Run For the Hills is my new favorite Kevin Wilson book. It’s funny, heartfelt, and totally unpredictable—I never knew how the road trip would end, but I loved every turn. The way the characters grow from strangers to siblings feels so real, and I was constantly underlining touching lines or laughing out loud. If you loved Nothing to See Here, this one might just top it. Highly recommend!

I loved Run for the Hills! The plot is so unusual. The characters are endearing and loveable. This is my first 5 star read of 2025 and it's very deserving. You'll love it if you enjoy a good family saga.

With "Run for the Hills," Kevin Wilson has cemented his status as the bard of adult children of severely dysfunctional parents.

"Run for the Hills" is the story of Madeleine, Reuben, Pepper and Theron (a/k/a Mad, Rube, Pep and Tom), the children, ranging in age from 10-40s, of Charles Hill, who unexpectedly abandoned each of them and then disappeared from their lives. The four siblings, who didn’t know of the existence of each other, take a road trip with the hopes of finding their father and why he did what he did to them.

Each has become a success in the field that their father did while he lived with them, but each also feels the emptiness of a father who just disappeared. They eventually find their father and some small measure of closure but it’s more about the siblings finding family. It reminds me of Wilson’s earlier “The Family Fang,” in the way each set of children are essentially projects of narcissistic parents.

I highly recommend this and all of Wilson’s books.

This honest review was given in exchange for an advanced reader copy from NetGalley and HarperCollins.

An absolute joy of a road trip romp, with newfound siblings, memorable characters, and plenty of quirks.

Thank you NetGalley and Kevin Wilson for helping me start 2025 on such a positive note. Run for the Hills is everything Kevin Wilson fans have come to expect and so much more...

Mad is a locally well-known farmer who hasn't seen her father in years and is perfectly content running their Tennessee farm with her mother. Then Rube arrives in his PT Cruiser and shocks her with the news that he's her half-brother. He convinces Mad to join him on a cross-country journey to gather their other half-siblings and confront their father together. They pick up Pep, their incredible basketball-player half-sister who has just played in the most stressful game of her college career. They pick up Tom, their half-brother who at eleven is already an amateur independent filmmaker, and together they continue their search to find the man who abandoned them all but inadvertently gave them each other.

Kevin Wilson always delivers laugh-out-loud, touching, insightful stories and Run for the Hills is absolute perfection. Rube, Mad, Pep and Tom felt like family to me from the minute they set out on their dysfunctional adventure, and I had a hard time saying goodbye to them when the story ended. I'm hoping for a sequel....

4.5⭐️ Another must for your 2025 TBR (May). Kevin Wilson writes such creative stories and characters. This one most definitely charmed me and it’s on many 2025 anticipated book lists. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to this newly formed family. In the mean time read his Nothing to See Here.

I really enjoyed this book a whole bunch. Mad is a farmer in Tennessee living a simple life, when one day a man who claims to be her half brother pulls up in a PT Cruiser and convinces her to go on a mission to find their other half siblings across the country and ultimately go find and confront their dad, who has left all of his kids.
This was such a fun road trip with a bunch of grieving siblings, who were all so unique and quirky in their own ways. I really grew to love them all and I thought their story was great and so heartwarming. Great first read of 2025.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy.

Madeline ( Mad) and her single mom live on a farm. Her father left them years ago and has no contact. One day, a young man named Rueben (Rube) pulls up to the farm and announces that they share the same father. In fact, he hired and detective and found there are a few other half siblings out there. Rueben wants Mad to go with him on a trip to find their siblings and try to understand why their father kept creating and leaving families. Funny, sad, thoughtful, a wonderful story of what it is to be a family and what it takes to make one.

*Run for the Hills* by Kevin Wilson is a quirky, fun read that’s perfect if you’re looking for something offbeat. It follows a family that’s trying to navigate some seriously strange situations—like running from the chaos of their past and facing some wild, unexpected twists. Wilson’s writing is sharp and funny, with a great mix of humor and heart. The characters feel real, even in the weirdest of circumstances, and it’s a fun ride from start to finish. If you're in the mood for a book that's a little bit different, with a lot of charm and wit, *Run for the Hills* is a great pick!

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc copy of this book

*my review copied from my personal goodreads

Everything that Kevin Wilson writes is amazing. This is such a cool story about family and searching for connections. I love him and this book.

By the same author of NOTHING TO SEE HERE and NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO PANIC, Wilson has a new one with of course a quirky premise: an older man shows up claiming to be a half brother and says he's on his way out west to round up other half siblings and ultimately pay a visit to their shared father who split on all of them separately.

The dynamic of the characters is what will keep you invested in this story. Each of their lives and memories of who their father was is so different, offering up a mosaic of a father who changed wildly from one life to the next.

Sitting with this book after having finished, I feel like it was ok of a read. I wouldn't say it was all that fun of an expedition because all of these kids are underneath it all pretty hurt by a father who, without explanation left each of them with no explanation and no follow up. Without giving too much away, this man was pretty horrid. He reads more like a comic character from a villainous story but he's undeserving of the kids that share his DNA, whom he imparted dreams to but had little to less than desirable claims for helping to raise.

The ending felt a little lackluster to me as well.

In my opinion, this doesn't really reach the level of NOTHING TO SEE HERE, which was so quirky and fun and a real standout.

3.75

Kevin Wilson is excellent at writing really funny, really heartfelt books. This one is just as excellent as his previous ones and had me reflecting on life one moment and laughing out loud the next.

“Run for the Hills” still carries Kevin Wilson’s trademark charm and humor, but it wasn’t my favorite of his works. My lower rating comes down to the ending, which left me wanting more. I found it hard to accept Charles Hill abandoning four children simply because he wanted to start over—four times. That choice felt unresolved and unsatisfying. Still, Wilson’s wit and unique voice shine through, making this a worthwhile read even if it didn’t fully hit the mark for me.

I remember how excited I was after reading Kevin Wilson's debut story collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth. And then I loved his first novel, The Family Fang. I was struck by his ability to delicately balance a tender humor about the human condition with some real discomforting--but maybe, wryly funny---pathos. Wilson's latest novel strikes these same notes as it describes four newly-found half-siblings who take a road trip to confront their shared father. I really liked this one too but can imagine that some readers (and this goes for the Family Fang too) might find the end a little more of an anticlimax.

Another quirky unique novel from this author.! T for some reason this book kept me flying through the pages hoping that these characters I was getting yo know would find what they were looking for.

The book felt like an uneventful road trip/quest yet so much growth and inner turmoil is happening at the same. It’s like nothing happens but everything happens.

I’d recommend this book to those who love a good untraditional family, self discovery type of story. I really enjoyed it!

Thank you to Ecco and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Kevin Wilson never ceases to me amaze me. His books are impossible to categorize and impossible to put down. Quirky characters, weird situations, interesting settings. I've enjoyed everything he's ever written, and Run for the Hills is no exception.

Thanks Ecco and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available May 2025.

As a long time Kevin Wilson fan, Run for the Hills was a beautiful read. Funny and profound, the book follows the four Hills siblings as they try to trace their errant father. What really sold this book was the balance between tense emotions of children who have had to grow up without a father and the wry observational humor Wilson has. It just tickles my brain in the right way. This book also had some of the best descriptions of women's basketball I've ever read - Run for the Hills has it all!

Kevin Wilson is establishing himself as one of the great American comic novelists of our times! He is able to blend humor and heart in a way that does NOT feel like a Hallmark film - a difficult feat. There were moments while reading that I had to get up to take a lap around the room because I felt so overwhelmed with emotion. Mad - the central narrator - shares a similar thread with Wilson's other female protagonists (strong, emotionally reticent, lonely) but is still distinct. Really beautifully done!

I’m a fan of Kevin Wilson and this book didn’t disappoint. The characters are quirky and still real. The story is simple - the children of a man who has serially abandoned them while living different lives go on a road trip to find each other and him. The journey is the point and they become a family along the way. It takes place in 2007, Maybe so that the ability to search on the internet for each other and to do Ancestry generic searches didn’t complicate the story. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

A “ road trip” book-but what a trip it is. Four people of various ages and occupation unknown to each other but each with the same father who unaccountably one day just up and leaves them and their respective mothers. The eldest hires a private detective who tracks down each of the others and RUBE (the eldest) convinces them to go on a road trip to find their dad. It’s unusual, at times a little sad, at times funny but ultimately they find “ dad” and in the process four strangers -each a little quirky and lonely find family and sibling love.
A good read-most enjoyable.