Customer Reviews

The Compound

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I absolutely was amazed by this book. Being a librarian that's obsessed with books, I couldn't help picking this book up in the store. The cover alone got me hooked. It was well paced and packed with amazing things. The story revolving around Eli. His family is dysfunctional, living in a compound under the ground after the world went kaboom.

When the story starts out he's pretty self absorbed, but as the plot starts to thicken he isn't so absorbed and starts to wonder about a few things that are going on. One of which is their food supply is starting to run low. His mother is pregnant, his sister isn't as much of a pain as he thinks, and his father is a complete... nutcase?!

This story was so intriguing that I found myself reading till all hours of the night. I loved it! It was an exceptional story about possibilities that sometimes we ignore. I hope to add this to our library collection.

I can't wait till her next book comes out... The Gardener...

The way I judge if a book is good or not is whether or not I can tolerate putting it down for more than half an hour. When I started reading this book, I didn't like putting it down, and it went with me everywhere I went. I had a guess of how the ending would turn out, but that just made me want to read it more to see if I was right or not. I found myself ranting at my friends every time there was a plot twist. I loved this book :)

I thought the premise for this book was FANTASTIC--such a creepy, fascinating idea for a story! Sadly, the book itself didn't make anywhere near as big an impression on me as the idea of it did. I felt like things moved along a little too quickly to feel realistic, and the characters were inconsistent and...just not quite believable. Several plot points were sloppy and didn't really make sense. And it seemed like every conflict or hurdle was overcome way too easily. It had the potential to be super dark, super suspenseful, utterly riveting, but in the end it just kind of falls flat. Maybe if it was twice as long and everything was fleshed out much more than it is?

Still an entertaining read, just...disappointing, because it could have been SO much better. :(

This is a cool, eerie story for teens that parents (like me) can't help but pick up, glance through - and then have to finish. My 7th grade son and 8th grade daughter are avid readers, including many classics and best-sellers, and they each got pretty into it. Well-written, with original and multi-faceted characters - it comes alive in your mind and carries you along like a good movie. Intense action, but with jolts of equally palpable tenderness (raw and real, not sappy). The ultimate sign of a winner: My son was restless after finishing it...sad/crabby that he was done with The Compound and not in the mood for reading anything else.

The main protagonist of The Compound is Eli Yanakakis, a fifteen year old boy who has spent the past six years of his life living in an underground, nuclear shelter built by his billionaire father. Growing up, the threat of nuclear war had always been a part of Eli's life; he lived in a hotspot for a nuclear attack and his father had a hobby of studying nuclear warfare. However, the most significant influence on Eli's life was his best friend and twin brother - Eddy. Eli and Eddy did everything together, from making a mess in the kitchen, to watching the sunset. Unfortunately, when Eli's father rushes the family into the Compound to escape a nuclear attack, Eddy is not with them, and the heavy silver door of the Compound is shut behind them. Six years later, as food supplies begin to dwindle earlier than expected, Eli starts to suspect that not everything is quite right in his new home.

My first impressions of this book were excellent. The characters all had unique personalities and the circumstances at the beginning paved the way for a suspenseful and a captivating story. While the plot turned out interesting and fast-paced enough to keep me from putting the book down, I thought that there were some issues. First, the plot seemed to progress almost too fast. After six years in the Compound without Eli questioning anything, he suddenly makes a series of startling discoveries in a matter of days. The end of the plot also left me somewhat disappointed. I felt that it left too many questions unanswered and the problem was not as fully resolved as I would have hoped.

There were also a couple of instances in the story where the author had Eli refer to things that had yet to be explained. Sometimes this made me want to keep reading to find out more, but at other times it left me wondering if I had somehow managed to skip a page. Another thing that left me slightly disappointed was how some mysteries were made to sound far more complex than they really were, while other complex problems were solved with far too much ease.

However, even with the problems already mentioned, I still found this book enjoyable to read. I just wish the plot had more substance and the story was longer.

The Compound is a short book by my standards, only 272 pages, but it packs a whole lot of punch. I love post apocalyptic fiction, stories of survival, for some reason they give me hope that I myself could endure such an event.

This is a story of a family, nine year old Eli , his two sisters and his parents barely make it into the familys compound before a nuclear war decimates the earth. Elis twin brother and grandmother are left outside due to circumstances and the severing of those ties is devestating. Elis father has thought of everything, the compound is fully stocked, and has all the comforts of home, but things go wrong one after the other and the family has to take drastic measures to ensure their survival (one of which is just shocking!) Soon Eli's hunches about their situation are confirmed and the book quickly shifts into overdrive.

This is young adult fiction that is inspired by the twilight zone, and even has some horror movie undertones, its a fast read that is well thought out and intriguing even to adult readers.

This book was a thrill ride that I never expected, with a shocking story line that seemed to come out of no where. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and even stayed up late into the night to finish it in one day. I had to know what happened. This book sweeps you along from the first sentence and does not let up, and then... just when you think that you know what is going to happen, another plot twist comes and takes you at break neck speed to the book's creepy and harrowing conclusion.

The Compound is an interesting little nesting-egg kind of story. The reader opens the cover anticipating a straight-forward, post-apocalyptic tale, but as the plot unravels layer by layer, a very different story is revealed. Author S.A. Bodeen is ambitious in her first novel, showing a talent for literary slight-of-hand that would make the writers of LOST envious.

The story begins with 9-year-old Eli and his family being driven from their beds in a panic and sealed into an elaborate underground bunker designed by his multi-billionaire computer mogule father. The worst has happened: nuclear war has finally broken out. Luckily, his father has spent years preparing for this tragedy, making them the only probable survivors of the bombs and fallout.

Unfortunately, in the chaos, Eli's twin brother, Eddy, and his grandmother were left behind on the outside. As the family begins their 15-year stay in the Compound -- the amount of time his father says the land needs to recover from the nuclear blast -- Eli mourns for his twin and everything they left behind above ground. It's not that the Compound doesn't have all the comforts of home. His dad spared no expense, from luxurious bedroom suites, to an elaborate livestock corral and extensive hydroponic grow rooms built to maintain a sustainable food supply. But six years after they entered the Compound, things have started to go wrong. The livestock have all gotten sick and died. The grain supply has turned grey and rancid. And his father's plans for surviving the next nine years through use of "Supplements" are straight out of a science fiction nightmare.

Through it all, now 15-year-old Eli is tormented by the feeling that Eddy is still alive, somehow. He still feels an eerie connection with his twin, and can't shake the feeling that maybe there are survivors above ground -- and that maybe things aren't as bad as his Dad thinks they are on the surface. He begins to investigate and question, and finally, plot a way to get out of the Compound and find the answers about the world above for himself.

I enjoyed The Compound, but did have some difficulties with the novel. Primarily, the main character is not very likeable. His self-centeredness and detachment realistically reflect his extreme experiences and the loss of his brother, but it does make it harder to care about his struggles. Eli does, however, experience a lot of growth throughout the course of the book, and redeems himself in the end.

Bodeen builds a lot of tension during the book, and tackles some very interesting ideas throughout. It's a quick read that will appeal to lots of readers of all ages that should be as eager as I to uncover the reveal the surprising secrets waiting in The Compound.

I don't read a lot and when I do its books like this. I was a fan of "The Giver" and the Mockingbird series books like that. So this book was right up my alley. I was confused what the book might be about based on other reviews but it was definitly a good book. I finished it in basically a day, because I could not put it down. I had to put it down for a while to go run errands and kept thinking "whats going to happen!" Definitly a great book. My only disapointment was when I got to the end... it was over, i want it to keep going on and on. Some books, it takes FOREVER to get to the plot, this one got there farily quick and it was nice. I got to find out what was going on fast. There wasnt a huge delay in getting to the idea, or seeing what happened... it happened quickly, and i like that.

First things first, I will say that the premise of this book is a bit interesting. When I read the description, I immediately remembered how much I liked that movie "Blast from the Past" with Brendan Fraser, and figured this book would do it for me because they had the same basic premise. Sort of. I'm slowly and shamefully admitting that I might just be a Brendan Fraser fan, and yes, you can judge me for that. I deserve it.

I'm giving this book two stars because of premise and because of entertainment. As I'm sure you've noticed, it's a great idea and after reading this book, I can say I tore through it and was genuinely engaged.

However. (SPOILERS)

I wasn't a fan of the writing style. There's literally a scene where the protagonist like stands in front of a mirror (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, there MAY not have been a mirror) and describes his entire person (that definitely happens). Really? That's the best you got? Show, don't tell. And then the voice of the narrator in general was annoying. He used colloquialisms that few teenagers would ever use--well, normal ones, at least.

Then there was the issue of money. This compound was so so so excessively expensive. His father's argument as to why he did what he did was to test the capabilities of the family? Okay, so giving them a 5 billion dollar compound is really a great test? Dude, you're just a nutcase. Pee in a jar like a normal nutcase and don't drag your poor kids into your crazy.

The semi-incestuous undertones between the older siblings was creepy. That's all I can say.

And the IM conversation with his twin brother was SO ANNOYING. His father is a genius billionaire. He wouldn't let something like that slip through the cracks. He seriously doesn't have a password on his wifi? Seriously? I have a password on my wifi and I still don't know how to use the cloud feature on my iPhone.

And then I felt like Bodeen just wanted to be as slap-in-the-face-hey-I-bet-you-ain't-never-seen-this-insanity-before as possible. The intended breeding and cannibalism was tiresome. Any reader would know that it was just never going to happen. Come on now.

All in all, I think this book falls flat in the most important places. A solid premise, but poorly executed. Not for me. I see the appeal, but there are a ton of better books in this field that I think deserve more attention.