The Compound

S. A. Bodeen

Published: 2008

245 Pages

Rating: B

Eli and his family have lived in the Compound for six years.

                        The world they knew is gone.

            Eli’s father built the Compound to keep them safe. Now, they cant get out.

He wont let them.

(from inside book flap)

Dad asked me if I wanted to see more of the Compound.

            I didn’t. We would have to wait fifteen years before it would be safe to go outside. Which left more than enough time to see the rest of the Compound.

Our new world.

            A world I would soon hate.

(from back of book)

 

If you have ever seen the movie Blast from the Past, this book will seem similar to you, yet different in so many twisting ways.

Eli grew up being the son of a billionaire. Him and his three siblings got everything they wanted, no matter what it cost. Eli had a twin brother named Eddy, and Eddy was the main reason Eli had friends. As a kid Eli was a brat and disliked by many other kids, whereas Eddy was friendly and never complained and he had many friends. Once Eli and Eddy were born, their father started working on the Compound. It was a safety place for them if there was ever a nuclear attack on the U.S. So when Eddy and Eli were nine years old, they were camping on their many hundred acres of land with their family, and then the sirens went off and they had to make a mad dash to the Compound. Eli, his sisters and his parents were there…but not his grandma or Eddy.

Fifteen years they would have to spend in the Compound , surviving on the food their father had stored there. According to Eli, the Compound had a good setup. It was quite large, every one had their own room, there was a gym, many storage rooms with food and cleaning supplies, and there was even an infirmary. Yet that didn’t make it feel like home, after six years of isolation without his twin or grandmother, Eli was getting sick of living underground and he was determined to find out if there was any human life left about ground.

Eli uncovers some secrets that his father is hiding, and now he cant trust him. Every day in the Compound makes Eli more and more determined to find out what really happened six years ago when they first entered the Compound. Was there really a nuclear attack? And how did his father know about it?

This book is a very interesting read filled with many twists and turns, I couldn’t put it down. And it made me think, could I ever live in a compound underground and not go crazy? Check this book out, you’ll probably learn something about trust and family devotion.

-A.