Blake Crouch, who's well known for dark twisty sci-fi books like Dark Matter, Recursion, and Upgrade, began his writing career by self-publishing 'Run' in 2011. This debut novel, which was re-released in 2024, is a stomach-churning thriller.
*****
Picture this: You're watching television and start to see chyron after chyron reading something like, "45 Dead in Mass Shooting at a Church in Columbia, South Carolina."
And then you hear a woman on the local radio station reading off the names of people to be killed, such as, "Jim Barbour....His address is Two Carpenter Court.....and while you're in the neighborhood, stop by the home of Jack Colclough, a professor of philosophy at UNM. He lives at 1414 Arroyo Way. Go now."
And YOU'RE Jack Colclough, living on Arroyo Way in New Mexico, with your wife Dee, 14-year-old daughter Naomi, and 7-year-old son Cole. What do you do?
What you do is pack food, water, clothes, a road map, weapons, gas cans, camping equipment, etc.....and you RUN.
Jack, Dee, Naomi, and Cole load up their Land Rover and aren't even out of their driveway before they see the headlights heading for their house, with gunshots erupting into the night.
All Jack and Dee know is that five days ago, a good portion of the American population went insane. Affected people got out their rifles, handguns, knives, axes, chain-saws, and other killing tools.....and they began hunting down and murdering 'normal' people.
From here, the book is a saga of the Colclough's flight from New Mexico - their plan being to drive north through Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana and up to Canada, which is said to be unaffected by the insanity. Needless to say, the trip is dangerous and harrowing, and the Colcloughs are in constant jeopardy.
If you're a fan of TV series like 'The Walking Dead' you can anticipate the family's adventure: they need to find food and gas; they're constantly under threat; they have good luck; they have bad luck; there are injuries; there are separations; there are reunions; they see horrible things; they experience terrible things; and so on.
For instance, here's a description of people talking about a mass grave: 'Mapping system shows a hundred and seventy-five still down there.....Men, Women, Children.....High velocity gunshot wounds and dismemberment. In most instances, it's not a clean break, like a machete or ax strike. They cut everyone down with AR-15s and then went through with chainsaws. Making sure no one crawled out."
Jack, Dee, Naomi, and Cole are average folks with no special skills. However, they show remarkable resilience in unimaginable circumstances. They also have to deal with family drama, because Jack and Dee's relationship was strained before their flight from New Mexico, with Jack staying in the guest room for months.
The motif of this novel - the interminable run and chase - isn't my favorite theme. In addition, the manic scenes of peril are interspersed with slow sections of the Colcloughs driving, looking for shelter, camping, preparing food and the like. Thus the pacing is (inevitably) uneven.
I kept thinking the family would get somewhere and everything would be elucidated, but that's not quite the case. There IS an explanation of what happened, but the climax and denouement of the novel aren't completely satisfying. Still this is a good first effort for a talented novelist, and the book would appeal to fans of exciting adventure stories.
Thanks to Netgalley, Blake Crouch, and Ballantine Books for a copy of the manuscript.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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