Michael Berg answered a calling by writing this book and should be commended for his efforts. Utilizing his extensive background within state sponsored child care systems and his work with at risk youth, he paints disturbing picture of life inside a fictional foster care home, where children are pawns in a cruel game of shift, shuffle and ignore.The novel is set on a future stage where abortion has been outlawed in the United States and pro-choice advocates look eerily similar to the radical pro-life activists of today. Demonstrations, attacks on pro-life supporters and bombings are all part of the new pro-choice repertoire. Cheryl Cobb is a single mom, a full time waitress and a supporter of the women’s civil rights organization known as Pop-Con. When Cheryl is arrested for her involvement with the pro-choice group, her two daughters, seventeen year old Irene and twelve year old Rita, become wards of the state and are sent to the Trench Center Group Home. Set up more like a maximum security prison than a foster home, no one leaves the Trench unscathed. The sisters are immediately separated and the hope of being reunited quickly fades as each must find a way to endure and survive the physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

A sobering fictionalized account of child welfare programs that are overburdened, understaffed and ill equipped to respond to the growing needs of abused, neglected and high risk youth. Adding fuel to the already intense fire is the blatant corruption occurring on every level that has reduced children to paper statistics. Their value determined by the amount of medication and number of services that can be prescribed.

The author has woven the controversial abortion issue into the fabric of the story, by presenting various angles and the possible ripple effects of certain choices. It’s human nature to recoil from things that make us uncomfortable and there’s no denying this is a difficult read. Although you can’t help but hope for a “happily ever after” ending, it never materializes. The author’s passion and heart-felt convictions are easily discernible and there’s no denying his desire to make a difference in the lives of young people. Opening long closed doors and shining a light on the darkest of scenarios, Berg’s motives are genuine and admirable. There are a few problems with the writing– failure to utilize pacing to convey urgency and emotion causes the dialogue to fall flat at times and the characters aren’t fully developed and often appear weak. However, the subject matter is so moving, the reader is carried past these literary pit-falls and into the haunting reality of the Trench Center. Abandoned In The Maze is an eye-opening and heart breaking view of the foster care system and the horrific abuse suffered by the most needy among us

In this post-apocalyptic novel, a man and his son travel the existing roads, looking for food and trying to avoid the nasty things that society has fallen into. The father seems to believe that the boy is some kind of prophet or voice of the new world. The man is ruthless but the boy is kinder.
Interesting portrayals of the fallen society, but ultimately depressing and without any commentary about our society. I suppose it's supposed to tell us what we could become, but I don't know.
I also found it unbelievable that humans would survive and there would be nothing else left living, not even bugs and plants and stuff. He tells of a totally dead world.
A bit of horror and a lot of boring stuff. Not my general kind of book.

I set out on a journey with the first words of this book and was continually pulled down the road. Sometimes with trepidation, sometimes wanting to hold my hands over my eyes to avoid the horror, but always with hope that came from an undying faith in the virtuous part human nature -“the good guys.” This is a book I will never forget!

This book has won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize!

A young boy and his father are traveling through a post-apacalypic America. A very bleak and intense book. You will find this one impossible to put down.

Bleak. Depressing. Amazing, and hard to put down. The beginning was slow for me, but this book just outdid everything I've read lately. While there's next to no action, I was riveted. I could not put this book down, from the middle on. Haunting, and this one will not be easily forgotten by anyone who reads it.

I finished this one on 7/16/07. It's a pretty quick read about a father and son who are traveling an existing road in a post-apocalyptic society. As the 'good guys' they traveled in search of warmer weather, food, shelter and other necessary supplies (including weapons), while constantly trying to avoid the 'bad guys', who were the personification of all the bad that can come from the desperation involved with survival.

The man seems burdened with his own survival, which is obviously very difficult in those circumstances. As his health deteriorates he has to debate whether or not to let the boy go on without him.

In the end, the man dies and the boy respectfully continues on and vows not to forget. I think that somehow symbolizes the death and rebirth. Some good ideas and a moving scene at the end, but overall it just wasn't a page turner.

Cormac Mccarthy writes very spare prose and this book will simply scare the bejesus out of you because the world seems to be on the edge of disaster on a grand scale yet again.

The world has suffered a nuclear disaster and it is a wasteland through which a boy and his father travel. This book is about love and hope in the face of unimaginable disaster. People do go on no matter what happens. They survive, they love unconditionally and destroy what scares them.