Book Review: The Bunker Diary

I just finished reading The Bunker Diary, by Kevin Brooks. The book is a YA thriller/suspense, at around 200 pages. I had read good things about it, and knew that it won the Carnegie Medal. Not that winning awards necessarily means I will enjoy the book, but I usually take it into consideration as a whole. I also read there was some controversy surrounding the book, and that just drew me in even more. I'm a bit of a moth to a flame when controversial YA books get published.

The Bunker Diary is the story of Linus, a 16-year old runaway who lives on the streets of London. Linus is not a typical runaway; his father is a rich and famous cartoonist, and he ran away to leave his father and his world behind him. One day while trying to play good Samaritan, Linus is drugged, locked in the back of a van and deposited in a bunker.  As the days go on, more people are deposited in the bunker with him: Jenny, a 9-year old girl, Fred, a recovering drug addict, and so on.

The story is told from Linus' point of view, and I was engrossed the entire time. I wouldn't say I "enjoyed" the story, as it is hard to like a story of this kind. I was with it until the very end. There are many questions regarding their kidnapper (who is he? What is his motive? Is he even real or a figment of Linus' imagination?) but we never learn anything of him. What frustrated me the most was the absolute savagery of the story. It just seemed to not have a point in the end. Is it a cautionary tale to avoid talking to strangers? For such a short novel, the characters are drawn out and we start to care about them-perhaps too much, as my mouth was left hanging open at the very last page of the book. Take caution: this is not a feel-good read.