The Night Children

by Kit Reed

Inside the Castertown MegaMall, the biggest mall in the world, live the night children—runaways, abandoned kids, kids who got lost and were never found. They only come out at night, after all the shoppers are gone.When thirteen-year-old Jule Devereaux visits the mall after the mysterious disappearance of her aunt, she becomes a pawn in the war between two gangs of night the Castertown Crazies, led by the stalwart Tick Stiles, and the Dingos, whose leader is the batty Burt Arno. What the night children don't realize is that the megalomaniacal owner of the MegaMall, billionaire Amos Zozz, knows all about them. To him, they are vermin—"rats" living in his beautiful mall—and he has plans to exterminate them. Julie, Tick, and Burt must join forces if they want to survive.…At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary, Adventure, Science Fiction, Middle Grade, Childrens

252 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Kit Reed was an American author of both speculative fiction and literary fiction, as well as psychological thrillers under the pseudonym Kit Craig.

Her 2013 "best-of" collection, The Story Until Now, A Great Big Book of Stories was a 2013 Shirley Jackson Award nominee. A Guggenheim fellow, she was the first American recipient of an international literary grant from the Abraham Woursell Foundation. She's had stories in, among others, The Yale Review, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Omni and The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Literature. Her books Weird Women, Wired Women and Little Sisters of the Apocalypse were finalists for the Tiptree Prize. A member of the board of the Authors League Fund, she served as Resident Writer at Wesleyan University.

Reviews

[Linda Lipko · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book at the top of one of the piles of young adult books that I own. I hate to dislike a book as I know the author places themselves out into the world with the hope their writing was worth reading. But, I really didn't enjoy, or even like this book. The plot of a huge, mega mall placed in what was a rural, poor area, that is run by a father/daughter team started as an interesting concept, quickly spun into a tunnel of no where.

There are children plucked from the crowds, or lost when they walked away from a parent's control.

These children roam the huge mall and all the expensive stuff they cannot resist!

Gangs form within groups and there is a challenge regarding which group will successfully be in charge of the many night children some of whom like living in the mall.

The book simply imploded mid way. The ending was quite trite. Sadly, this is not a good representation of quality to adult people who like young adult books.

[Tasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's one that's been sitting on my shelves for a literal decade, waiting for me to get around to it. I'm not entirely sure what kind of tone Kit Reed was going for here, in her first YA book — maybe something in the Roald Dahl vein? That's certainly where it goes by the end, with the characters turning into big, broad, flaily cartoons, and the prose filling up with exclamation points. It's a fun premise — a giant mega-mall that's taken over an entire town, and is disappearing the locals one by one, leaving their children to form secret gangs surreptitiously living in the mall, Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler-style. But the book ramps up very quickly to a wild, comedic degree, then ends by setting up a sequel that unfortunately didn't happen before Reed's death, which leaves the whole thing a bit flat.

[Jayla Rayne · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a “young adult” book, it felt more like a pre-teen, coming of age, “monsters under the bed” kind of book. It was decent, not awful and not great. A fast read, but more because I was hoping the ending would tie it together and make it worth it, not because I was hungry for more. The plot stabilizes mid way through the book and has a hard time moving from there.

[Miri Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I started reading it, this book kept on coming on my “recommended for you”, but I never really looked at it. Then I saw it at the library and It sounded really good! It was a pretty good book! I got a bit confused at the end, but other than that, I liked it!

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jule Devereaux has been trapped for the night inside the WhirlyFunRide in the gigantic Castertown MegaMall, after she quarreled with her aunt and then her aunt disappeared, just as her parents did years ago. As Jule is about to find out, the mall is much more than it seems, and during the night, it is ruled by gangs of children, abandoned children and runaways who live in secret places in the mall. Or perhaps the children don't really rule here: perhaps the true ruler is the sinister billionaire Amos Zozz, who runs Castertown and the mall and has his own secret plans.

The setting is intriguing, and I liked the complex interactions of the different groups within the mall: the children's gangs, Jule the newbie, Zozz the great and powerful and his daughter Isabella, the corporate Zozzco employees, and the mysterious outsider Lance. The social commentary, about the dangers of capitalism and the ethical treatment of people, is a little unsubtle, and Zozz himself was so over the edge that I found him unbelievable. Yet the plot is sufficiently tense and fast-paced that I was absorbed to the end. I'd be interested to know if there's to be a sequel, since some plot threads are left hanging.

[Aura · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book gets 5 stars for the creative premise, 3 for style (when it's not being insufferably condescending), and 1 for its repugnant conclusions.

"Don't feel bad for homeless kids, they love the freedom! Foster homes are full of terrible people anyway! Parents are a luxury not a necessity! Everyone everywhere are basically greedy sociopaths!"

Ugh.

The biggest failure is that the main characters are passive observers in the climax rather than driving it or even participating. Everything is "solved" (inasmuch as the sequel bait ending resolves almost nothing) by the actions of a secondary character. In fact the removal of the two main characters would affect almost nothing except to maybe slow down the time line. The plot and resolution would be exactly the same.

The Night Children is captivating at the start but between the completely superfluous main characters and the manifesto masquerading as an epilogue this book was a huge disappointment.

[Kate Coombs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the futuristic tale of a town consumed by a mega-mall. It's like the mega-mall is possessed by the aliens from The Matrix! Instead, it's run by a man who longs to avenge himself against humanity... But really, the story is mostly about a girl named Jule whose aunt disappears. Jule goes to the mall and falls in with a bunch of lost children who inhabit the vast complex, avoiding the security cameras and dining on leftovers from the food court. This part of the plot is actually far more interesting than the reasons behind the mall owner's hatred of children, or the identity of the mysterious loner who helps the kids. So yeah, the book is uneven, and possibly the moral is just the tiniest bit heavy-handed, but The Night Children is still more original than a lot of what's out there these days, and not a bad read.

[JW · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book about feral children in a mega mall and the crazy guy who owns it. It's. I don't know how to describe it. It's probably a children's book, maybe YA but it lacks any real grit. This is a good tool to decide if someone's ready for a book with real intensity.

[Dawn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Great interesting idea, but not good fantasy or realistic. No character development-- characters are "poor children," "little Doakie" "brave [ insert name]" evil cartoony boss ( and not in a good way). The story falls apart. Don't know any of the characters and am told everything about them.

[Hayley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readalike: Secrets of the Shopping Mall by Richard Peck

[Riley H. · Rating 2 out of 5]

So far this book is pretty good, but I'm a little confused.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

The third person narrator and totally unrealistic plot really annoyed me. I skimmed the ending and was unsatisfied.

[Meredith Amelotti · Rating 1 out of 5]

My hate for this book is indescribable. I had to force myself to finish this book. The plot was weak, and bland throughout the whole book. Even the climax wasn't even a climax.

[Andrea Cleland · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had so much promise but fell totally short.

[Caedy Eries · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't entirely sure about this book. The cover caught my attention and I'm quite pleased that I've read it!

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall not a terrible book, but a bit drastic, unrealistic, and the writing wasn't so great.