After reading Ender’s Game, you may feel certain that the story is complete and needs no accompanying series. However, Ender’s Shadow is even better than Ender’s Game. It shows another side to the Ender story–one that even Ender never knew. Reality is flipped on its head and you can have a better view on what actually happened in Ender’s Game.

I’ve listened to this audiobook three times now, and I still love it just as much. Bean is the most fascinating character, and that is what really drives this book. There is something fun about a character who is unbelievably talented. When you read about that character you get to imagine yourself in their shoes, so it is like the character is sharing their talent with you personally.

The audiobook has several different narrators, which adds to the story because each of the narrators are rather good.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  15 mild obscenities; 6 derogatory names; 5 scatological words; 9 anatomical terms.

Violence/Gore:  Mention of how kids beat up smaller kids on a regular basis; two preteens fight, brief and not graphic; kids discuss a hypothetical violent situation, lengthy and graphic; a child tells another child to commit murder; a graphic brief fight breaks out between kids; a hypothetical violent situation is thought about by a character; violence between children is mentioned; children talk about hypothetical violent situations at length, not graphic; a character mentions possible violent death; children discuss possible murders; a child remembers violent memories and thinks about violent hypothetical situations, lengthy but not graphic; a child sees a murdered child and thinks about it during a long scene, not graphic; a child is implied to have killed another child; a child describes the disturbing murder of a child by the hand of another child, slightly gruesome but not lengthy; a gruesome stab wound is mentioned; many infants are mentioned to have died in what was thought to be an infant organ farm; adult uses gruesome imagery in a lecture for kids that is violent; a child remembers past violence and a violent death; an adult says he killed 23 babies; there is a tussle between children; an adult says that two children will try to kill one another; a character considered a hypothetical possible street fights; a character imagines a gruesome possibility; a character is hurt but not majorly; a child kills another child in self-defense, but only the bloody aftermath is described; children discuss the injury of a child, not graphic; a child plots the future murder of a child; children threaten each other several times; a war situation is implied but not described, where many people and others died. 

Sex/Nudity:  Prostitutes are mentioned; it is mentioned a couple of times that children in desperate situations sell their bodies to pedophiles; prostitution is vaguely implied; a child mentions nudity, non-sexual; a male child hugs and kisses a female child; a previous kiss is mentioned a couple of times; a sexual innuendo; a prostitute is mentioned, a sexual innuendo.

Mature Subject Matter:

Socioeconomic social conflict, gender social conflict, death of a friend, war, murder, child abuse, homelessness, prostitution, child sex trade, exploitation of children.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

An adult is drunk in one scene.