the reading chronicles

For fans of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Thomas Harris, picture this: a landscape of American genocide...

5 D A Y S A G O
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 D A Y S A G O
The murders increased ten-fold…

3 D A Y S A G O
The President addressed the nation and begged for calm and peace…

2 D A Y S A G O
The killers began to mobilize…

Y E S T E R D A Y
All the power went out…

T O N I G H T
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….

R U N

This 80,000-word novel also contains a bonus interview with Blake, and excerpts from his other work. [ synopsis from goodreads ]

I just really, really don't know what to do with this book. And, unfortunately, this review will probably be a mess because of it. So, *cracks knuckles* proceed with caution, I guess.

So let me preface this by saying that Blake Crouch is one of my absolute, hands down, all time favorite authors. I have read almost all of his books and have loved each and every one of them.

Except this one.

It's probably for my own stupid reasons too. I've always, always, alWAYS had a problem with zombies. (This is by no means a zombie novel but hear me out for a second. I'm going somewhere with this.) As a deep lover of all things horror, it has always bugged me that I just generally don't love zombies. But there's something about a world that is so completely and totally gone that makes me wonder why anyone would want to survive in it?? Why do people in zombie movies try so hard to survive? What is left for them? Eventually there will be no where left to run. There's already no home to get back to. Food runs out. Gas runs out. There's danger at every turn. What are you running to? Why? What is left to survive for? These are all the questions I have never been able to answer. These are the reasons why I avoided zombie movies for years. Though I did, eventually, find a few good ones and change my views a bit. But the fact still remains that I absolutely, 100% do NOT identify with people trying to survive in zombie movies.

And about 90% of this book is in the same strain as a zombie novel.

So that is probably the big, cosmic reason why I never connected with this book. I couldn't understand why they were so intent on running. On staying alive. On surviving. What was there left for them? Why would fighting for survival change anything? Why would living be better than dying? It would've saved a lot of heartache, that's for sure.

I have never been one to fantasize about being the last person left on earth. I have never been one who dreams of rebuilding the future. I would rather be one of the dead ones.

... Okay I'll stop being depressing now and actually talk about this book.

So I don't even know when I started this book. It was back in August or October or something. And in that time until now, I only made about it about halfway through. I just couldn't do it. But after that halfway point, it did start to interest me more. A few things happened that helped me invest more in the story. And I did end up liking the ending so that made it all worth it, I suppose.

The problem was that I also never really connected with the characters either? Until the end, at least. But for a big chunk there I didn't really care what happened to any of them. But then when backstory started happening then I did find myself wanting them to survive and find some sort of peace. I also really enjoyed Dee and Jack's relationship and how it progressed throughout the novel. And I didn't realize that I actually liked their relationship (or more that it was progressing and I was enjoying watching it progress) until the end. It really snuck up on me.

But everything that I genuinely love about Crouch novels was all present. The short sentences and chapters. And the action! All of those things were present, accounted for and the usual amount of amazing. It was just the overall story that I wasn't that fond of. (Which was all me.)

But, in the end, the explanation of what had happened and why it happened was nothing short of brilliant. It definitely did make the look back on this novel really wonderful. And the writing in this novel was, as always, amazing. You really felt like you were experiencing all the things that Dee, Jack and the kids were experiencing (which is great from a writing standpoint but really, really bad for people like me who was like "wHY ARE YOU PUTTING YOURSELF THROUGH THIS STARVING TO DEATH BUSINESS?!?!").

So, in all, I did like this book more once I got to the latter half and then reached the ending. But I did have a lot of trouble with it initially and, therefore, don't exactly look back on the experience fondly. I'm mostly just glad to be done and moving on to other things. But I am glad to have read it. I just know that there are other Crouch books I prefer more than this one.

(Anyway, sorry this is such a mess??? But hopefully it's a slightly helpful mess?? And my dates on this one seem like I read this in the span of a few days but it was actually MONTHS I just can't remember how many months and didn't feel like guessing. So here have a disclaimer.)

review originally posted on goodreads