Once again, the style is written in a journal-type perspective, where the main protagonist, Maria, is writing a diary to her missing son, Christopher, in the hopes that he will some day read about the lengths she goes to locate him. When the book opens, it has been several months since the dreadful events that occurred at the close of Children of Paranoia and Maria has not been able to stop grieving at the tremendous loss she endures when Jared murdered her beloved Joe, right in front of her eyes and literally snatched her nearly newborn son, Christopher, from her arms. In the aftermath and "cleanup" of the situation, she was told to go back to her old life, but Maria can’t unlearn what she has about The War and she is fueled by revenge and the hopes of finding her son, who has been given to the other side, as per "the rules" of The War. Her only hope is to try and reach out to Joe’s best friend, Michael, who went rogue after Joe was killed. When she does make contact with Michael, he is reluctant to help, but slowly he comes to accept that Maria isn’t going anywhere unless he helps her find Christopher. Michael can think of only one group who could possibly help them – the Underground, those who assist the ones who want to escape the War.
Meanwhile, Addy and Evan, whose story takes place at some point in the future, find themselves on the run after a devastating raid occurs on numerous groups of rebel cells of The War, marking them in the press as terrorists. Although they barely knew one another a few scant months ago, now they are relying on each other to survive, hiding where they can and finding solace in each others arms. Addy, being the more experienced of the two as far as The War is concerned, believes that their only chance for survival is finding members of the Underground, that is, if any of them are still alive. She left them some months before because she wanted to fight, not just help people escape, but now she just wants to survive and the Underground is her and Evan’s only hope.
While I am just touching the tip of the iceberg, to do otherwise would ruin the story for anyone reading it, so I will leave it at that. Suffice it to say that although I loved Children of Paranoia more than Children of the Underground, it was only a little more. While Maria was an integral part in the first book, she takes center stage and comes into her own in Children of the Underground. She becomes the fighter Joe was and will stop at nothing to reclaim her son from the other side. Children of the Underground is yet another intense rollercoaster ride of action and emotion that leaves the reader poised on the edge, waiting for the sequel due out in October 2013. At least I don’t have long to wait to see the conclusion of this amazing trilogy.
