The Buried has 3 main characters: Sash, Yuna, and Gabe, which the book switches third-person perspectives between the three of them. The book takes place in an underground bunker after a Cataclysm. The sunlight and air became highly dangerous, forcing Sash, Yuna, and Gabe’s families to seek refuge in said bunker. This novel has a dystopian setting, but not on a large scale like many other books. Most dystopian literature has the conformity of citizens in which that conformity is enforced by the government or a dictator. However, in The Buried, the character that plays this role as the dictator is Dr. Imogen Moran. She acts as the strict leader over the small group of people residing in the underground shelter. She enforces the rules and the punishments and does not treat kindly those that question her. Her three strict rules are to always tell the truth, do not make physical contact, never come in contact with the Sun, and never go outside. The parents never stood up for their children, further giving the feel of a mini dystopian society. Their movement was restricted, their knowledge was restricted, their actions were restricted, and their thoughts and freedom were restricted, which is a major element in dystopian fiction. I liked this book. Wasn’t groundbreaking, mind-blowing, and life-changing but it was still interesting, to say the least. The ending was slightly predictable but was still enjoyable. The beginning was a bit dragged out and long, but it soon got into the plot. I recommend this book to those that enjoy dystopian literature. This book has a side LGBTQ+ romance that slowly builds, breaking down the rule of no physical contact. The book switches perspectives, always leaving you to want to read more, to find out what happened to the characters right before the perspective change in between chapters. I enjoyed the way the story was built, how it really put you into the perspective of the characters, and how their life must be down in the bunker. You don’t really yearn for the outside until it’s taken away, and that’s exactly what happened to them. It makes you think about how it must feel for them, to never be able to experience something we get to every day.
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