Saturday, October 5, 2024

Run

Run by Blake Crouch
10/22/24; 336 pages
Random House/ Ballantine Books 

Run by Blake Crouch is a very highly recommended apocalyptic thriller. This re-release of Crouch's first novel (originally 2011) is an un-put-downable horrifying death march following a man and his family running for their lives while trying to escape incomprehensible evil killing mobs in an America gone mad.

The epidemic of a killing rage began an now the infected are mobilizing and reading the addresses of those to be killed on the Emergency Broadcast System. Jack Colclough is listening over the battery-powered radio on his kitchen table in Albuquerque, and he just heard his name. People are coming to his house to kill him, his wife Dee, his teenage daughter Naomi, and his seven-year-old son Cole. They were packing their range rover to leave, but now they must leave immediately.

The race to escape the killing hoards sends them heading north with the goal to evade and survive. At one point they learn that an intense aurora borealis which could be seen in most of North America, likely in the 5 range, set off in those who watched it some genetically ingrained need to eliminate everyone who didn't see it. (Sort of a Day of the Triffids event and plot.) They also learn that Canada wasn't infected and has camps for refugees, so their goal is to keep going north.

Set disbelief aside and enjoy the fast-paced, intense, horrifying, heart-stopping, action-packed adventure. Along the lines of many classic B movies and stories of a similar ilk, the crisis sending them in survival mode may not be as fully explained as some readers want, but there have to be plenty of us who enjoy this kind of survival-thriller-action-adventure trope (dinosaurs, zombies, triffids, insects, etc.).

If you like apocalyptic stories mixed with survival tales, read Run. Thanks to Ballantine for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

 

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