Reviewed by Mrs. Foley
From library catalog - Fifteen-year-old Eli, locked inside a radiation-proof compound built by his father to keep them safe following a nuclear attack, begins to question his future, as well as his father's grip on sanity as the family's situation steadily disintegrates over the course of six years.

This book is being considered for next year's Gateway list. Very interesting story about living in a compound after nuclear war. How far would one go to survive?

School Library Journal Review - Gr 7 Up—In a burst of panic about a nuclear attack, nine-year-old Eli, his sisters, and his parents move into an underground bunker built by Eli's billionaire father. It's an enormous complex, with rooms similar to those in the family's Seattle mansion. Only his grandmother and twin brother don't make it in. The first six years of the planned 15 have been fairly routine, but now some food has spoiled, and certain things just don't seem right, or even possible. Eli is starting to have doubts about his father's motives, explanations, and sanity. Readers might find the first third of the novel to be slow as a lot of time is spent developing Eli's character as a spoiled, self-centered child. There is considerable foreshadowing, and astute readers will likely figure out the ending. As the years pass, Eli is full of teen angst and anger that develops into a realization of what he must do in order to help his family survive. The novel becomes full of tension and suspense and turns into a true edge-of-the-seat thriller. There are numerous social issues addressed that could lead to great classroom discussions.—Dylan Thomarie, Johnstown High School, NY Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ( )

The country suffers a nuclear attack when Eli and his family are on a camping trip. Fortunately, they have been prepared for this, and their father leads them to a huge, well-constructed, and well-stocked bunker where they can survive for at least fifteen years--the soonest he considers safe for the family to leave. Unfortunately, Eli's twin, Eddy, their grandmother, and their dog, Cocoa, don't make it in time.

The story starts in the sixth year of their confinement, and things have been going wrong: the livestock have all died, the replacement bulbs for the hydroponic gardens are in very short supply, the flour has gone bad, and the plans for future food are morally reprehensible.

Then Eli discovers that they are not disconnected from the Internet as his father has all along claimed. This leads him to doubt everything they have been told, and as he uncovers more and more lies perpetrated by his father, Eli realizes they must escape.

The tension builds and Eli and the rest of them find themselves racing against time as the diabolical plans of his father are revealed.

Moral dilemmas combined with tense plot action make this a good read. ( )

It was a predictable story, but I still enjoyed it. ( )

A fairly hokey premise with a quick straight-ahead plot. Very plain, boring writing with boring characters and lots of unintentional laugh-out-loud moments. (Like the episode of South Park were the internet goes out, characters here desperately look for some "internet."(and, by the way, why would the super-secretive father bother hooking up wi-fi in his super-secret office? Why not just keep his connection hard-wired?))Some folks might find it entertaining in the moment, but this one will be quickly forgotten as the years pass. ( )

Merideth says: Even though I knew exactly where this book was going, I still found it to be a suspenseful read. Bodeen does a good job of dropping clues about the true nature of the compound in the early stages of the book. Even though Eli isn't a very likeable character, I was still rooting for him. A good choice for boys. ( )