The Fallout

December 1, 2013

Gr 7-10-This book picks up in the weeks after the shocking events at the end of The Compound (Feiwel & Friends, 2008) and basically recounts the fallout of the family members' escape from the compound, where they were locked away for six years, and the death of its brilliant but unstable patriarch. Justifiably shell-shocked, most of the Yanakakis clan, believing the world as they knew it has fallen, concentrate on shielding themselves from the intrusive media and survival nuts who want to know their story. Pages are devoted to them settling in to a new home, but nothing much really happens. Eli has been reunited with his twin, who avoided imprisonment at the faked Armageddon, and the narrative reveals what everyone eats and wears, and how they pass the time. Mom is furious that her husband's henchman, Phil, is in charge of YK Industries until the boys become 25, and they go to the company to make a show of interest. Eli randomly picks from many charitable involvements a folder detailing the Progeria Institute's grants and demands a visit to the facility. Lackluster plot elements are thrown in: an adopted older sister's interest in her birth parents; trips to Costco, a Mariner's game, and the aquarium; stomach flu; and people posting online with sightings of them. None is particularly compelling. Eventually a threat of sorts to Eli and two of his siblings results in abduction and some discoveries, but few readers will experience shock or dismay on the characters' behalf.-Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Sugar Hill, GA

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2013
Grades 8-11 In this follow-up to The Compound (2008), Eli, his mother, and his siblings have been reunited with his twin and their grandmother after spending 2,000 days believing their world had been obliterated by nuclear attack. It was a lie, one of many told by Eli's brilliant but amoral father. Now, while trying to deal with the fallout (so to speak), Eli comes to believe that the horrors may not be over and that his father is still alive and hatching his next plan to control both his family and the world. Eli's first-person narration increases the immediacy of this standalone psychological thriller. Though the prose can be didactic, the emotion and pacing are realistic, and Bodeen does a fine job conveying the characters' paranoia and readjustment while living in the public eye after a sensational media event. Hints that the mad-scientist father is still on the loose, and enough action to offset the introspection, should make this appealing for a wide readership.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2014
Having escaped his father's underground bunker, Eli ([cf2]The Compound[cf1]) begins to investigate some shady medical research done by the company he has just inherited. Bodeen excels at using complex, uneasy family dynamics to escalate the corporate and psychological intrigue, driving tensions higher as the story unfolds. Crisp, atmospheric first-person narration never wavers from Eli's blunt, anxious voice.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

September 1, 2013
Having escaped the underground bunker where his father trapped him and his family (minus twin Eddy) for six years under the ruse of sheltering them from a nuclear war (The Compound, rev. 5/08), Eli finds life on the outside full of new complications. Still estranged from Eddy and restricted by his father's far-reaching legacy, Eli begins to investigate some shady medical research done by the company he has just inherited. As in the first book, Bodeen excels at using complex and deeply uneasy family dynamics to escalate the corporate and psychological intrigue, driving tensions higher as the story unfolds. Unfortunately, the medical conspiracy subplot that fuels the latter half of the book hinges on several contrived twists and is ultimately far less compelling than the family drama. Nevertheless, the family members' respective reactions to the disorientation of re-entering the real world are distinct and realistic, and Eli's ongoing concerns about the role of nature versus nurture in his development add relevant thematic depth. Crisp, atmospheric first-person narration never wavers from Eli's blunt, anxious perspective, allowing the book to sustain immediacy and draw empathy, even in its less successful plot twists. Readers won't be disappointed to learn what happens to this family once they make it above ground. claire e. gross

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)