This was a wild ride and I actually really liked it! This is my first book by this author and it didn't disappoint! I am interested to read some of his other books now! Thank you NetGalley for my ARC! I'm a little bit late to the game reading it :)

We start with a spate of very violent crimes. Brutal. Senseless. Unconnected. Or are they ? School shootings, mass murder, many dead. But why ? And things are escalating... Governments are baffled but plead for peace. To no avail. The violence escalates further and the killers, although initially isolated, start to gather. To prey further on the innocent. To facilitate this, they broadcast names and addresses... and this is where we start... when Jack hears his name and address. He is home with his wife and two children. They are coming for them. To kill them... the only option left to them, as the title of the book suggests, is to RUN!
And so begins a cat and mouse chase with Jack and his family trying to evade and outrun the killers, at the same time as sort of also trying to work out what in the heck is going on, and why?
Yes it does get a bit samey along the way as all that really happens is that they come across the baddies and take certain steps to evade or fight back. We do get to a crossroads later on where things get a bit more worrying, but it does take a wee while to get there. That said, it never dragged or got boring and the destination was definitely worth the meandering journey.
If I have one criticism it is that the focus was mainly towards the action rather than the characters and I would have liked it to be a bit more character driven at times.
It is worth noting that this is a re-release of one of the author's early books and I guess it shows that he has come a long way since writing it. But it is also important to note that without it, he also wouldn't be the author he is today...
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Fast paced, exciting and suspenseful! I read this gripping, apocalyptical story in 4 hours. It follows a family as they fight for survival against all odds when they are forced to flee their middle class lives in Albuquerque to seek refuge from a madness that has descended upon a huge part of the population. Will of them reach safety before it’s too late. I highly recommend this gripping, throat grabbing book. Release date: 10/22/2024

Run is an apocalyptic thriller written and self-published by Blake Crouch in 2011. It's now being released by his publisher, and I was excited to get my hands on an early copy. Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Ballantine for the opportunity to read and review this one. Thank you to Blake Crouch for always writing mind-bending and pulse pounding thrillers that I can not put down!

5 days ago, America started to go mad. Seemingly, random violent murders started happening all over, but then the murderers began to organize. The power is out, but Jack Colclough hears the killers order his death over a battery-powered radio. Jack's only option is to take his family and run. But where do you go when it seems the world has gone mad? What are you willing to do to survive and keep your family safe? This truly terrifying tale of the ugliness of humanity feels way too close to a potential reality for comfort. Blake's creativity and intense writing style always suck me right in, and this was no exception. I wasn't sure my heart could take the anxiety of this one, but I couldn't look away!

I was really excited to get this ARC because I’ve enjoyed this author’s previous books and had high expectations. This apocalyptic thriller was fast-paced and full of intense, disturbing action from the very first page. It follows a family of four trying to survive in a chaotic world where people have suddenly turned into murderous psychopaths. Their journey for survival was gripping and full of tense moments, making it a quick and entertaining read.

However, while the book was fun, it didn’t feel very unique. The plot has been done before, and nothing about it really stood out as special. After a while, the story started to feel repetitive, with the same cycle of running, seeking shelter, and surviving. By the end, I found it predictable, which took away some of the excitement. While it’s an easy and thrilling read, it’s not my favorite from this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While I loved reading this book, I couldn't help but think that it's not very unique. It was highly entertaining but also forgettable. This plot has been done many times and nothing about this story really stood out to me as amazing. Its a super quick 80,000 word story and I would recommend it to anyone that wants a quick entertaining read.

Run by Blake Crouch is an intense, fast-paced thriller that throws you right into the action. The premise? A mysterious signal turns ordinary people into violent killers, and one family is forced to flee across the country, dodging danger at every turn. It’s a tense, cinematic read that keeps the adrenaline going.

While the pacing is propulsive, the middle of the book starts dragging, and things get repetitive. It’s also a classic "road story," which isn't really my thing—though if you’re into that genre, you might enjoy it more! Overall, Run delivers on thrills but could’ve used a bit more variation in its structure.

The country is being burned and taken over by those who witnessed a late-night aurora. To survive, Jack, his wife Dee, and their two kids must flee their home in Albuquerque and go on the run. This tale of survival will appeal to fans of dystopian thrillers.

As a rash of bizarre murders sweeps the country, seemingly ordinary people start turning violent. The country quickly devolves into chaos and one family is on the run for their survival, leaving everything behind and heading into the wilderness to flee the uncontrollable violence. Will they be able to outrun the people who are trying to kill them?

This was an extremely fast paced book that I couldn't put down. The author is fantastic at keeping you engaged and on the edge of your seat the entire time. The characters don't feel very developed--you do care about the main characters and their survival but don't get a great sense of them as people/individuals--but I didn't mind that so much because the main draw here is the plot. I do wish we got a bit more of an explanation for what was happening, as it was a little unsatisfying for everything to just fizzle out at the end with no real explanation. This definitely isn't as polished as his later books but the premise is intriguing and unsettling, the pace and the action is breakneck, and it kept me hooked the entire time.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book that Crouch originally self-published in 2011 that is being released from his publisher, Ballantine, on October 22, 2024. What an incredible ride this story is! Crouch has written some fantastic novels in the last 10 years and I have immensely enjoyed all of them. His books are always action-packed and filled with emotional turmoil at times. This book is no exception and I HIGHLY recommend it.

This story follows a family from Albuquerque NM after some kind of cataclysmic event that turns a percentage of people suddenly evil. We follow this family as they try to flee to a safer location in Canada and we witness all of the atrocities that happen to them along the way. If you’ve never read a Blake Crouch book, this would be a great place to start.

Fair warning, when you pick up this book, you should be prepared to sit for a few hours because the action in this thriller is nonstop. I did not know it at the time that this is one of Blake Crouch's older books but I could tell because it is more action and running for your life if you hadn't seen the lights visible in the sky one night because they will hunt you down and kill you. It is much less science fiction technical but I still enjoyed and and as I said, it was hard to put it down because Jack and his family had to keep fleeing, first but car, then on foot over mountains. I recently traveled over the Rockies and I can tell you that trying to do that on foot would be crazy though I guess I would try it if I had people trying to kill me.

So a thrilling ride, and also nicely creepy with people reciting on the radio names and addresses of the families that had not seen the lights, plus not being able to trust anyone because this kind of a situation was shoot first because you couldn't tell if people had been affected or not. So much death but also the strength of family keeping everyone together and safe no matter the cost.

It was not as good as, say Recursion, but I still enjoyed reading it and getting the chance to know Jack, Dee, Naomi, and Cole and the lengths they go to to stay alive and together.

TLDR: This is a terrifying novel. Fascinating premise. Extremely fast paced. It will leave you out of breath, horrified. It also suffers from a somewhat "it just stops" ending that ties everything in a neat bow. Recommended, but it wouldn't be the first Crouch I'd suggest.

I have an odd history with Blake Crouch. I actually read Dark Matter before it went viral/got popular - long before the TV series or the other books. I was introduced to it by a friend and we (podcast guys) all read it together and were fascinated by the whole thing. We never got around to recording an episode about it, but we all enjoyed it. I've since read some of his other books and quite enjoyed them. Crouch stands as someone who will write "scifi" thrillers with something of a harder science background. Dark Matter explores the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics, but brings it down to the surface level with a thriller plot involving murder. Recursion does something similar with time travel. Upgrade with genetic engineering.

I feel like Crouch exploded after I read Dark Matter...and now he's REALLY exploded, with a series based on that book on Apple TV+ (a well reviewed one at that!) and he is finally seeing some of his prior books to Dark Matter see reprints, this time backed by his publishing house. Run was the book that put him "on the map" for a lot of readers - a self-published success story that got him a new (?) agent, a new contract, led to Wayward Pines and then to Dark Matter and everything else. Crouch himself acknowledges as much, saying that this is the book that set his career in motion...and defined his nook of the genre ("emotionally driven speculative stories"). For a lot of his fans, this is their favorite book.

So...how does it hold up, given modern things and all that? Not bad. Not great, either. I can see why this put him on the map. All the things that make Blake Crouch what he is as an author are present. And yet...it seems like a lesser book. As Tolkien put it regarding some of the other, lesser rings of power...this is an...essay in the craft. It is all there...and yet...something is missing.

There are better places to go through the plot. In a lot of ways, this is your standard zombie survival story. Except that these aren't zombies exactly and they are way way waaaaaaaaay scarier because they're just normal people. Normal people who want to kill anyone who isn't like them (due to...reasons - this is left very intentionally vague - it is implied early on that this is due to people witnessing an aurora, but unlike Crouch's later novels, the how/why is rather vague here). They just kill. And torture. And set the world afire. And they look and talk and act just like you and me if you're one of them...and if you're not...they want to kill you.

Jake and his wife and kids escape New Mexico and set off north through the high plains of middle America, trying to escape to "safety" in Canada. The whole novel is that attempt at escape. It is VIVIDLY told, a terrifying run from chaos mixed with starvation, escape, small murder, LARGE murder, gun battles, survivalists, and every form of human beings being awful to other human beings you could imagine. Fast paced...it will leave you out of breath.

And then it ends. I won't get into spoiler territory here, but the story just sorta ends. Wraps everything up in a bow and it is over. No real explanation. Just over. And that, by the way, is my biggest complaint with this novel - we never get much in the way of resolution as to why this happened, how it happened, how it stopped, etc. It just ends. When you combine that with the fact that this is combined with very little in the way of character development from Jack or his wife Dee, the two viewpoint characters we get, and maybe that's because this is more focused on being a survival novel. And those aren't all that interesting to me. I mostly find zombies boring if they're not being used as a commentary on our society - this is why The Walking Dead bores me...it's just survival porn. And sure...these aren't zombies (I'm very confused at the folks calling this a zombie novel). But the point remains. Very little is being said about...well..anything.

BUT...it is an amazing thriller/survival story and if you're into that sort of thing...you should DEFINITELY read this. I'm calling this a 3.5/5 stars. You should definitely be reading Blake Crouch...but maybe...start with one of the more recent novels. Unless survival fiction is your bag, in which case...this might be a 5 for you. YMMV. I'm glad I had a chance to read it. I'm not sure I will ever want to again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this novel. You can preorder it here - out October 22nd!

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Look, I knew what I was signing up for here. I rarely enjoy backlists of authors, even authors like Blake Crouch who I love. This book is being re-released this month, and I got an ARC of the re-release from NetGalley (all thoughts and opinions are my own).

What I will give this author credit for is always writing an action-packed, edge of your seat science thriller (did I just make up a new genre?). This book had me sweating from the first page. The main characters are on the run for most of the book from a group of people who are infected? zombie-fied? psychotic? We don't know. But they are out to kill people.

What this book lacked for me was the nuance and relationships found in Blake's other books. We jump right into the action, which is great, but that doesn't leave much time to really connect with the characters. I don't enjoy reading male authors often, but Blake Crouch usually has the relationships so well-written that I'll look past the male-ness of it all. That was a bit harder to do with this one.

This book was engaging enough for me to keep “flipping” pages to finish it in a few days. However, it felt incomplete. We were thrown into the beginning without much context of what was going on which made the start confusing. I feel like plot needed more complexity. It just felt like a family that was on the run escaping the bad guys without much else. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, but would recommend his other books.

Run... or Maybe Just Power Walk?

I had high hopes for Run. I was ready for a thriller that would have me gripping the pages in a state of perpetual anxiety. But instead, it felt like I signed up for a marathon without proper training — and halfway through, I was ready to tap out.

The book starts off with a bang — people suddenly turning into homicidal maniacs and our protagonists have no choice but to, you guessed it, run. And oh boy, do they take that instruction literally. It's like someone hit "shuffle" on an endless playlist of chase scenes. Every chapter, it’s “run here, run there, oh no, something’s chasing us again!” I swear I burned more calories reading this book than actually working out.

The characters? About as relatable as furniture. You’d think people being hunted down would generate some emotional investment, but instead, I was stuck with a group of personalities as deep as a kiddie pool. I kept waiting for some profound character development, but it was as elusive as Wi-Fi in the wilderness. At one point, I started picturing them as Sims characters, just running endlessly on free will mode.

The villains were even less compelling. Think "angry mobs" but with all the complexity of a video game NPC stuck in a loop. You know when a bad guy runs into a wall over and over because the game’s glitched? That was pretty much the vibe.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are moments of tension, but after a while, it’s like eating plain toast for every meal—filling, sure, but not exactly thrilling.

In the end, I can’t say Run is terrible. It’s like going to a theme park, but only riding the same roller coaster for hours. Some people will love the adrenaline. Me? I just wanted to get off and try something else.

Two stars, one for the cardio and one for not being longer.

Blake Crouch is an auto read. I was so excited to receive a copy of this ARC. I always go into books blindly and I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. There are a lot of apocalypse books out there but this one is different. Lots of parts left me scared. Theirs is a good amount of violence, gore, and death in this book. If you have a weak stomach, this is not for you. Once I picked this up, I couldn’t put it down. It was also a short read. Overall, I definitely recommend this book if you like end of the world reads. The ending had me feeling some sort of way— I still don’t even know how to describe it.
Thank you to Blake Crouch for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I truly enjoyed every minute of it. 4.5 stars***

The recurring theme running through my head the whole time I was reading this book was, "this would be so much better as a movie." I was hooked on the blurb right away, that's why I requested this from Netgalley, and make no mistake, it is nonstop action from start to finish. What happened that started this "event" in the first place? Why all of a sudden are people killing other people? Why was Jack's name chosen? Honestly, this felt like a bit of an M. Night Shyamalan story, or like Bird Box, in that some unidentified event is affecting people, causing them to kill other people who are not like them.

This story is nonstop, heart pounding action. Jack and has leave his house in Albuquerque with his wife and kids before killers show up at his door. Rumor has it, it is safe in Canada, but they're all the way down in New Mexico, how the heck are they, people with no survival skills training, supposed to safely make it up north? At least Dee was a doctor.

The way the story was structured was quite unique, in that it didn't have chapters, so the action was constant, nonstop, and there were no chapter breaks to give you any kind of reprieve. I haven't read a story like that before.

Overall, I felt like there were several things that were truly left unexplained, while other things or events were resolved way too quickly and easily without explanation, so again, loose ends not tied up neatly. As I mentioned in the beginning, I think I would have enjoyed this much more had it been a movie I was watching. Interesting premise though!

If you are looking for a book to grip you from the first page to the last, this is it!! The whole time I was reading Run I kept thinking how great it would be to adapt as a movie. It was that good! Run is the third book by Blake Crouch that I have read, and I have to say that it is absolutely my favorite. Run is a post apocalyptic story where people are driven to kill eachother for no apparent reason. We later discover that there was an astrological event that some people in the US observed and those that did, become violent against those that did not. This leads to the Jack and Dee gathering their children and fleeing their home in search of somewhere safe to ride out the ensuing carnage befalling town after town. This book had me on the edge of my seat for the entire ride and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good time!

I received a gifted eARC and an ALC of RUN by Blake Crouch for an honest review. Thank you to Random House, PRH Audio and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review!

RUN is a reissue of a previously self-published novel. In this world, a sudden epidemic of rage and murder has struck the United States. Killers are even broadcasting the names of their targets, without any fear of repercussions. Entire cities have been destroyed by gun violence.

Jack and his family are among the targets and they must make a run for safety. With his wife, son, and daughter, they take what hey can and hit the road, constantly under the threat of death, trying to find a place to go where they will be safe.

I have really enjoyed a lot of Blake Crouch's novels, so this was an auto-request on Netgalley. I was a bit wary when I figured out this was a traditional pick up of a previous novel, but I am happy to report I did have a good time with this one. It quickly hooked me into the story at the very beginning and kept me on the edge of my seat.

By the end of the book, there were moments that I thought it was feeling a little bit repetitive, but it made sense in that the title of the book emphasizes that they must keep running. The tension was really well maintained throughout with just a few cooldown periods. I wouldn't say this was anything super new and unique, but I had a really good time reading it!

This book was so fast paced and interesting. Although a ton of apocalypse type books are out there, this one still is unique. However, the execution felt less than at times, throughout the book.