I loved this book!! I think he gave a lot of emotional connection to the characters and it was very suspenseful the whole time. I struggled a bit with the ending. It felt like it ended too quickly with not enough information. Had a great time with it.

Rounding up to 4.25⭐️
I ended up listening to this one on audio and what a wild ride! This book was action packed from the beginning right until the very end. It was damn graphic and damn sad and it had just punch after punch after punch to the gut. I very much enjoyed it!

Run is an apocalyptic thriller centered around the family of Jack Colclough. In just a few days, mass chaos has taken over the USA as the public soon becomes two main groups: the hunters and the hunted. No one knows why this is happening, just that they have to get as far off the grid as possible to survive.

This book is a game of cat and mouse as Jack and his family are quite literally running and fighting for their lives. It also begs the question of: "If you had to pick up your life right where it is and fight for your family, could you do it?" We quickly learn in the first few pages that Jack and his wife have an extremely complicated relationship. But soon, all of that becomes moot as they have to pick up their kids and figure out how to stay alive. This book gets very dark very quickly and includes one of the most haunting scenes that will stay with me for a long time.

This book is also slightly sci-fy, and was Blake Crouch's debut novel that he is now re-releasing. He has clearly grown as a writer in his subsequent books like Dark Matter, but it's interesting to see how he started!

This book felt underdeveloped and I could've used more explanation. The character arcs were a little weak and it would've been nice to get more of a backstory on the family. I'm rating it 3.5/5 stars meaning I didn't dislike it but it's not going to be a reread.

I've enjoyed previous books by Blake Crouch and this was no different. I really enjoyed the mystery around why some people were affected and others were not. The terrifying group think around harming people who didn't see the light and couldn't "understand" was horrifying and felt a little too real with the current political landscape in the US. Overall, I enjoyed reading this and appreciated the ending.

I was so excited to receive this ARC because I'm such a huge fan of Blake Crouch, but I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much as his other books. I think I was just expecting too much and I should have lowered my expectations since this was his first book.

Overall, I felt the characters were underdeveloped, and I just couldn't seem to care much about the MC. This book was also a bit dark and disturbing at times, so beware of that if that's not something you're looking for.

read this in one day, wanted to vomit many times. fantastic book but it did feel a little repetitive at times

can guarantee i would have offed myself ten time over if this happened to me, that’s for sure

The reviews on this book were so mixed that I was a little nervous to dive in, but I loved Dark Matter so much that I needed more Blake Crouch in my life.

I really enjoyed this book— and by enjoyed, I mean I was utterly horrified and had to keep reading to hope and pray I reached a resolution at the end. A heads up before reading this that it’s extremely gory and gruesome. It kinda reminded me of The Walking Dead.

Also you should know going in that there are no chapters. However it’s broken up into segments, so it still made it easy to find stopping points which made not having chapters a lot easier to manage.

I wish that the aurora had been better explained and touched on more, and it may have been helpful to have a little more context on the family before jumping into the action. But I liked the layers of the family dynamics and the action really did keep me on my toes the whole time.

Thank you to NetGalley and RHPG for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts!

Boring. Characters were insufferable, especially Dee. Jack should have just left her. Everything about this story was unbelievable. Jack and Dee's relationship at the end. Their son. The way it ended. It felt like the author didn't know where else to run to so he just decided to end it. No reason given.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and Blake Crouch for an ARC of 'Run' in exchange of an honest review.

This book just wasn’t for me. I’m not a huge fan of dystopia or sci-fi. Too much violence and gore for my taste.

I love Blake Crouch, and was thrilled to see Run available on NetGalley.

Run follows an ordinary family set in a gripping apocalyptic America. This was an incredible thriller that I couldn't put down.

Run
Apocalyptic
Thriller
Buckle up for this apocalyptic thriller as a family of 4 fight for their lives against a world gone mad! I really enjoyed this book and loved the pace!
Thanks net galley and Ballantine Books for this Arc!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5 stars)

Blake Crouch delivers a heart-pounding, high-stakes thriller in Run, an intense story that feels like a race against time from start to finish. The plot plunges you into chaos right from the opening, with a gripping premise that imagines an America gone mad, forcing families to flee for their lives.

Crouch is a master of pacing, and Run is no exception—the action is relentless, leaving barely any room to breathe. His writing style pulls you right into the nightmare alongside the main characters, making you feel every tense moment and every desperate choice they have to make.

The characters, especially the father, Jack, and his family, are developed in a way that makes you genuinely care about their survival, which keeps you invested throughout. The stakes are personal and emotional, giving the story a strong sense of urgency. My only wish was for a bit more depth in the world-building, as certain aspects of the chaotic society were not as fleshed out as they could have been.

Overall, Run is a compelling, edge-of-your-seat thriller that will keep you hooked until the last page. If you’re a fan of intense survival stories, this one is for you!

Good lord, this book is unrelentingly brutal—The Purge meets The Stand. I think it has to be endured in one sitting because there's no other way to experience the level of anxiety this book gives you. There's no reality in which I would want to be a survivor of an apocalyptic event.

3.5 stars
I didn’t realize this was a re-release of an older title when I started reading it. Ias pleasantly surprised to discover it was a post-apocalyptic tale. Mysterious things are happening and our family is on the run to stay alive. The pacing was great and I was invested from start to finish.
*Thanks to NetGalley & Random House for the advance copy

This was an exhausting but interesting read that I couldn’t put down, keeping me on edge the entire time. A sudden rash of violence has taken over the U.S. in a single week…bizarre murders, mass shootings, & riots. In Albuquerque, Jack and his wife and 2 kids hear their names on the radio as targets to be killed. Packing everything they can, they start driving north to escape, finding more danger everywhere they go as they run.
This succeeded in keeping the reader on edge, as this family runs for their lives. Every time they felt safe, something else came to throw that all to hell. But it also felt too exhaustive at times, terrible things happening with no resolution. I also found the kids insufferable which drove me crazy while reading. This is my first Blake novel and I’ll definitely check some of his others out.
Thank you to Random House-Ballantine for the advanced copy of this re-release in exchange for my honest review.

The world is falling apart. Murders and death, everywhere you turn. The president has begged for peace- but to no avail. The power goes out nation wide, and the killers read out the names of those they will kill next over the EMS system. Your name is called, and you’re left with no choice but to run.

I will forever read anything Blake Crouch writes! The pacing on this one was amazing, and the concept was unique. I found my self at the edge of my seat, just needing to know what happened next. Thank you so much to NetGalley and publisher for this amazing ARC!

Crazy world unravels as we follow a family thru an apocalyptic event
Gripping till the end lots of action, makes you think for sure

I can hardly think of a book more perfectly titled than this one. The entire story is non stop action of a family running from something terrible. It takes a long time to know what the terrible thing is and the action picks up even more after that. This is a hard book to read and a harder book to put down. I'm a big fan of Blake Crouch and this is a reprint of one of his earliest books from 2011. Reading it, you can see his development as an author and the beginning of his foray into speculative stories. While his later stories have better development, this is still an interesting story to read, and if you are a Blake Crouch fan and missed this one, I would recommend picking it up.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an ecopy. My opinion is my own.

Full Disclosure: I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of Run by Blake Crouch from Ballantine Books via NetGalley. This book was first published in 2011. It is out again now!

Run by Blake Crouch gave me an anxiety attack from the first few lines. Run is an apt title because that is exactly what I wanted to do from the very start. If you read a synopsis in advance, you might have an idea of what is happening in the beginning. I did not do that, and I suggest you don't either. It is much better to let the story unfurl as the characters learn. It ramps up the intensity. I also probably should not have read this right before the election because things were already tense. This book did not help matters. Without giving too much away, the book is rooted in science fiction but could easily happen in real life, the only difference would be the cause. If you are already spiraling, maybe save this one for later. But if you are ready to RUN, I'd pick this up right now.

Sometimes Crouch is too smart for me to follow his books as closely as they deserve to be read. I still absolutely love them, however. So what I’m about to say is A COMPLIMENT even if it doesn’t sound like it. Run was an easy read. It wasn’t anything superbly complex. However, it was still riveting. You get so involved with Jack and his family. The tension and fear is palpable through the writing. You can tell Crouch has leaned further into his creativity with his more recently written novels, where this one is more straightforward. (Like I said, not a bad thing!!!) I think this would be the perfect book for someone to dive into his work.