The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks
"Room"
meets "Lord of the Flies"
"The
Bunker Diary" is award-winning, young adult writer Kevin Brooks'
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...'
(Waterstones.com
synopsis)
Earlier
this week, Kevin Brooks’ The Bunker Diary won the Carnegie Medal,
an award held each year by CILIP. The Bunker Diary is told from the perspective of a character named Linus, a teenage boy who finds
himself locked in what appears to be an underground bunker with no
recollection of how he got there. The novels bleak storyline has
sparked a debate, with the question of happy endings in teen fiction
being at its centre.
Of
course, as with any piece of literature, opinions are divided. There
have been articles praising the challenging subject matter, such as this one featured in The Guardian. This article from The Telegraph,
however, questions whether such a book should win the Carnegie Medal.
There have also been questions asked about the nature of the Carnegie Medal, with many people protesting against Brooks’ award because it is not a book for children. This question is briefly answered on the Carnegie Award website, the response being: ‘It is possible to recognise that a book is intended for children and young people in a number of ways i.e. through the publishers list they appear on, by the way they are marketed etc.’
