Article Title
Keywords
Significant Shortcomings, Young Adult, Kevin Brooks, Distopian World, Horror, Family, Social Issues, Mystery
Document Type
Book Review
Abstract
Linus Weems has led a peculiar life. He’s rejected his famous cartoonist father’s wealth in favor of a life of homelessness on London’s streets, but nothing is stranger than the day he is kidnapped by a man faking blindness and held captive in a refurbished war bunker. The bunker has eight rooms, an elevator, surveillance equipment, and some notebooks that Linus fills with a record of his experience. Each morning the elevator opens with supplies, and, sometimes, additional captives. Jenny, a 9 year-old girl; Fred, a beefy drug addict; Bird, an angry businessman; Anja, a posh real estate agent; and Russell, a terminally-ill natural philosopher, join Linus in the bizarre social experiment. Despite their best attempts to communicate and escape, the group is trapped for weeks. Even more disturbingly, they cannot determine the motivation of their abductor. One by one the people succumb to madness or to the surprises that are sent down the elevator, such as drugs or Dobermans. In a sick twist of fate, the Man raises the elevator, turns off the power, and leaves Linus and his friends to starve. Linus is the last to die, and the final pages of his diary are filled with reflections on his life.
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Smith, Carlie
(2016)
"The Bunker Diary,"
Children's Book and Media Review: Vol. 37:
Iss.
8, Article 6.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cbmr/vol37/iss8/6