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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
Eli and his family have been living in the compound for 6 years now. Even though his father had enough money to build and furnish a compound that is practically a luxury mansion, Eli is far from happy. First of all, there is the fact that his twin brother, Eddy, and his grandmother never made it into the compound -- and that he feels at least partly responsible for Eddy's death. Second, there are the problems with their food supply that make him wonder whether they will have enough food to get them through until the end of the 15 year containment. Third, and most importantly, there is the fact that Eli isn't sure if anyone else has even survived the nuclear war that prompted his father to lock them all inside the compound in the first place. When Eli's father suddenly starts to behave more erratically than normal, the rest of the family wonders how many secrets he has been keeping from them and exactly what it means about their future...
Mystery and adventure? Check. Dark family secrets? Check. If you are looking for a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat, you will definitely want to check this one out!
Happy Reading!
Mystery and adventure? Check. Dark family secrets? Check. If you are looking for a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat, you will definitely want to check this one out!
Happy Reading!
The concept is incredibly interesting, especially with all the twists and turns, but the characters are (for the most part) executed so horribly that it takes a big chunk of enjoyment out of the books. I would have given this book one star except for the utter uniqueness of the plot and its surprises.
Nobody in the family acts surprised enough when they find out that the last six years have been a lie. They act angry but immediately fly into action and are quickly able to figure out the mysteries of their compound. They also have very unrealistic, info-dumping conversations. I mean, if I found out my father had locked me underground for the last six years because he was a mad scientist and I had missed out on some of the most formative years of my life, I would be nearly catatonic at first. I don't think most people would just be able to hit the ground running after that, let alone a family of mentally unstable teenagers and their emotionally battered mother.
The entire cannibalism plot line was also pretty weak. After all, if the father had intended for the newest children to only exist as resources to serve the rest of the family (whether or not he actually intended to ever let them be consumed), it doesn't make sense that he would give them an adorable nursery and let his wife continue to raise them. He had to be smart enough to know that this would result in intense emotional attachments. If I was a mad scientist hellbent on psychologically torturing his own family -- a position in which I hope to never find myself -- I would immediately take the children away from my wife and raise them in the most basic of conditions. It's like chickens raised for the slaughter: they don't get idyllic pastures and organic grain. They're fattened up, pumped with antibiotics, and forced to live in cramped and dim spaces until they're old enough to get a decent amount of meat out of. Besides, the dad's experiment would make more sense if he did it my way. The way he had set up this "experiment" with the kids, it reads less like, "How far would my family go for survival?" and more like, "Can I twist my families into cannibalistic murderers with no consciences?"
As for the father himself, I didn't like that the main character kept trying to force mental illness on him. The boy kept talking about how his father's biological mother was rumored to be mentally unwell and how that must have passed down to his father. It's like the author was actively trying to demonize mental illness without coming out and saying so. Mental illness doesn't make you spend billions of dollars on a plot to imprison your family in a post-apocalyptic compound. Sure, the dad's obviously mentally unwell, but just because someone's parent had a vaguely described mental illness doesn't mean they're going to turn out to be this cruel.
Not to mention, since the dad is obviously mentally unstable, how did he run a successful business for years? What was the tipping point for him where he turned from a cold and distant businessman into a sadistic mad scientist whose life revolves around psychological warfare against his own family? And the book's excuse that it was a throwaway comment his seven-year-old son makes...I'm not buying it. If that was all it took to break him, he would have broken years ago.
I also can't buy that the mother was a good person, as the book tries to portray her to be. I'm sorry, I can't. She married a man because he was rich and she thought he could provide for her and her children -- she flat-out admits this to her oldest child. She lived proudly alongside that man for years even though he neglected his family and their social status meant their children never had true friends. This reminds me of a comment one of the characters makes about how they never knew who their true friends were before the compound -- everyone was trying to use them for money or fame. The oldest kid was, what? Like, twelve, when they entered the compound? You're telling me twelve-year-olds understand the world enough that they are capable of thinking, "This child in my grade has a massively rich father and I can network with her by becoming her friend." As someone who grew up in a fairly affluent area (not this affluent but I digress), this isn't realistic.
Then they all escape the compound. Great. Except that the new children -- the three that have never left the compound -- don't freak out. I can believe that the infant doesn't lose his mind because he's an infant. Everything's new and confusing for him. But the older two? They should have had flat-out panic attacks because of how wide-open everything was, how endless everything seems. Those kids should have built-in agoraphobia because of just how MUCH the outside world is. (Side comment, "The Room" did a wonderful job of portraying this fear through its MC, a five-year-old who is thrust into the real world after living his entire life in a single room.) But no, the kids take it in stride and are always happy and curious.
I know I've been tearing into this book for a while (mostly because I like to complain and nitpick, if I'm being fully honest), but I did really appreciate the plot, and the characterization of the MC in the first half of the book was great. I genuinely didn't like him. I didn't like him by the end, either, which was a problem, but it made sense that I wouldn't like him at the beginning. He was a bratty, emotionally traumatized rich kid who recognized his own issues but chose to deflect and distance himself instead of doing the work to better himself. All of that tracks for a kid forced to grow up and develop complex emotions under the thumb of his emotionally stunted father. I just wish that characterization could have held steady with the other characters and into the second half of the book. As I said, the concept is great, just because of how unique it is and the predictable but very fun twists laid throughout. There are just too many spots where I got totally taken out of the story for me to give this anything higher than two stars.
Nobody in the family acts surprised enough when they find out that the last six years have been a lie. They act angry but immediately fly into action and are quickly able to figure out the mysteries of their compound. They also have very unrealistic, info-dumping conversations. I mean, if I found out my father had locked me underground for the last six years because he was a mad scientist and I had missed out on some of the most formative years of my life, I would be nearly catatonic at first. I don't think most people would just be able to hit the ground running after that, let alone a family of mentally unstable teenagers and their emotionally battered mother.
The entire cannibalism plot line was also pretty weak. After all, if the father had intended for the newest children to only exist as resources to serve the rest of the family (whether or not he actually intended to ever let them be consumed), it doesn't make sense that he would give them an adorable nursery and let his wife continue to raise them. He had to be smart enough to know that this would result in intense emotional attachments. If I was a mad scientist hellbent on psychologically torturing his own family -- a position in which I hope to never find myself -- I would immediately take the children away from my wife and raise them in the most basic of conditions. It's like chickens raised for the slaughter: they don't get idyllic pastures and organic grain. They're fattened up, pumped with antibiotics, and forced to live in cramped and dim spaces until they're old enough to get a decent amount of meat out of. Besides, the dad's experiment would make more sense if he did it my way. The way he had set up this "experiment" with the kids, it reads less like, "How far would my family go for survival?" and more like, "Can I twist my families into cannibalistic murderers with no consciences?"
As for the father himself, I didn't like that the main character kept trying to force mental illness on him. The boy kept talking about how his father's biological mother was rumored to be mentally unwell and how that must have passed down to his father. It's like the author was actively trying to demonize mental illness without coming out and saying so. Mental illness doesn't make you spend billions of dollars on a plot to imprison your family in a post-apocalyptic compound. Sure, the dad's obviously mentally unwell, but just because someone's parent had a vaguely described mental illness doesn't mean they're going to turn out to be this cruel.
Not to mention, since the dad is obviously mentally unstable, how did he run a successful business for years? What was the tipping point for him where he turned from a cold and distant businessman into a sadistic mad scientist whose life revolves around psychological warfare against his own family? And the book's excuse that it was a throwaway comment his seven-year-old son makes...I'm not buying it. If that was all it took to break him, he would have broken years ago.
I also can't buy that the mother was a good person, as the book tries to portray her to be. I'm sorry, I can't. She married a man because he was rich and she thought he could provide for her and her children -- she flat-out admits this to her oldest child. She lived proudly alongside that man for years even though he neglected his family and their social status meant their children never had true friends. This reminds me of a comment one of the characters makes about how they never knew who their true friends were before the compound -- everyone was trying to use them for money or fame. The oldest kid was, what? Like, twelve, when they entered the compound? You're telling me twelve-year-olds understand the world enough that they are capable of thinking, "This child in my grade has a massively rich father and I can network with her by becoming her friend." As someone who grew up in a fairly affluent area (not this affluent but I digress), this isn't realistic.
Then they all escape the compound. Great. Except that the new children -- the three that have never left the compound -- don't freak out. I can believe that the infant doesn't lose his mind because he's an infant. Everything's new and confusing for him. But the older two? They should have had flat-out panic attacks because of how wide-open everything was, how endless everything seems. Those kids should have built-in agoraphobia because of just how MUCH the outside world is. (Side comment, "The Room" did a wonderful job of portraying this fear through its MC, a five-year-old who is thrust into the real world after living his entire life in a single room.) But no, the kids take it in stride and are always happy and curious.
I know I've been tearing into this book for a while (mostly because I like to complain and nitpick, if I'm being fully honest), but I did really appreciate the plot, and the characterization of the MC in the first half of the book was great. I genuinely didn't like him. I didn't like him by the end, either, which was a problem, but it made sense that I wouldn't like him at the beginning. He was a bratty, emotionally traumatized rich kid who recognized his own issues but chose to deflect and distance himself instead of doing the work to better himself. All of that tracks for a kid forced to grow up and develop complex emotions under the thumb of his emotionally stunted father. I just wish that characterization could have held steady with the other characters and into the second half of the book. As I said, the concept is great, just because of how unique it is and the predictable but very fun twists laid throughout. There are just too many spots where I got totally taken out of the story for me to give this anything higher than two stars.
I truly wish this was an adult dystopian esq novel and NOT a middle grades /YA book. Too many questions left unanswered.
4/5stars
Y’all this was really good! I’m very impressed. I’d only ever heard of this because of Dylan but this is a great YA dystopian book - it’s pretty damn dark tho so be warned! I couldn’t put this down and was shook constantly as we found out more and more. Also definitely way dif than I was expecting ! So pleasantly surprised
Y’all this was really good! I’m very impressed. I’d only ever heard of this because of Dylan but this is a great YA dystopian book - it’s pretty damn dark tho so be warned! I couldn’t put this down and was shook constantly as we found out more and more. Also definitely way dif than I was expecting ! So pleasantly surprised
This was between a 3 and a 4 for me, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. Very engrossing, and a *quick* read! And I was loving it up until the first "clue" - it was frustrating watching the main character struggle to reach the conclusion I'd already reached immediately, but I understand that this is a YA book, and therefore needs to be a bit more...obvious. I also wish I understood the last few paragraphs better. I mean, I understand their import, but not precisely their meaning. I'll have to talk this over with the friend I borrowed it from.
A bit slow to start, but one you can't put down. Very intriguing right up to the very end.
Bodeen's tale of a family surviving in a luxurious bomb-shelter following a nuclear event was simultaneously compelling and off-putting. The story is narrated by Eli, the family's 15-year-old son who has distanced himself both physically and emotionally from the rest of his family since they fled into the shelter 6 years before.
Bodeen masters the art of suspense. As Eli shows us his world, his voice and perspective is that of someone so integrated and familiar with his environment that he is blind and uncritical of the extraordinary and sinister aspects of his existence.
At times, this "teen" novel verges on horrific: a horror that is centered squarely upon the fundamental question, "to what lengths would you go to survive?" But there is a second question, equally horrific, being posed by this novel. It is, "to what lengths can I manipulate others to compromise themselves?"
A gripping and gut-wrenching story of betrayal, coersion, and entitlement.
Bodeen masters the art of suspense. As Eli shows us his world, his voice and perspective is that of someone so integrated and familiar with his environment that he is blind and uncritical of the extraordinary and sinister aspects of his existence.
At times, this "teen" novel verges on horrific: a horror that is centered squarely upon the fundamental question, "to what lengths would you go to survive?" But there is a second question, equally horrific, being posed by this novel. It is, "to what lengths can I manipulate others to compromise themselves?"
A gripping and gut-wrenching story of betrayal, coersion, and entitlement.
wow! this was really gripping and pretty original. reading quality young adult books is plain fun.
This book has many tension points--a broken family, a power-hungry businessman/scientist, the threat of nuclear war... They all come together in one underground compound where a family has to save itself from total destruction.
Eli and his family have lived in the Compound for the past six years. They moved to the Compound when there was a nuclear attack. Gram and Eddie, Eli's brother, weren't able to make it to the Compound in time. Eli's response is to pull back from everyone and try to survive without getting attached. They have another eight years to go in the Compound. But things aren't going well. They are running out of food and Eli can't stomach the idea of his dad's solution. His mom is pregnant again, the vegetable garden is dying, and Eli's dad's acting crazy. Then Eli finds a wireless connection and realizes there might not have been a reason for their life in the Compound at all.
Crazy paranoid but fantastic book. The story and characters are developed and fascinating.
Crazy paranoid but fantastic book. The story and characters are developed and fascinating.