Author: Kevin
Brooks
Series: N/A
Published: 7 March 2013 by Penguin
Length: 268 pages
Warnings: many things. Highlight [start] suicide,
murder, quite extreme cruelty [/end]
Source: library
Other info: The
Bunker Diary won the Carnegie Medal in 2014.
Summary : Room
meets Lord of the Flies, The Bunker Diary is award-winning, young adult writer
Kevin Brooks's pulse-pounding exploration of what happens when your worst
nightmare comes true - and how will you survive?
I can't believe I fell for it. It was still dark when I woke up this morning. As soon as my eyes opened I knew where I was. A low-ceilinged rectangular building made entirely of whitewashed concrete. There are six little rooms along the main corridor. There are no windows. No doors. The lift is the only way in or out. What's he going to do to me? What am I going to do? If I'm right, the lift will come down in five minutes. It did. Only this time it wasn't empty . .
I can't believe I fell for it. It was still dark when I woke up this morning. As soon as my eyes opened I knew where I was. A low-ceilinged rectangular building made entirely of whitewashed concrete. There are six little rooms along the main corridor. There are no windows. No doors. The lift is the only way in or out. What's he going to do to me? What am I going to do? If I'm right, the lift will come down in five minutes. It did. Only this time it wasn't empty . .
Review: Linus has
been abducted and is now in a bunker. He doesn’t know why. More and more people
come into the bunker. They have to try and survive.
It is a terrifying idea. Everyone’s scared of random
abduction, of not knowing what’s going to happen to you. Also, another thing to
be scared of is humanity (I’ve learnt my lesson from that Doctor Who
episode-Midnight). What people will do to eachother. What people will really
think of eachother.
I liked the narration. It is, as the title suggests, the
diary that Linus keeps while he’s kept in the bunker. But we don’t know everything that Linus
does-it states he doesn’t write everything in case The Man Upstairs comes and
finds it. I really liked that idea-knowing even less than the character we see
the story through. I also liked seeing the different ways people reacted, even if I kenw it wouldn't be that good for some people.
It’s one of the books for me where the literary criticism
and reader criticism collide. From a literary point of view, I understand that
we don’t get much development of Bird and Anja-Linus spends less time with
them, reader spends less time with them. From a reader point of view, I want to
know what they’re all thinking. Even more of a clash is the ending. From a
literary point of view, I understand why Brooks would have ended it there.
Linus doesn’t know, so we don’t know. From a reader point of view, it’s very
unsatisfying. There’s no closure. We don’t get ANY of our questions answered.
It does keep you hooked from the start- not knowing anything,
only finding things out in bits, the new things that The Man Upstairs puts in
their way. Also, the tension, as well as the sittuation of being trapped, is
heightened by the fact that these people are going to be unpredictable, and
there isn’t a sense of cohesion, and ugh human relationships. The feelings of panic, of claustrophobia, of
uncertainness are brilliantly conveyed.
Overall: Strength
4 tea to a book that’s gripping throughout most of it, but is let down by the
end.
Love What you wrote about reader criticism and literary criticism. I also like the idea of Linus being an unreliable narrator. Sounds like a cool concept.
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