Bunker 10 by J. A. Henderson

4.5 stars -- I like it a lot.

On the back flap of this book, J. A. Henderson says, "Bunker 10 is a dark, adult novel in which the heroes (and some of the villians) just happen to be kids."

I'm not sure that I would agree about Bunker 10 being an adult novel, but it certainly is fun to read as an adult. In his own words, the book is about "Kids trapped in an escape-proof complex that is going to self-destruct and is filled with homicidal maniacs, terrorist infiltrators, and a deadly infection..."

The author does fabulous work at leading the readers on. All of his explanations are plausible, and I, at least, was never quite sure which story to believe.

And while the list of things going on in the book sounds like a lot to pack into 272 pages, Henderson does it well. Nothing was out of place, and nothing felt like it was just too much for the story. Everything was woven together extremely well.

The only complaint that I have is that there were, perhaps, too many central characters with very common names (Simon, Dave, Jimmy) and common characteristics. It was easy for me to mix them up at the beginning of the story, especially since there were usually always four or five people conversing at once.

I also found the characters hard to like for the middle part of the story, because the reader is told that they are modeled after dictators (Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin), and I just didn't want to feel sympathy for a child who would later grow up to be Hitler.

Overall, I really liked this book. There's genius children, army compounds, time-traveling soldiers, genetic mutations...

It's just a really fun and absorbing read! I never knew where the story would end or how it would get there. In a market short of great books for teen boys, this is one that crosses the gender barrier and does it well.