Reviewer: Sharon Brunner
Madyson Ann Evans’ Lost Freedom reveals a struggle for survival as the result of a harsh and dangerous experimental disaster. Some of the characters in the story were Millie, Charlie, Sally, Michael, Mitchell, Lisa and other children. The children were housed in a large building with many floors. They were taken or given to a cruel government agency by their parents. The location of the lab was not mentioned. The children were hidden in a large safe room after an attack on the lab, which was located in the same building as the lab. While in the safe room, they became bored doing the same things day after day: sleeping, eating, and playing sometimes. They managed to escape this room and became prey to an evil monster.
The evil monster chased them and tried to kill them. The children had special gifts such as seeing through walls and floors. One child was very powerful and had the ability of calling weapons to her and the same child had healing abilities. Several of the children prevented the monster from killing all the remaining children. One of the children knew the man before he decided to turn himself into a monster by ingesting chemicals. I felt the author needed to break away from the constant battles between the monster and children and add more to the plot.
The themes described in the book were survival and freedom. The children had to run and hide from the horrible monster who stood 12 feet tall and was huge. He had long claws and sharp fangs and he bit and clawed at the children, A couple of the children fought the evil monster while the other children ran to safety. They wanted to reach the outside world with blue skies and trees and sought freedom from the horrible confines of the lab and past torture.
Upon reading this book and realizing the publisher and town where the publisher was located, I believed this book served as a satire concerning the historical Indian boarding schools in which indigenous children were forced to attend by a cruel government. The children were sexually, physically and emotionally abused at these institutions. My uncle ran away 12 times from the boarding school in Harbor Springs, Michigan. The man who decided to become a monster reminded me of the Wendigo myth passed down by the Anishinaabeg (original people).
As far as how this book related to me personally, I do know how it feels to be prey. I faced a mother bear on a secluded wooded trail. She did a stare down with me until I yelled at her. She turned and ran into the woods. I turned around and started walking the way I came and ran into another mother bear with three bear cubs. I had to turn around again and walk past where the first mother bear ran into the woods. I walked extremely fast to my car, which was approximately a mile away.
I was reminded of the Hunger Games books and movies when reading this book. The series follows a teenager whose survival was being tracked by a deadly televised tournament and her rise as the symbol of mass rebellion against the authoritarian Capitol. The book titles were: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Five movies stemmed from these books. One of the main characters in this book fought the establishment to rescue children and bring them to a safe room. The scientists at the lab did not care about the children. They were given numbers and were tortured. The people at the Capitol in The Hunger Games did not care about the teenager who was placed in dangerous situations. She provided them with entertainment.
Evans Lost Freedom created a nail-biting tale about the struggles of children trying to survive extremely dangerous situations. A child, who was afraid of spiders, lost that fear after the painful torture he was forced to endure during the lab experiments. If he could endure the torture, he could face spiders. After fleeing the safe room, the children had to protect each other in their fight for freedom. Evans depicts extreme endurance and courage in an attempt to reach the sanctity of the outside world.
Title: Lost Freedom
Author: Madyson Ann Evans
