The Compound by S.A. Bodeen

245 pages

"Eli and his family have lived in the underground Compound for six years. The world they knew is gone, and they've become accustomed to their new life. Accustomed, but not happy. For Eli, no amount of luxury can stifle the dull routine of living in the same place, with only his two sisters, only his father and mother, doing the same thing day after day after day. As problems with their carefully planned existence threaten to destroy their sanctuary - and their sanity - Eli can't help but wonder if he'd rather take his chances outside. Eli's father built the Compound to keep them safe. But are they safe - or sorry?" -Back Cover

I thought the final tag line in the description of this book "But are they safe - or sorry?" was lame, but I was still intrigued enough by the rest of it to read it. The story had potential but I think it fell flat in a lot of places. And it was just plain weird and wacky in others.

{SPOILERS}

We find out early on that Eli is an identical twin and that his twin and his grandma didn't make it into the Compound, which is meant to keep the family safe from nuclear fallout after Eli's dad tells them the world has been destroyed by a nuclear bomb. His dad is obsessed with nuclear war and it just so happens he's a billionaire. Eli spends a lot  of time in the beginning missing his brother and bemoaning the fact that he is the reason Eddy isn't there. I get that thinking you're the cause of your brother's death would eat away at you, and I guess if you've got nothing but time to dwell on it, then it would consume your thoughts. I found it annoying.

The author had the potential to make Eli's dad a truly crazy person but I didn't find him crazy in the scary way I was hoping to. He's just plain off his rocker. He has a few, brief moments of evil. I wish he would have been more like that throughout the story because then it would have made the reader feel more desperation for Eli and the rest of his family.

I could not get past the Supplements. About halfway through the book you find out what's behind that ominous yellow door. It's children that Eli's mother and father have given birth to while living in the Compound. Their purpose? To provide a solution to the growing food shortage. Eew, eew, and double eew. Eli's dad plans to test their will to survive by seeing if they will get desperate enough to eat their own brothers and sisters. He loves Eli, Lexie, Terese and his wife so much that he's spent millions of dollars creating the Compound, yet he cares nothing for his other children. Then you find out that it's all been a lesson in entitlement. The dad feels like the kids need to learn what it's like to not have everything handed to them on a silver platter so he decides to go to the ultimate extreme and make them live like the world has been destroyed. Those elements of the story ruined it for me. I don't know if the author thought that would really make Eli's dad seem sadistic or what, but I think she could have gone about it in a much more subtle, scarier way.

I did like the leave-you-hanging ending. That was probably the most suspenseful part of the story for me. I'm disappointed in this book. It could have been much better than it was.