The Compound

This is one of the few books that manages the status of a thriller without constant action. A book that moves consistently from action scene to action scene inevitably becomes dull, strange as it may sound. This book keeps up an aura of suspense because there is also an aura of claustrophobia as Eli moves throughout the Compound. Despite the small physical space in which he moves her characters, Bodeen does an excellent job of portraying the characters going throughout a routine they have no choice but to embrace. The theme of choice quickly evolves into our era's greatest moral questions (emphasizing birth control and cloning) as the pace of the book quickens, and as Eli is presented with more and more choices, he discovers more about show more the people around him. Everyone in the Compound, with the exception of Eli's father, is distinctly out of their element despite the length of time they have had to adjust to the small space. The concept of teenage rebellion is incorporated into that of moral choice in an excellent confrontation of moral and familial responsibility. An aggressive and mature commentary, but still more than worthwhile. Highly recommended. show less

4.5 stars. I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I picked this up. It had been recommended to me as dystopian fiction, but once I got sucked in, it felt more like horror or an especially disturbing episode of The Twilight Zone.

The main character Eli isn't very likeable, and that's usually the first thing that starts me squirming when I'm in the deciding-if-I'm-going-finish stage of reading a book. He is the narrator, and he's cold and resentful. But it's not very long before we realize that Eli doesn't like himself very much and that he's carrying around a lot of guilt and regret (regret for the past and for the future he's anticipating) with no hope of relief or redemption. I listened to the audio book, and the reader did a nice show more job with Eli.

The description of the Compound where Eli and his family have lived for 6 years, believing they have escaped a nuclear attack, is intricate and thorough. Too much description can be a turn-off for me too, but this was so well done that I was fascinated. I especially liked how she imagined different types of psychosis would manifest in that situation.

There was a moment when I thought I'd hit the point of no return, and that was when Eli started talking about the "supplements". I had a very hard time believing that his mother would go along with it, that his father would demand it, and that Eli and Lexi expected to go along with it too. But the further I read (listened) the author pulled me back, and I saw that things weren't exactly as they seemed at first. It's still a little bit of a sticking point for me, rating-wise, but the quality of her writing and storytelling overrode any impulse to write off the entire book because of it.

Once something happens that gives Eli a glimmer of hope and horror at how his father has deceived them all , his character starts a rapid transformation into a person we can admire. Some might say too rapid, but I think all he needed was to see that redeeming himself was possible. It made sense to me.

The suspenseful race against time and his father at the end had me so worked up I had to bring the audio book inside and finish it over the weekend (this was my audio book for my work commute) since I didn't have the book on hand. For me, that's the true indicator that a book has made it-when I can't wait to hear more. The riddle to figure out the code was the only other thing that bothered me enough to downgrade my rating-it just seemed too far-fetched that his father would have set that up.

This book won me over despite some longstanding prejudices of mine about what types of plot and character I like. That's a testament to the author's excellent writing. I'm glad to see there's a sequel due out this year. show less

OVERVIEW
All right, let’s clear something up first. Most of the time, I find the goodreads summary to be beyond adequate, but I feel it’s a little lacking for this book. The basic premise is that Eli and the surviving members of his family hide in the underground bunker his rich father built in case of a nuclear war attack. As to be expected, this makes everyone a bit restless and life seems overwhelming pointless at times for the family. Eli starts looking for answers to the world that’s been built around him. I will say that I loved this book, but I think many people who look at the “dystopia” tag on goodreads and look for something filled with political corruption and intrigue will be disappointed. The story is confined show more mainly to Eli’s family. This is not your Hunger Games or Divergent with all these forces of society playing at once.

CHARACTERIZATION
One of the main things I loved about The Compound was Eli’s characterization. I find that most of the Young Adult books I’ve read this year, while good, haven’t been quite what I was looking for in the characterization department. There are certainly wonderful characters in this genre, but I feel many are three-dimension while still lacking the subtlety I crave. We see Eli as a child of nine, and he is clearly different six years later. He starts out being a not-so-great brother, but ends realizing he really does love his family. What makes this believable is that we see glimpses — but only glimpses– of the ability of Eli to care for his family before his character growth. He doesn’t change in an instant, though it does happen quickly. However, it doesn’t seem out of place because it’s not something that just comes out of left field. It’s been fermenting in his character from the beginning of the novel.

PLOT
This is really where this book shines. Yes, I love the characterization, but I think many readers could overlook bad characterization in this novel because of the plot. There’s always a new twist, that’s foreshadowed enough for it to make sense and yet still deliver impact. I will say my one less-positive thing about this book is that the foreshadowing is quite overt in times; sometimes the “twists” can be see coming. However, because of what those twists are(some of which are truly horrifying), its impact is not diminished.

PACING
Unfortunately, this is where this book lost its fifth star for me. Throughout most of the book, the pacing is great, but towards the end everything starts to seem rushed and the main character gets into a situation that should take a bit of time to solve, and instead more or less breezes through it. It’s a sequence of events that goes just a little too fast to make me as a reader feel there was any actual conflict.

OTHER ELEMENTS I ENJOYED
The writing. It’s simple, but effective.
The opening line, “T.S. Eliot was wrong. My world ended with a bang the minute we entered the Compound and that silver door closed behind us.” Aside from being just a really great opening, the T.S. Eliot reference was enough to hook me.
The lack of romance. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for romance when it’s called for, but it’s nice to know that Young Adult books can be written without authors thinking it’s a necessary ingredient.

Final Impression: I thought this was an amazing book all around, with one exception in the pacing area. It’s not quite what I was expecting, but I think that’s why I loved it so much. I am now determined to read some of Bodeen’s other books. I give it a 4.5/5 stars.

Review originally appeared on my blog at Book.Blog.Bake. show less

My thoughts:
Positives:

* Hailey Marshall says it best in a song written by her father, "I think my dad's gone crazy." I am not certain if this is positive or negative, but it definitely is the main reason for the suspense in the novel. It's always great to have a cool villain, especially one that you never sympathize with.
* You get inside Eli's head and understand the decisions that he makes.
* Interesting accommodations. I mean, bomb shelters were a reality at points in time, it would be nice to have one that was as put together at the Compound.
* It's nice to see a book where having all the money in the world is not the best thing.

Negatives:

* This book is SLOW!! It's part of the whole method of suspense, but there were times that I show more wanted to put the book down. That doesn't happen very often for me.
* It has some of the typical horror scenes in it. For the most part, everything seems realistic, but towards the end you say to yourself "that was dumb, and impossible."
* The author's point of view on religion, society, and power are extremely pointed out. There is no questioning ideas for yourself. He definitely tells you what you are supposed to think. show less

An interesting story about a father's deception and how his son figures out the truth. It's sort of a post-apocalyptic tale mixed with a healthy dose of teen angst. But what really sets Bodeen's book apart are the little details and side stories within the novel. They draw characters together and give the book an eerie atmosphere that sets the stage for a climatic ending.

Reviewed by: Mikel (Class of 2013)

In this high wire act of secrets and lies, Eli Yankakis the son of billionaire Rex Yankakis, finds himself trapped inside a secret compound along with his family. It was built to protect them from a nuclear apocalypse, but that’s not the only thing they need protecting from…

"The Compound" by S.A. Bodeen is told from Eli’s point of view; Eli is one of three children of Rex Yankakis, a self proclaimed computer scientist and multi-billionaire who owns a computer technology empire. Rex rushes his family down a long hall and into the compound during the dark of the night and accidentally leaves Gram (the grandmother), and Eddy (the other brother), behind sealing them out of safety. Over years of living show more in the compound they find some things have been sabotaged and have to start taking drastic measures like raising children to eat if they have to. About this time Eli uses his brother's replicated laptop and gets on the Internet that his father said was down, and talks to his brother and Gram. Thus finding out that his Dad lied and is truly insane. Eventually they all escape the compound but Rex disappears and is never seen again.

I feel this book was very good, and full of mystery and excitement. There was always a thrill around each corner and on every page. At the beginning the story seems a little slow but as you progress toward the middle of the book its pace hastens. I think for this being Bodeen’s first book it is truly exceptional and would recommend any one that likes action, mystery, or thrills to read "The Compound". show less

It took me a while to really get into this book. I think this is probably due to the fact that it took a while to really get into the story. A good chunk of the beginning is setting the scene, explaining how this family came to live in the Compound. While it is necessary to show the events that led up to this family being locked underground, the pacing was a bit on the slow side for me. There’s an abundance of flashbacks throughout the entire story, and even though they were needed to bring understanding to the current events, the break in action was sometimes jarring. It’s not until almost a third of the way into the book that the action started picking up speed, but once it did I was hooked.
The story was enjoyable, and I like the show more fact that there are things hinted at but not obvious. There was enough of a twist in the plot that, even though I had an idea of what Eli would discover, I didn’t guess it in its entirety. In the last half of the book the story veers into crazy, but the good kind of crazy that’s complex and leaves some questions unanswered.
For me, the characterization in the book was lacking. All the characters seem a bit flat to me. Part of this could be that the story is told from Eli’s point of view. Since the door to the Compound closed, leaving his twin brother Eddy on the outside, he retreated from his family, avoiding their touch and hiding behind his long hair, so he doesn’t really know his own family members very well. His dad is egotistical and insane; his mom is submissive even when she knows something’s not right; Lexie is blindly loyal to their dad and seems to hate their mom for some unexplored reason; and Teresa is the “perfect” daughter. Even Eli, who should have been more accessible as the narrator, seemed incomprehensible even to himself. The story would have been far more satisfying if I cared more about the characters, but as it was they could’ve been almost anyone.
I’m not sure if the ending is completely believable. I found the dad’s response to the events to be a little over the top, but given his craziness it’s possible. Where the family ends up after the climax seems too obvious to have the results they did, considering the fact that they were a family in the public eye before they entered the Compound. But it does provide a decent denouement for this story. show less