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. 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—really?
Review:
So this book sounded great in concept, but when I actually read it I found it horrible in practice. Why?
1. Characters. When most of the action takes place in an enclosed place like the Compound, there isn't much room for action, so the book has to be character driven. Problem is, the characters don't really drive the book at all. All the characters (even the first person-protagonist) are awkward, stiff and disjointed, and the only times they don't feel like that is when they're acting like total jerks - and some of the characters (especially the protagonist) act like jerks A LOT. This makes them very hard to connect with and feel for. (cue segue)
2. The plot. The disjointedness described above makes the plot feel very unrealistic, confusing, and just not very good in general. As if it wasn't bad enough already, some points and elements are never sufficiently explained (the author just keeps on beating around the bush when it comes to them) - which adds to the confusion. Take the Supplements for example - I never really got what their true purpose was, why they were kept separate from the rest of the family, and when that whole plan had been set into action - it was just really confusing. Not to mention many of the characters actions made little sense and were never properly explained either. Ugh - it's so confusing that it's hard to even explain what made it so confusing.
3. Pacing/Intensity. The Compound was really slow and boring for most of the book - it barely held my interest enough to keep me reading. It wasn't until the final third - quarter that things started to pick up and while the intensity and pace did get to a reasonable level then, the problems listed above took away from the book to the point where the climax wasn't even that satisfying.
All in all I was disgusted with this book. Frankly I can't see why people on amazon even thought it was good or recommended it. I think The Compound does not deserve recommending to anybody. Period.
2/5 stars
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