diff --git a/simdnbt/src/borrow/compound.rs b/simdnbt/src/borrow/compound.rs
index 1719cb2..26bc9c3 100644
--- a/simdnbt/src/borrow/compound.rs
+++ b/simdnbt/src/borrow/compound.rs
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ pub struct NbtCompound<'a> {
     values: &'a [(&'a Mutf8Str, NbtTag<'a>)],
 }
 
-impl<'a, 'b> NbtCompound<'a> {
+impl<'a> NbtCompound<'a> {
     pub fn read(
         data: &mut Cursor<&'a [u8]>,
         alloc: &UnsafeCell<TagAllocator<'a>>,
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ impl<'a, 'b> NbtCompound<'a> {
 
         let alloc_mut = unsafe { alloc.get().as_mut().unwrap() };
 
-        let mut tags = alloc_mut.start_compound(depth);
+        let mut tags = alloc_mut.start_named_tags(depth);
         loop {
             let tag_type = data.read_u8().map_err(|_| Error::UnexpectedEof)?;
             if tag_type == END_ID {
@@ -45,13 +45,13 @@ impl<'a, 'b> NbtCompound<'a> {
             }
             let tag_name = read_string(data)?;
 
-            tags.push(
+            tags.push((
                 tag_name,
                 NbtTag::read_with_type(data, alloc, tag_type, depth)?,
-            );
+            ));
         }
         let alloc_mut = unsafe { alloc.get().as_mut().unwrap() };
-        let values = alloc_mut.finish_compound(tags);
+        let values = alloc_mut.finish_named_tags(tags, depth);
 
         Ok(Self { values })
     }
diff --git a/simdnbt/src/borrow/list.rs b/simdnbt/src/borrow/list.rs
index 2315186..f97302d 100644
--- a/simdnbt/src/borrow/list.rs
+++ b/simdnbt/src/borrow/list.rs
@@ -29,8 +29,8 @@ pub enum NbtList<'a> {
     Double(RawList<'a, f64>) = DOUBLE_ID,
     ByteArray(Vec<&'a [u8]>) = BYTE_ARRAY_ID,
     String(Vec<&'a Mutf8Str>) = STRING_ID,
-    List(Vec<NbtList<'a>>) = LIST_ID,
-    Compound(Vec<NbtCompound<'a>>) = COMPOUND_ID,
+    List(&'a [NbtList<'a>]) = LIST_ID,
+    Compound(&'a [NbtCompound<'a>]) = COMPOUND_ID,
     IntArray(Vec<RawList<'a, i32>>) = INT_ARRAY_ID,
     LongArray(Vec<RawList<'a, i64>>) = LONG_ARRAY_ID,
 }
@@ -76,20 +76,26 @@ impl<'a> NbtList<'a> {
             LIST_ID => NbtList::List({
                 let length = read_u32(data)?;
                 // arbitrary number to prevent big allocations
-                let mut lists = Vec::with_capacity(length.min(128) as usize);
+                // let mut lists = Vec::with_capacity(length.min(128) as usize);
+                let alloc_mut = unsafe { alloc.get().as_mut().unwrap() };
+                let mut tags = alloc_mut.start_unnamed_list_tags(depth);
                 for _ in 0..length {
-                    lists.push(NbtList::read(data, alloc, depth + 1)?)
+                    tags.push(NbtList::read(data, alloc, depth + 1)?)
                 }
-                lists
+                let alloc_mut = unsafe { alloc.get().as_mut().unwrap() };
+                alloc_mut.finish_unnamed_list_tags(tags, depth)
             }),
             COMPOUND_ID => NbtList::Compound({
                 let length = read_u32(data)?;
                 // arbitrary number to prevent big allocations
-                let mut compounds = Vec::with_capacity(length.min(128) as usize);
+                // let mut compounds = Vec::with_capacity(length.min(128) as usize);
+                let alloc_mut = unsafe { alloc.get().as_mut().unwrap() };
+                let mut tags = alloc_mut.start_unnamed_compound_tags(depth);
                 for _ in 0..length {
-                    compounds.push(NbtCompound::read_with_depth(data, alloc, depth + 1)?)
+                    tags.push(NbtCompound::read_with_depth(data, alloc, depth + 1)?)
                 }
-                compounds
+                let alloc_mut = unsafe { alloc.get().as_mut().unwrap() };
+                alloc_mut.finish_unnamed_compound_tags(tags, depth)
             }),
             INT_ARRAY_ID => NbtList::IntArray({
                 let length = read_u32(data)?;
@@ -122,7 +128,7 @@ impl<'a> NbtList<'a> {
                 unchecked_push(data, COMPOUND_ID);
                 unchecked_extend(data, &(compounds.len() as u32).to_be_bytes());
             }
-            for compound in compounds {
+            for compound in *compounds {
                 compound.write(data);
             }
             return;
@@ -165,7 +171,7 @@ impl<'a> NbtList<'a> {
             }
             NbtList::List(lists) => {
                 write_u32(data, lists.len() as u32);
-                for list in lists {
+                for list in *lists {
                     list.write(data);
                 }
             }
diff --git a/simdnbt/src/borrow/mod.rs b/simdnbt/src/borrow/mod.rs
index 90513c6..f415aab 100644
--- a/simdnbt/src/borrow/mod.rs
+++ b/simdnbt/src/borrow/mod.rs
@@ -26,7 +26,8 @@ pub use self::{compound::NbtCompound, list::NbtList};
 pub struct BaseNbt<'a> {
     name: &'a Mutf8Str,
     tag: NbtCompound<'a>,
-    tag_alloc: TagAllocator<'a>,
+    // we need to keep this around so it's not deallocated
+    _tag_alloc: TagAllocator<'a>,
 }
 
 #[derive(Debug, PartialEq, Default)]
@@ -54,7 +55,7 @@ impl<'a> Nbt<'a> {
         Ok(Nbt::Some(BaseNbt {
             name,
             tag,
-            tag_alloc: tag_alloc.into_inner(),
+            _tag_alloc: tag_alloc.into_inner(),
         }))
     }
 
diff --git a/simdnbt/src/borrow/tag_alloc.rs b/simdnbt/src/borrow/tag_alloc.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ed404d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/simdnbt/src/borrow/tag_alloc.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,318 @@
+//! Some tags, like compounds and arrays, contain other tags. The naive approach would be to just
+//! use `Vec`s or `HashMap`s, but this is inefficient and leads to many small allocations.
+//!
+//! Instead, the idea for this is essentially that we'd have two big Vec for every tag (one for
+//! named tags and one for unnamed tags), and then compounds/arrays simply contain a slice of this
+//! vec.
+//!
+//! This almost works. but there's two main issues:
+//! - compounds aren't length-prefixed, so we can't pre-allocate at the beginning of compounds for
+//! the rest of that compound
+//! - resizing a vec might move it in memory, invalidating all of our slices to it
+//!
+//! solving the first problem isn't that hard, since we can have a separate vec for every "depth"
+//! (so compounds in compounds don't share the same vec).
+//! to solve the second problem, i chose to implement a special data structure
+//! that relies on low-level allocations so we can guarantee that our allocations don't move in memory.
+
+use std::{
+    alloc::{self, Layout},
+    fmt,
+    ptr::NonNull,
+};
+
+use crate::Mutf8Str;
+
+use super::{NbtCompound, NbtList, NbtTag};
+
+const MIN_ALLOC_SIZE: usize = 1024;
+
+#[derive(Default)]
+pub struct TagAllocator<'a> {
+    // it's a vec because of the depth thing mentioned earlier, index in the vec = depth
+    named_tags: Vec<TagsAllocation<(&'a Mutf8Str, NbtTag<'a>)>>,
+    // we also have to keep track of old allocations so we can deallocate them later
+    previous_named_tags: Vec<Vec<TagsAllocation<(&'a Mutf8Str, NbtTag<'a>)>>>,
+
+    // so remember earlier when i said the depth thing is only necessary because compounds aren't
+    // length prefixed? ... well soooo i decided to make arrays store per-depth separately too to
+    // avoid exploits where an array with a big length is sent to force it to immediately allocate
+    // a lot
+    unnamed_list_tags: Vec<TagsAllocation<NbtList<'a>>>,
+    previous_unnamed_list_tags: Vec<Vec<TagsAllocation<NbtList<'a>>>>,
+
+    unnamed_compound_tags: Vec<TagsAllocation<NbtCompound<'a>>>,
+    previous_unnamed_compound_tags: Vec<Vec<TagsAllocation<NbtCompound<'a>>>>,
+}
+
+impl<'a> TagAllocator<'a> {
+    pub fn new() -> Self {
+        Self::default()
+    }
+
+    pub fn start_named_tags(
+        &mut self,
+        depth: usize,
+    ) -> ContiguousTagsAllocator<(&'a Mutf8Str, NbtTag<'a>)> {
+        start_allocating_tags_with_depth(depth, &mut self.named_tags, &mut self.previous_named_tags)
+    }
+    pub fn finish_named_tags(
+        &mut self,
+        alloc: ContiguousTagsAllocator<(&'a Mutf8Str, NbtTag<'a>)>,
+        depth: usize,
+    ) -> &'a [(&'a Mutf8Str, NbtTag)] {
+        finish_allocating_tags_with_depth(
+            alloc,
+            depth,
+            &mut self.named_tags,
+            &mut self.previous_named_tags,
+        )
+    }
+
+    pub fn start_unnamed_list_tags(
+        &mut self,
+        depth: usize,
+    ) -> ContiguousTagsAllocator<NbtList<'a>> {
+        start_allocating_tags_with_depth(
+            depth,
+            &mut self.unnamed_list_tags,
+            &mut self.previous_unnamed_list_tags,
+        )
+    }
+    pub fn finish_unnamed_list_tags(
+        &mut self,
+        alloc: ContiguousTagsAllocator<NbtList<'a>>,
+        depth: usize,
+    ) -> &'a [NbtList<'a>] {
+        finish_allocating_tags_with_depth(
+            alloc,
+            depth,
+            &mut self.unnamed_list_tags,
+            &mut self.previous_unnamed_list_tags,
+        )
+    }
+
+    pub fn start_unnamed_compound_tags(
+        &mut self,
+        depth: usize,
+    ) -> ContiguousTagsAllocator<NbtCompound<'a>> {
+        start_allocating_tags_with_depth(
+            depth,
+            &mut self.unnamed_compound_tags,
+            &mut self.previous_unnamed_compound_tags,
+        )
+    }
+    pub fn finish_unnamed_compound_tags(
+        &mut self,
+        alloc: ContiguousTagsAllocator<NbtCompound<'a>>,
+        depth: usize,
+    ) -> &'a [NbtCompound<'a>] {
+        finish_allocating_tags_with_depth(
+            alloc,
+            depth,
+            &mut self.unnamed_compound_tags,
+            &mut self.previous_unnamed_compound_tags,
+        )
+    }
+}
+impl Drop for TagAllocator<'_> {
+    fn drop(&mut self) {
+        self.named_tags
+            .iter_mut()
+            .for_each(TagsAllocation::deallocate);
+        self.previous_named_tags
+            .iter_mut()
+            .flatten()
+            .for_each(TagsAllocation::deallocate);
+
+        self.unnamed_list_tags
+            .iter_mut()
+            .for_each(TagsAllocation::deallocate);
+        self.previous_unnamed_list_tags
+            .iter_mut()
+            .flatten()
+            .for_each(TagsAllocation::deallocate);
+
+        self.unnamed_compound_tags
+            .iter_mut()
+            .for_each(TagsAllocation::deallocate);
+        self.previous_unnamed_compound_tags
+            .iter_mut()
+            .flatten()
+            .for_each(TagsAllocation::deallocate);
+    }
+}
+
+pub fn start_allocating_tags_with_depth<T>(
+    depth: usize,
+    tags: &mut Vec<TagsAllocation<T>>,
+    previous_allocs: &mut Vec<Vec<TagsAllocation<T>>>,
+) -> ContiguousTagsAllocator<T>
+where
+    T: Clone,
+{
+    // make sure we have enough space for this depth
+    // (also note that depth is reused for compounds and arrays so we might have to push
+    // more than once)
+    for _ in tags.len()..=depth {
+        tags.push(Default::default());
+        previous_allocs.push(Default::default());
+    }
+
+    let alloc = tags[depth].clone();
+
+    start_allocating_tags(alloc)
+}
+fn finish_allocating_tags_with_depth<'a, T>(
+    alloc: ContiguousTagsAllocator<T>,
+    depth: usize,
+    tags: &mut [TagsAllocation<T>],
+    previous_allocs: &mut [Vec<TagsAllocation<T>>],
+) -> &'a [T]
+where
+    T: Clone,
+{
+    finish_allocating_tags(alloc, &mut tags[depth], &mut previous_allocs[depth])
+}
+
+fn start_allocating_tags<T>(alloc: TagsAllocation<T>) -> ContiguousTagsAllocator<T> {
+    let is_new_allocation = alloc.cap == 0;
+    ContiguousTagsAllocator {
+        alloc,
+        is_new_allocation,
+        size: 0,
+    }
+}
+fn finish_allocating_tags<'a, T>(
+    alloc: ContiguousTagsAllocator<T>,
+    current_alloc: &mut TagsAllocation<T>,
+    previous_allocs: &mut Vec<TagsAllocation<T>>,
+) -> &'a [T] {
+    let slice = unsafe {
+        std::slice::from_raw_parts(
+            alloc
+                .alloc
+                .ptr
+                .as_ptr()
+                .add(alloc.alloc.len)
+                .sub(alloc.size),
+            alloc.size,
+        )
+    };
+
+    let previous_allocation_at_that_depth = std::mem::replace(current_alloc, alloc.alloc);
+    if alloc.is_new_allocation {
+        previous_allocs.push(previous_allocation_at_that_depth);
+    }
+
+    slice
+}
+
+#[derive(Clone)]
+pub struct TagsAllocation<T> {
+    ptr: NonNull<T>,
+    cap: usize,
+    len: usize,
+}
+impl<T> Default for TagsAllocation<T> {
+    fn default() -> Self {
+        Self {
+            ptr: NonNull::dangling(),
+            cap: 0,
+            len: 0,
+        }
+    }
+}
+impl<T> TagsAllocation<T> {
+    fn deallocate(&mut self) {
+        if self.cap == 0 {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        // call drop on the tags too
+        unsafe {
+            std::ptr::drop_in_place(std::slice::from_raw_parts_mut(
+                self.ptr.as_ptr().cast::<T>(),
+                self.len,
+            ));
+        }
+
+        unsafe {
+            alloc::dealloc(
+                self.ptr.as_ptr().cast(),
+                Layout::array::<T>(self.cap).unwrap(),
+            )
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+// this is created when we start allocating a compound tag
+pub struct ContiguousTagsAllocator<T> {
+    alloc: TagsAllocation<T>,
+    /// whether we created a new allocation for this compound (as opposed to reusing an existing
+    /// one).
+    /// this is used to determine whether we're allowed to deallocate it when growing, and whether
+    /// we should add this allocation to `all_allocations`
+    is_new_allocation: bool,
+    /// the size of this individual compound allocation. the size of the full allocation is in
+    /// `alloc.len`.
+    size: usize,
+}
+
+impl<T> ContiguousTagsAllocator<T> {
+    fn grow(&mut self) {
+        let new_cap = if self.is_new_allocation {
+            // this makes sure we don't allocate 0 bytes
+            std::cmp::max(self.alloc.cap * 2, MIN_ALLOC_SIZE)
+        } else {
+            // reuse the previous cap, since it's not unlikely that we'll have another compound
+            // with a similar
+            self.alloc.cap
+        };
+
+        let new_layout = Layout::array::<T>(new_cap).unwrap();
+
+        let new_ptr = if self.is_new_allocation && self.alloc.ptr != NonNull::dangling() {
+            let old_ptr = self.alloc.ptr.as_ptr();
+            let old_cap = self.alloc.cap;
+            let old_layout = Layout::array::<T>(old_cap).unwrap();
+            unsafe { alloc::realloc(old_ptr as *mut u8, old_layout, new_cap) }
+        } else {
+            self.is_new_allocation = true;
+            unsafe { alloc::alloc(new_layout) }
+        } as *mut T;
+
+        // copy the last `size` elements from the old allocation to the new one
+        unsafe {
+            std::ptr::copy_nonoverlapping(
+                self.alloc.ptr.as_ptr().sub(self.size),
+                new_ptr,
+                self.size,
+            )
+        };
+
+        self.alloc.ptr = NonNull::new(new_ptr).unwrap();
+        self.alloc.cap = new_cap;
+        self.alloc.len = self.size;
+    }
+
+    pub fn push(&mut self, value: T) {
+        // check if we need to reallocate
+        if self.alloc.len == self.alloc.cap {
+            self.grow();
+        }
+
+        // push the new tag
+        unsafe {
+            std::ptr::write(self.alloc.ptr.as_ptr().add(self.alloc.len), value);
+        }
+        self.alloc.len += 1;
+        self.size += 1;
+    }
+}
+
+impl<'a> fmt::Debug for TagAllocator<'a> {
+    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> fmt::Result {
+        f.debug_struct("TagAllocator").finish()
+    }
+}