag. In this last volume, the tyrrany is finally over and the people are in the process of reorganizing the government. Since about the second book, each installment of the series has progressed in a similar episodic fashion: Luke is sent to infiltrate some dangerous location there, he struggles with his own bravery and wonders if he's truly courageous or just doing what he can to stay alive rumors of a "mole" abound in Luke's location and, just as we're holding our breaths, the mole-who turns out to be Not-Luke!-is revealed. His act of rebellion births a response among the people, who act in loose groups to rise up against the Population Police who patrol their hungry villages. In this, the last novel, Luke runs away from the Police when he is asked to kill an innocent citizen. Throughout the series, Luke has infiltrated an exclusive boarding school, the household of a Population Police official, and one of the Population Police headquarters.
When he meets another third child, he joins a loose resistance group of shadow children and their supporters who are working to overthrow a goverment that doesn't seem to care about any of its people-third child or no. Luke, the series focalizer, is one of these shadow children. Those families who do birth a third child-by accident or design-keep these children hidden from the ruling Population Police who are authorized to kill such illegal children on sight.
Haddix's first novel in what is called her "Shadow Children" series set out a dystopian premise: in a future America, after a series of droughts and famine, citizens are prohibited from having more than two children. I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for a series, even when the series sucks.
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