MichaelcBerg

For Front Street Reviews

Reviewer: Sabrina D. Williams

If you are searching for a shocker to push the limits of your comfort zone, then look no further than Abandoned in the Maze by Michael Berg. Berg's unsettling story takes place in a future that is more suggestive of a parallel universe. In Berg's future, abortion has been outlawed and underground organizations operate under the surface of the law. The tables have been turned as pro-choice activists stage bombings and attacks on prominent pro-life advocates.

Seventeen-year-old Irene Cobb and her twelve-year-old sister, Rita, are forced to watch their mother being taken away in handcuffs for her association with an almost militant pro-choice organization. When Irene and Rita are driven away by indifferent "social workers," they have no idea that they are being taken to a prison of their own, a children's home known as the Trench. The Trench of Berg's imagination is a maximum security orphanage for victims of a corrupt political system. The sadistic overseers of the orphanage ensure that the few residents who manage to escape its realms do not do so with their innocence intact. Just when it appears the characters can't possibly suffer any further injustices, their wills are tested again and again by greedy captors hell-bent on their own elevation at the expense of the displaced children.

This book was my initial introduction to Michael Berg, and I will definitely be looking for more of his work. I read this sociological thriller in one sitting, eager to discover what surprises were waiting around the corner. It seems a bit of an exaggeration to call this novel a thriller, but Berg has such a talent for keeping the reader guessing and on the edge of their seat that labeling it as merely fiction seems to do it an injustice. Inspired by Berg's own experiences in the Florida child care system, Abandoned in the Maze is a roller coaster ride of emotion and controversy that looms dangerously close to reality.

"Pigskin Meconium" is the working title of my next novel. This particular work of fiction focuses on a married couple with the misfortune of experiencing five miscarriages. The wife wants nothing more than to have a child and start a family; the father, well--not so much. He's more worried about the performance of his professional football and fantasy football teams.

This black comedy follows suite of "Abandoned in the Maze" by tackling modern day social issues, evaluating them from a variety of perspectives, leaving the reader to reason. Pigskin portrays the newfangled mentality of men, and the challenges that their female partners must negotiate to claim any semblence of sanity, while being true to their vows.