Hide and Seek by Erin Ampersand

Meghan has learned that protecting her kids also means making sure they're ready to stand on their own when needed. That's always been part of her parenting philosophy, but applying it to letting a six-year-old get up close and personal with vicious monsters? Questionable! Certainly not easy.

Meghan doesn’t have a choice. She’s got to be an expert apocalypse parent while also stabilizing her area, finding a way to handle with the mysterious new Titans, and dealing with the other nasty twists her alien tormentors have planned.

It's more than she bargained for, but she’s not giving up!

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Hide and Seek — Erin Ampersand

PRE-READING

The third instalment of the Apocalypse Parenting series! By now, Meghan has gone from trying to keep her own family alive to building a community and preparing for the mysterious Challenges ahead. But protecting her children isn't just about keeping danger away from them. It's also about making sure they're ready to face it.

And that raises some rather uncomfortable questions when your children are six, nine and three, and the world expects them to fight monsters.

POST-READING

This instalment puts the children more firmly in the spotlight, with a focus on training, preparation and getting them ready for the fights that are inevitably coming. One of the things I find particularly interesting is that, as their powers grow, the children remain very much children. A lot of stories would use increasing abilities as an excuse to mature young characters rapidly, but here the children don't suddenly become miniature adults. They're still young, with all the limitations and vulnerabilities that come with that, even as they become more capable of defending themselves.

It's an important distinction. Being able to fight something doesn't necessarily mean you're emotionally or developmentally ready to deal with everything that fighting entails. Meghan is trying to prepare her children for a world that won't give them the luxury of being unprepared, while also having to accept that she can't protect them from every danger.

There's plenty of practical worldbuilding, too. Meeting surviving Army personnel on a base brings questions of leadership and authority to the forefront. Who should be in charge? What limits should there be on the use of extraordinary powers? How do you establish rules and responsibilities when the world has changed so radically that the old systems may no longer be enough? These are exactly the sort of questions I enjoy seeing a story explore, and they add another dimension to the series beyond its monsters and game mechanics.

Meghan doesn't always make the best decisions. Some of her choices seem foolish to me, particularly when morality comes into conflict with practical survival. But that's a much more complicated question than simply deciding she's wrong. She's trying to do the right thing in circumstances where there may not be a good answer, and I can't honestly say what I'd do in her position. I'm very glad I don't have to find out!

That moral uncertainty is part of what makes the situation interesting. There are consequences to every choice, and being responsible for other people doesn't magically make the correct decision obvious.

Overall, I'm enjoying the way the series is developing. The focus is widening, the questions are getting more complicated, and the children are growing in power without losing their essential childishness. There are two more books to come, and while neither is available yet, I'll definitely be looking out for them. I want to see where Erin Ampersand takes this story, and how everything eventually comes together.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Book: Gone by Michael Grant — for another series in which children have to navigate extraordinary powers, danger and the difficult business of establishing order when the adults and systems they normally rely on are no longer able to provide it.

TV: The Last Kids on Earth — for the combination of young characters facing a monster-filled apocalypse, learning to work together and trying to hold on to childhood amid all the chaos.

MUSIC PAIRING

“The Kids Aren't Alright” — The Offspring. A rather less cheerful take on growing up than most of us would choose, but fitting for children being forced to adapt to a world that has become dangerous in ways they could never have anticipated.

VIBE CHECK

• Colour palette: Military olive, dusty khaki, warning red and the bright colours of children's things that still belong in a safer world.

• Soundtrack: Boots on concrete, distant alarms, clipped conversations about plans and the unmistakable noise of children who are still determined to be children.

• Season: Late autumn, with winter coming and preparations that cannot wait.

• Mood: Determined, uneasy, practical.

• Scent: Dust, engine oil, metal and the comforting smell of food being cooked for a crowd.

• Texture: Rough canvas, cold metal, scuffed boots and the familiar softness of a child's favourite toy.

TAROT CARD PULLED — QUEEN OF PENTACLES

The Queen of Pentacles continues to feel like a fitting card for Meghan. She is a practical protector, concerned with keeping people safe, making resources stretch and creating the conditions in which others can survive. But care isn't always about sheltering people from danger. Sometimes it's about preparing them for a world in which you cannot always be there to help.

That's the uncomfortable tension at the heart of this instalment: Meghan has to help her children become more capable without forgetting that they're still children. The Queen of Pentacles reminds us that looking after someone means taking their needs seriously, including their need to grow, even when letting them do so is frightening.

Hide and Seek publishes on 16 February 2027. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.