Name: Runner
ISBN: 9780547349459

Carl Deuker

When a new job falls his way, Chance jumps at the opportunity, becoming a runner who picks up strange packages on a daily route and delivers them to a shady man at the marina. Chase knows how much he will earn—what he doesn’t know is how much he will pay. Suspenseful, fast-paced, and timely, this novel avoids easy answers as it examines issues of terrorism and patriotism, fear and courage, and lives of privilege and poverty.

Runner

Living with his alcoholic father on a broken-down sailboat on Puget Sound has been hard on seventeen-year-old Chance Taylor, but when his love of running leads to a high-paying job, he quickly learns that the money is not worth the risk. Reprint.

Kirsten Simkiss

I think this one probably deserves 4.5 stars out of the 5, but it really was a very enjoyable read.

The book flows very well. I sat down to read this and blew through it in one sitting.

The voice of the main character, Chance, is very well developed from the get-go and you immediately understand his motivation for making the choices that he'd made. From an outside perspective, I don't think he's a very likeable person - he's secretive, introverted, and snaps at the only friend he has. That being said, when you're in his shoes, you completely understand his situation and why he wouldn't want to be so open with people. He's a depressed 17 year old with a drunk for a father and an absent mother. School holds no value to him and his only friend is white and rich and privileged beyond belief. With all that he's faced in his short life, I think it's impossible not to sympathize with Chance as a character.

I didn't really have any large complaints about this book, aside from perhaps minor things about the story that struck me as odd, but nothing glaringly inaccurate. The world of the book is apathetic in general, which is why I would have docked half a star. There's nothing happy about this book. If you're looking for a pick-me-up, this is not a book you want to read. This is a somewhat realistic book about a high schooler struggling to pay the bills for his family and figuring out what he wants to do with his life. And he does, but the process of getting there is fraught with perils.

Living with his alcoholic father on a broken-down sailboat on Puget Sound has been hard on seventeen-year-old Chance Taylor, but when his love of running leads to a high-paying job, he quickly learns that the money is not worth the risk.

Runner

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