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The Elijah Project #3
Trapped by Shadows
In book three, Trapped by Shadows, Elijah is captured, and his family must enter the Abyss to save him. The deeper they plunge into the caves, the greater the danger to them all, but they are not alone. Heaven is on their side.
129 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2009
About the author
Bill Myers
320 books403 followersBill Myers was born into a Christian home, and although as a child he became bored with Christianity, he decided at the University of Washington quote, to "make God my boss." Ironically, at the University his worst subject was writing. He claims to have prayed, and said that he would be able to do anything for God, except write. Even so, he has become a prominent Christian writer, and has a large amount of successful books and films to his credit.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 9, 2021
This series keeps bringing the thrills and intensity. I'm kind of sad there are only four volumes.
July 28, 2025
Bill Myers brings The Elijah Project to its penultimate chapter in Trapped by Shadows, which sets up the exciting conclusion to come. This book is better than On the Run but not as good as The Enemy Closes In, with some intriguing concepts and a great Christian message bogged down by some repetitiveness and illogicality. Still, I’d recommend it for any kids who are interested in spiritual warfare stories or timeless Christian adventures.
After a harrowing escape from the evil forces of Shadow Man, Zach, Piper, and Elijah Dawkins finally rendezvous with their parents and friends Cody and Willard in a remote area of the midwestern highway. Their reunion is cut short, however, after an RV accident that results in Elijah being kidnapped by Shadow Man and taken to his dark fortress in the mountains. The Dawkins group plans a dangerous rescue attempt and makes it deep into Shadow Man’s lair, but they soon become separated again and realize that the enemy is preying on their minds and turning them against each other. They will have to rely on the power of prayer, Scripture, and worship to keep themselves grounded in yet another spiritual battle.
The aforementioned quote is one of Myers’ best opening lines to any of his books, and it immediately sets the darker, tenser tone that he achieved in The Enemy Closes In. Trapped by Shadows features even higher stakes as the Dawkins family is hunted down, separated, and tormented by Shadow Man himself, while six-year-old prophet Elijah is put in physical and spiritual danger. We’re in a different setting (somewhere in the remote California desert highway area), though much of the novel takes place in Shadow Man’s mysterious underground compound, which seems to be part castle / part mad scientist’s lair / part cave system / part… hell? The Dawkins family’s adventures in the compound feel a bit Scooby-Doo-like at times, but Myers counters that by making their encounters in the abyss much more serious in tone. There are silly moments at times — the Dawkins siblings’ RV nonsense, the ridiculous antics of Monica and her goons, etc. — but again Myers opts for a much weightier tone to complement the intense spiritual warfare central to the plot.
Trapped by Shadows suffers from some repetitive, unnecessary events in the beginning. Some things happen way too easily, while other things are rushed and redundant. Some of the deus ex machina in this book are a bit much even for Bill Myers… like why Shadow Man is using Monica’s gang for anything other than court jesters.
For the first time in the series, we see little Elijah struggling with isolation, fear, and doubt, but I love the moment when his faith is revived by his family’s prayers and his assurance that God is with him. There are some very Star Wars-coded moments between Elijah and Shadow Man that set up what Elijah will face in the final book. Cody Martin and Willard, after pretty much sitting out The Enemy Closes In, explode back onto the scene with Willard’s latest Rube Goldberg contraption: gravity-defying rocket shoes that allow them to fly across California and warn the Dawkinses that their car is bugged (don’t ask how Willard found that out). Cody and Piper’s little crush gets rekindled, and we see some of the heroism and compassion that Zach demonstrated in earlier books,
Trapped by Shadows struggles a little in that it has no central character learning a lesson; The Enemy Closes In focused on Zach’s character development, but while Piper is more in the spotlight here, Myers tries to do a little too much by tackling everyone’s character at once. Monica Specter, Bruno, and Silas are up to their old nonsense again, and at this point, their monotonous antics are getting pretty annoying. Unfortunately, we don’t get much more insight on Elijah’s mysterious powers — this would have been a good opportunity to add more exposition on him instead of having the Dawkins parents refuse to tell their teenage children more than the bare minimum — and we still know nothing about Shadow Man except that he’s scary and has powers.
Myers introduces some tough questions that kids might have: why God lets bad things happen to Christians, how kids can fight in battles they don’t fully understand, etc. One of the big ideas in Trapped by Shadows is that God brings both trials and rest to His children, training them in His service and making them strong for the battles they will face in His name. Myers does a great job of illustrating that the Devil and his forces are no match for the power of God, and that Christians can fight spiritual battles by focusing on prayer, the Word of God, and worship, all of which are equally important. We can have confidence going into spiritual battles because we know who has the real power in the end: God’s love is our comfort, and His Word is the only defense we need against the enemy. Myers quotes a good bit of the Armor of God passage in Ephesians 6, which provides a pretty practical set of instructions for kids who might be uncertain how to engage in spiritual warfare.
Myers does include some interesting things here and there in Trapped by Shadows, but overall the plot points aren’t set up or executed as well as they were in the previous book. Still, he’s managed to build a lot of tension leading into the final book, The Chamber of Lies, and I look forward to seeing how he chooses to conclude his series.
After a harrowing escape from the evil forces of Shadow Man, Zach, Piper, and Elijah Dawkins finally rendezvous with their parents and friends Cody and Willard in a remote area of the midwestern highway. Their reunion is cut short, however, after an RV accident that results in Elijah being kidnapped by Shadow Man and taken to his dark fortress in the mountains. The Dawkins group plans a dangerous rescue attempt and makes it deep into Shadow Man’s lair, but they soon become separated again and realize that the enemy is preying on their minds and turning them against each other. They will have to rely on the power of prayer, Scripture, and worship to keep themselves grounded in yet another spiritual battle.
“Thirteen minutes before midnight, three vehicles from three different directions sped toward a single destination, their occupants all focused on a single goal.”
The aforementioned quote is one of Myers’ best opening lines to any of his books, and it immediately sets the darker, tenser tone that he achieved in The Enemy Closes In. Trapped by Shadows features even higher stakes as the Dawkins family is hunted down, separated, and tormented by Shadow Man himself, while six-year-old prophet Elijah is put in physical and spiritual danger. We’re in a different setting (somewhere in the remote California desert highway area), though much of the novel takes place in Shadow Man’s mysterious underground compound, which seems to be part castle / part mad scientist’s lair / part cave system / part… hell? The Dawkins family’s adventures in the compound feel a bit Scooby-Doo-like at times, but Myers counters that by making their encounters in the abyss much more serious in tone. There are silly moments at times — the Dawkins siblings’ RV nonsense, the ridiculous antics of Monica and her goons, etc. — but again Myers opts for a much weightier tone to complement the intense spiritual warfare central to the plot.
Trapped by Shadows suffers from some repetitive, unnecessary events in the beginning. Some things happen way too easily, while other things are rushed and redundant. Some of the deus ex machina in this book are a bit much even for Bill Myers… like why Shadow Man is using Monica’s gang for anything other than court jesters.
For the first time in the series, we see little Elijah struggling with isolation, fear, and doubt, but I love the moment when his faith is revived by his family’s prayers and his assurance that God is with him. There are some very Star Wars-coded moments between Elijah and Shadow Man that set up what Elijah will face in the final book. Cody Martin and Willard, after pretty much sitting out The Enemy Closes In, explode back onto the scene with Willard’s latest Rube Goldberg contraption: gravity-defying rocket shoes that allow them to fly across California and warn the Dawkinses that their car is bugged (don’t ask how Willard found that out). Cody and Piper’s little crush gets rekindled, and we see some of the heroism and compassion that Zach demonstrated in earlier books,
Trapped by Shadows struggles a little in that it has no central character learning a lesson; The Enemy Closes In focused on Zach’s character development, but while Piper is more in the spotlight here, Myers tries to do a little too much by tackling everyone’s character at once. Monica Specter, Bruno, and Silas are up to their old nonsense again, and at this point, their monotonous antics are getting pretty annoying. Unfortunately, we don’t get much more insight on Elijah’s mysterious powers — this would have been a good opportunity to add more exposition on him instead of having the Dawkins parents refuse to tell their teenage children more than the bare minimum — and we still know nothing about Shadow Man except that he’s scary and has powers.
Myers introduces some tough questions that kids might have: why God lets bad things happen to Christians, how kids can fight in battles they don’t fully understand, etc. One of the big ideas in Trapped by Shadows is that God brings both trials and rest to His children, training them in His service and making them strong for the battles they will face in His name. Myers does a great job of illustrating that the Devil and his forces are no match for the power of God, and that Christians can fight spiritual battles by focusing on prayer, the Word of God, and worship, all of which are equally important. We can have confidence going into spiritual battles because we know who has the real power in the end: God’s love is our comfort, and His Word is the only defense we need against the enemy. Myers quotes a good bit of the Armor of God passage in Ephesians 6, which provides a pretty practical set of instructions for kids who might be uncertain how to engage in spiritual warfare.
Myers does include some interesting things here and there in Trapped by Shadows, but overall the plot points aren’t set up or executed as well as they were in the previous book. Still, he’s managed to build a lot of tension leading into the final book, The Chamber of Lies, and I look forward to seeing how he chooses to conclude his series.
August 27, 2014
This one was better than the first two. Instead of focusing on rushing the story along, it starts to focus more on the spiritual warfare story line. Everyone is reunited and then Elijah is taken by Shadow Man. They all have to realize that their job is prayer in order to help defeat the evil.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2012
Loved this book! Entirely too short...
June 30, 2012
Very suspenseful. I can't wait to see how the series ends.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews