Cover Story: Put Them in the Hole
Drinking Buddy: Recycled Water
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Psychological terror, violence, sexuality)
Talky Talk: Seen it
Bonus Factors: Bunker
Relationship Status: Friend of Necessity
Cover Story: Put Them in the Hole
It’s not the ladder to hell that drew my eye, but the utterly darkened mansion. Not a single light burning anywhere in that fog-draped manor. It’s like we’re under the dungeon under the haunted house. Freaky.
The Deal:
Ten years ago a horrible cataclysm hit the world. Everyone died. The air became unbreatheable, the sun became toxic, and the few survivors escaped to an underground bunker.
Three families, a dozen people. Our POV characters, Sash, Yuna, and Gabe, plus their parents and siblings. Living like rats in the sewers, they scrape out an existence in the dark, stretching out supplies for another year, living on gruel and rapidly diminishing canned goods, and praying for the day they can return to the surface.
These survivors live by the grace of Dr. Imogen Moran, who controls every aspect of life underground. She is in charge of day to day life, education, supplies…and punishments. And one must never break the rules of the underground: Always tell the truth. Always avoid the sun. Never touch skin to skin. And NEVER go outside.
But our three friends are teenagers, and are desperate to break the rules, especially the one about going outside. And in Sash and Yuna’s case, the one about touching.
Drinking Buddy: Recycled Water
Sash, Yuna, and Gabe have lived down in the hole together for almost all their lives. Best friends, confidants, and pseudo-siblings. Gabe, the asthmatic techie, whose parents may have more loyalty to Dr. Moran than him; Sash, the tough Russian girl whose mother and brother blame her for the death of her father; and Yuna, who can no longer look at Sash as just a friend.
How much longer can they survive down there? Five more years? Ten? Thirty? What will happen when the food runs out? And why they hell can’t they go outside? Dr. Moran treks up there every day in her bio hazard suit, but won’t answer any direct question about what’s happening up there. And what’s with the no touchy rule that the doctor enforces, even on the parents? Everything is going to come to a head soon.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Psychological terror, violence, sexuality)
Yeah, it’s only a matter of time before Yuna and Sash stop pretending they’re girlfriends and actually become girlfriends, even if they haven’t talked about it yet. Gabe knows the score, but is happy for his friends. But Dr. Moran controls every aspect of bunker life. This development would not be welcome.
Even worse, most of the rest of the residents are totally under Dr. Moran’s sway. If the kids decide they don’t like the rules, their families will not stand up for them. And punishment in the bunker is harsh.
Because there is a bunker under the bunker for those who question the doctor.
Talky Talk: Seen it
So…you know how this ends, right? I’m not the only one who saw the ending coming from page twenty, right? I mean, I’ve seen it in other books and the author did a good job of pretending like that wasn’t going to happen, but still. Called it.
Bonus Factors: Bunker
So imagine if your entire world were just a dozen rooms and the same few people over and over again. Day after day, year after year. Less and less variety of food every month. The monotony. The tedium. The sense of doom. Wouldn’t you be willing to risk a radiation storm just to see the sky again?
Relationship Status: Friend of Necessity
I read this because I needed something with a recent copyright to review for the librarians’ convention, but I enjoyed our time together. I probably won’t revisit you again, but it was fun while it lasted.
Literary Matchmaking
Roland Smith’s Beneath deals with the most terrifying of all prepositions.
Charlie Jane Anders’s All the Birds in the Sky also deals with morally shaky scientists.
Killer of Enemies, by Joseph Bruchac, is a more traditional end of the world adventure.
FTC full disclosure: I received neither money nor booze for writing this review.
