In many ways much more claustrophobic and prosaic — yet maybe closer to what might actually happen. A real page-turner which communicates the sheer monotony and boredom as well as the drama resulting from personal and communal pressures. The writer delivers quite a smart and realistic ending.

An excellent novel dealing with very difficult issues regarding human morality and actions in an admittedly impossible situation… very thoughtful regarding how humans can react with one another under extreme conditions.

Sheltered... by Kim Gordon-Bates is a dystopian post-apocalyptic fiction that centers around a selected group of people with different backgrounds who are locked in an underground bunker to escape the nuclear war that destroys the surface world. The book opens with Clyde Jenkins, a communication expert, describing the current situation in the world. Clyde is among the lucky ones who get to take his family to the HMG shelter B29. There's no time limit for how long they will stay in the bunker because the government isn't sure when the air will be safe again. The author did an amazing job capturing the mental deterioration of the people living in the bunker. They were lively in the beginning. They had many fights and disagreements as expected, like when they had a serious argument over which religious festivals should be celebrated. However, as months passed, you could see how the energy around became subdued, and these characters lost their sense of normalcy, which was sad. Some suffered extreme depression, some died from natural causes, suicide, or murder, and some seemed to lose the whimsy they had at the beginning, like Clyde. If I were in a situation like this, I think I would rather have died during the nuclear blast than live like this. I really liked reading from the perspective of the teenagers. They seemed more organized than the so-called adults. I liked their meetings and the notes they made about what they would want the new world to be like once they eliminated the adults and were allowed outside. Some of the rules were funny, like the suggestion for everyone to receive free ice cream on Sundays. It was voted against, but it was funny. They, however, voted for all the adults to be declared enemies. The author did a good job creating different characters with very distinct personalities and backgrounds. I really liked some of the characters, like Clyde with his random Latin phrases, Monica, the half-Chinese woman who smuggled her cat into the shelter, her lovely elderly roommate Julie, Elsie, who was in charge of the shelter garden, and, of course, Nurse Lucy, who remained positive despite her new reality. I found some of the characters disturbing, like Matt, and I hated others, like Malcolm. I was angry when he wrongfully accused Lucy of being the culprit who stole the drugs. I felt like the accusation was racially prejudiced. One of the craziest moments was when Peter saw Matt in the kitchen grinning while making curry with dog meat. One of the aspects I didn't really enjoy was the multiple POVs and characters. It took time to get used to the multiple POVs and remember each character, which proved to be difficult. I had to make a note of the characters and their unique traits just to remember them. I still grew to appreciate the different perspectives because they allowed me to see how each person was dealing with the situation. Another aspect I didn't enjoy was the pacing. The pacing felt really slow for me, with a lot of repetition in the characters' inner monologues about their past lives. I can't accuse the author of false advertising because the book wasn't advertised as a mystery or action novel. I was simply expecting something that wasn't there. I thought the novel would be similar to a series I watched, Silo, but the only common thing was that humans lived in bunkers because the outside world wasn't safe. The ending was quite eventful compared to the rest of the book, but it felt rushed compared to the slow pace of the other parts of the book. I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy character-driven stories and books that show the psychological effects of prolonged isolation. The book also explores heavy topics such as animal cruelty, child rape, and suicide, so this is a trigger warning. 3 star review

Given the fact that nuclear Armageddon has been hanging over humanity since the 1950s it is surprising that there are not more classic or contemporary novels dealing with how society would deal with the after effects of a nuclear war. Perhaps like our own mortality there is a psychological tendency not to dwell too much on it. On the Beach (Neville Shute) and The Road (Cormac Mc’Carthy) are two stand out classics that were both turned into movies. Like some of the dystopian stories on TV or Film like the 28 Days Later franchise they tend to focus on societal breakdown out in the open. Kim Gordon Bates’ book is many ways is much more claustrophobic and prosaic yet maybe closer to what might actually happen. Sheltered focuses on how a British government would respond, how the state would try to maintain a functioning core of specialists, experts and administrators. Well researched Clearly this book is well researched and it takes us on a journey with a group that is selected to go down one of the bunkers designed to survive for several years underground. Although these government plans are not in the public domain they do exist and are updated from time to time. If you google the question you get an answer about the government running down many of these shelters following the end the Cold War but it hardly credible that there are no plans similar to the ones shown in the book. From the start we experience the impact on families of the government selection of who gets into the bunkers since it is just very close family. In a typically British touch there is a bit of a fuss when people take their pets in – despite a ban. The story is as much a sociological or psychological study of how a group manages itself underground for months, even years. Peter Kennard's satirical take on the booklet ‘Don’t forget to take this booklet with you’ portrait poster using photomontage and text. From a set of 18 colour A3 posters by Peter Kennard produced by the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1985. Similar to the title poster a skeleton appears half length against a black background holding a ‘Protect and Survive’ leaflet. The author structures the book in chapters each from the viewpoint of one of the dozen or so characters. This multi-narrator matrix works well as you absorb each person’s outlook with their reaction and attitudes to everyone else. These characters reflect the realities of a multicultural/multi ethnic Britain. We have different faiths represented and even people who want to critically discuss the politics that led to the disaster. Tensions below I liked the way the story avoided melodrama. The dramatic conflicts and confrontation between the people locked down below seemed credible. There is an interesting reflection on the effectiveness of different forms of leadership and how you can generate cooperation but at the same time be aware of its limits. The leadership and committee structures are established before the people go down but the writer shows how people raise issues of ‘democratic’ representatives and challenge some of the decisions made by the shelter chief. As time goes on and tensions emerge you also have the emergence of what you may define as more authoritarian leaders. All the organisational details are intriguing. The shelter has a small nuclear reactor to provide all power, there is a garden with special lighting and water to grow a limited amount of vegetables and an internal internet system. To survive people have to change their previous way of living to a more communal and very structured system. At times with the public address system, the communal refectory and the organised group activities it has the feel of a very particular form of British holiday camp in the early 60s. The writer catches the peculiarly British tone of getting on with it, making do and the mythical blitz spirit. Of course that cannot last… What the book shows is that the risks to community stability is not necessarily the austerity of the material conditions – the boring diet based on stored rations, the limited space and lack of natural light – but the sheer tedium and boredom of it all. Inevitably tensions emerge between couples and different groupings. The shelter leadership has to deal with issues of unlawful behaviour without having the usual resources. Drug dependency is another issue that develops. There is a slow burn to a climatic conclusion. Not just a work of fiction It is a real page turner which both communicates the sheer monotony and boredom as well as the drama resulting from personal and communal pressures. Inevitably you picture yourself in such a situation. What would you do? You keep reading also because you want to know how it will end. Will they survive? If they do get out what will they find? The writer delivers quite a smart and realistic ending. As Gordon-Bates says in the prologue ‘It is a work of fiction, or just about’. Certainly it is work of fiction that demands we pay attention to the continued risks of most of us being annihilated and the ‘sheltered few’ not having it much better. A strong anti-war movement that argues against the use of nuclear weapons and for disarmament could eventually be a matter of life and death for us all. We should also demand the absolute transparency of government plans. Today the consequences of climate change are added to the mix of factors that could lead to dystopia. In fact in Ian McEwan’s latest novel, What we can Know, it is the combination of a ballistic missile falling off target in the middle of ocean that aggravates the already rising sea levels. Given how Trump talks today of bombing Iran back to the stone age and the British government keeps telling us to be ready for war, the threat of the Sheltered scenario is not as fictional as all that.