Fourteen-year-old Melinda Green has just started at a new school after her parents had to sell the family farm. Now her mother is in hospital, her dad is unemployed, and they’re living with her vegetarian aunt.
Mel has made friends with the boy next door, despite being told to stay away from him because his brother has disappeared after being accused of a crime, which means his family are a bad influence. However, Rory is in a wheelchair, so probably isn’t the person who is a bad influence … although he does have an obsession with strange animals and has quite the collection in his back shed.
One of his pets is Lucy, a tarantula.
Mel has a spider phobia, so she and Lucy are not going to get on. I have to say I can totally understand Mel’s phobia. Normal New Zealand house spiders don’t bother me, but Australian spiders are a different matter. They’re bigger and badder and more deadly than New Zealand spiders and being afraid of them seems like a perfectly normal reaction to me.
But Mel’s phobia and Rory’s passion does bring them together. As the boy in the wheelchair and the new girl in school, they are both targets for the school bullies, who happen to be linked to the crime Rory’s brother is accused of. So maybe Mel’s father has good reason for warning her to stay away from Rory and his family.
The whole story is told in first person, from Mel’s point of view.
The best part about this was in kept us in Mel’s head and gave us a chance to really get to know her. I found the teenage voice authentic and accurate, with none of the “old person” words I sometimes see in fiction written for teens and young adults (words like dear and folk). It was also great to see the way the story made somethings clear (like the fact that Mel’s school bully lived in an abusive household) without having to spell it out. For much of the novel, I wasn’t even sure if Mel had worked it out, even though it seemed clear to me.
It was good to see a disabled character as a main character in a Young Adult novel. It was even better to see a disabled character who wasn’t a cliche, either as the object of pity or the effervescent hero, and yet is also a main character who plays a significant part in driving the story forward.
Running Scared by Susan J Bruce is a strong debut Young Adult novel, featuring a lonely teenager, a boy in a wheelchair, and a spider. #BookReview #YoungAdult Click To TweetOverall, the writing was excellent, the characters were compelling, and the story was a great mix of home and school, with a good bit of suspense thrown in (and not just from Lucy the spider).
Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review.
About Susan J Bruce
Susan J Bruce is a former veterinarian turned award-winning author, professional copywriter and animal artist. Susan’s veterinary background invades her writing and animals run, fly, or crawl into nearly all of her tales. When Susan’s writing group challenged her to write a story that didn’t mention any animals—she failed! Susan lives in sunny South Australia with her husband, Marc, and their furred and feathered family. This currently includes a fat tortoiseshell cat, a rescue cockatiel, and an irrepressible ShiChi (Shih Tzu x Chihuahua) who thinks her mission in life is to stop Susan writing.
Running Scared is Susan’s first novel and was awarded the 2018 Caleb Prize for an unpublished manuscript.
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About Running Scared
The one good thing in my world is Rory. Maybe he sees things differently because he’s been in a wheelchair for the past eight years, but Rory always knows how to make me laugh.
Problem is, Dad doesn’t want me anywhere near him. He doesn’t trust Rory or his family, especially as Rory’s brother is wanted by the police.
And now even I’m scared about what Rory might be hiding …
