They're free. Finally the Yanakakis family has escaped from the Compound where their father held them captive for six years leading them to believe the rest of the world had been destroyed and fooling Eli into believing he was responsible for the death of his twin brother, Eddie.
Now the billionaire family is above ground, father killed in a fire, and looking to start their lives back on solid ground. One small glitch however. Their father's will left control of the billion dollar company to his colleague, Phil Whitaker, until Eli and Eddie are 25 years old. Phil isn't at all interested in handing over the power and money to these two teenagers. Battle on. Mom is determined to see her boys at the helm.
With the stage set, Eli begins some sleuthing. He grabs a flash drive out of Phil's briefcase in the lawyer's office and the first clue that something is not right appears.
Now it will take Eli's instincts and guts to reach the final truths.
Family relationships, tension, betrayal and a love interest finish out the action begun in The Compound.
326 pages 978-1312650117 Ages 12 and up
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
*******
Eli and his family have just spent the last six years in an underground shelter called The Compound, believing they were the only survivors of a nuclear blast. When Eli learns his father was lying to them he orchestrates the family’s escape in which his father dies.
Now they are trying to adjust to life in the ‘real’ world. Their time underground has made them extremely famous and they end up spending most of their time in hiding while being pursued by survival nuts and the relentless media.
Eli is thrilled to be with his twin brother again but Eddy has a hard time understanding what his family has been through which strains his relationships with the whole family.
When Eli and Eddy find that they will inherit the whole company when they turn twenty-five they are both encouraged to find things of interest in the company that they can learn more about. Eli decides he wants to look into a medical research facility which leaves him with many questions on what kind of research his dad was involved in. The more he investigates the deeper and darker things look. What kind of man was his dad? Is his family really free now that they are back or are their lives being controlled again?
328 pages 978-0-312-65011-7 Ages 12 and up
Recommended by: Joleen Waltman, Librarian, Aberdeen, Idaho USA
*******
At the end of The Compound (which was a stand alone book, more on that later), Eli, his mother and siblings escape the Compound, an underground, fully-sustainable home, actually more prison than home where his father locked them up years earlier to escape the aftermath of nuclear war.
The Compound is destroyed, Eli and his family saved except for his father who dies with the Compound, and now lives that were once locked away must live under the watchful eye of the public. Eli is at first happy to see his identical twin brother Eddy, but soon realizes Eddy is jealous and mad that so many years were ripped away from him and their father.
Picking up the pieces of his broken life, Eli learns that his father's company is being run by shady, greedy adults and all is not as it appears. Secrets are being kept, futures decided, experiments performed, and lives are in danger. Eli needs to know who is behind the deception--and fast!
Whatever secrets YK Industries holds, they are willing to do anything to keep them. The relationship between brothers is tested throughout the book. When they are faced with a foe bigger and more dangerous, will they have each other's back?
Somehow Bodeen makes the most implausible plausible. The science behind Eli's dad's experiments make sense, even his reasoning seems nearly normal, but the family dynamic is hard to swallow. That was the only fault in the story for me. Would Eddy blindly follow a father who escaped a certain death, but who knowingly left his own son to perish? Would Lexie love a man who showed her no regard?
The Compound was meant to tell the story--the entire story, but Bodeen kept getting the same question over and over from teen fans: What happened next? They wanted to know. It got the writer thinking about what happened. Yes, the Compound is destroyed, but what happened to Eli? What happened to his father's company and billions? What happened to the family? What happened to the little kids who had never seen outside before? The Fallout answers the fans' questions.
Recommended for fans of Bodeen (and who isn't?) and those who read The Compound (and again, who didn't).
Grade 7-up. Some mature content and scientific experiments run amok. No profanity.
Recommended by Pamela Thompson, Librarian, Texas USA
See more of her recommendations: https://booksbypamelathompson.blogspot.com
