Book Review (fiction): Run / Blake Crouch - A landscape of American Genocide

Book Review: Run / Blake Crouch

Picture this: A landscape of American genocide...

5 days ago

A rash of bizarre murders swept the country...

Senseless. Brutal. Seemingly unconnected.

A cop walked into a nursing home and unloaded his weapons on elderly and staff alike.

A mass of school shootings.

Prison riots of unprecedented brutality.

Mind-boggling acts of violence in every state.

4 days ago

The murders increased ten-fold...

3  days ago

The President addressed the nation and begged for calm and peace...

2  days ago

The killers began to mobilize...

Yesterday

All the power went out...

Tonight

They're reading the names of those to be killed on the Emergency Broadcast System. You are listening over the battery-powered radio on your kitchen table, and they've just read yours.

Your name is Jack Colclough. You have a wife, a daughter, and a young son. You live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. People are coming to your house to kill you and your family. You don't know why, but you don't have time to think about that any more.

You only have time to...

RUN

RUN begins with an unnamed female arriving at an unknown site, a mass grave and we are left wondering what is going on? The book then shifts to Deanna “Dee” Colclough who has a scary encounter with her bit on the side, Kiernan as he asks her to get away from him before anything happens to her, there is a clear threat to her. We are then introduced to her husband Jack Colclough and his and Dee’s family, his teenaged daughter Naomi and his son Cole. Jack is a professor at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque and Dee is a physician. They are packing their things and trying to get their bearings as they plan to flee the city when Jack’s name gets called out on the emergency radio. Jack and his family rush out of their house and are brutally attacked  by people who are tracking the people whose names have been announced.

Thus begins their odyssey as they seek travel to the North not knowing who or what awaits them. The events which have caused this meltdown are alluded to and are slightly explained, its in common with the rest of this book which chooses not to go into too much detail, and ultimately it’s up to the reader to decide what triggered this situation. There is much more happening, but to describe them would ruin the story.. The action is shown throughout the lower continental US, Northern Mexico and southern parts of Canada with Jack and Dee’s journey taking them through the western half of the US as they try to avoid the ‘affected’’ and survive along with their children.

The book focuses deeply on the Colclough family, specifically the story of a father striving to do right by his progeny, RUN sees the world (well the United States at least) teetering on the verge of collapse.

Blake Crouch’s fuels this high-strung tale as he showcases a slightly dysfunctional family: Jack, the father struggling to save his family; Dee, the estranged wife who has to choose between her feelings for her lover and her family; and Naomi and Cole, the children who are shockingly thrust into a world where they have no control and no way to adapt... Crouch efficiently showcases the struggle faced by both parents as they try to explain the situation to themselves and their kids, with emotional family moments brilliantly juxtaposed by harrowing action scenes that will have readers turning the pages to see what happens next.

Besides the Colclough family, we also get bits and pieces of information about the environment from other characters we meet during the course of the story, although they are fleeting. The affected people meanwhile, seem sane enough in understanding what they are doing and the author provides clues about their motivations, but nothing is clearly spelt out.  For the affected, think less Shaun of the Dead and more the occasional headline grabber who goes crazy and offloads a shotgun on the high street.

There are very few drawbacks with the book. Readers might get frustrated at the absence of a concrete explanation for what is happening, but like in real life, many things occur which have only theories instead of rational explanations, we only have to examine the recent headlines played out over the missing Malaysian aircraft.  Also certain elements feel rushed one mid way through but more importantly the climax. It’s a common problem I find, the writer is in such a rush to get to the conclusion that the paced logical writing they have been using goes out of the window. There were certain passages in the last but one chapter that I had to re-read to ensure I understood what was going on. Its that inexperience of a relatively young author that detaches a tiny bit of credibility from the tale. Fortunately, the ending is not too over-the-top, (though brief) as to ruin the overall effect.

Summary: RUN is a simple, but effective rollercoaster, page turning tale about survival, the bonds of family, and the endurance of the human spirit. RUN exceeded my expectations and it’s an author and probably a title I will enjoy re-visiting in the future.