The dead have risen, and they are hungry.
Slow and plodding, they are Legion. The undead hunt the living. Stop and they will catch you. Hide and they will find you. If you have a heartbeat you do the only thing you can: You run.
Survivors escape to an island stronghold: A cop and his daughter, a computer nerd, a garbage man with a piece of rebar, and an escapee from a mental hospital with a life-saving secret. After reaching Alcatraz, the ever expanding group of survivors realize that the infected are not the only threat.
Caught between the viciousness of the undead, and the heartlessness of the living, what choice is there? Run.
Run by Rich Restucci. Book #1 in the Run series. Published by Severed Press, 2015. Paper back edition, 229 pages.
Browsing the reviews for Run, and people seem pretty split. People either loved it or they hated it. I wasn’t sure how I was gonna feel after it was over, but I was excited to give the book a try. 😀
Yes, Ok…… I AM a sucker for zombie stories in general. But Run is just pure fun! I love how shit gets crazy right away. It is basically all action, non-stop the whole book! Even when there is a little bit of down time, it is filled with tension. You just know it will not be long before it gets crazy again.
I’m not sure how I feel about all the horror homages through out the book. 
Homage here or there is fine, but sometimes it almost felt like TOO much in Run. It felt like there needed to be a little bit more balance maybe?
Speaking of needing balance, there are two other things in this book that needed better balance! First, for a zombie book, there really is not a ton of zombie action!! Yes, the main cast faces off against lots of zombies, but it never felt very dangerous. If I wanted to see a zombie story with low impact from zombies, I’d go watch re-watch The Walking Dead. :’D
The zombies are there, but they didn’t do much. Not many people get killed by the zombies. The zombies just felt like they took a back seat to the human villain. UGH! I hate that! Yeah yeah, I know, humans are the WORST. I know…. but if I’m reading a zombie story, I want to SEE THE ZOMBIES please!
The other major issue needing balance is the names. Hahaha, ok, so a LOT of the names are very simular. So many of the names even start with the same letters!! Geez… So confusing! And just… bad. D: Sorry….
Now, some reviewers felt the book was racist due to how the big -NON-ZOMBIE- villain is an African- American man who’s hench people are all gang members. I see how it could look racist…. there is a lot of thugie talk, the main baddie is a black man, they good guys are probably all white, and cops and US military guys. Yeaaaah…….
Ok, so it does sound a racist when written down like that, sure. I actually don’t feel it was. The gan talk sounds like what you hear inner city young men, of any color, talking trying to sound like they are tough in front of friends or girls. And I really like the main villain. He is an intelligent black man who has been broken down by racist BS in academia. He’s hurt. He’s angry. Yes, he comes off a little bit Bond villain, but what’s wrong with that? I love a good Bond villain!! I like this guy. I love how smart he is, how cunning! The only thing I don’t like is why he wanted the school so bad and why he was so pissed off about not getting it? Maybe I missed it, but it felt like it wasn’t very clear at all?
Some people also complain about how all the (assuming) white good guys just sound like NRA nut jobs with all their gun talk. Hmm…. yeah, a little bit. The main group of guys DO talk a lot about guns and ammo. But, I don’t know… they are mostly from military or police background. I just assume those sort of folks always ramble off names of weapons all the time….? I don’t know… it seemed to fit the characters, I guess? The author does come off feeling very pro-military and police, though. Not totally a bad thing though. And, honestly, a little bit different then most zombie stories, where the military and cops are no match for the zombies and get over run quickly. So it is a nice little change up from your normal zombie tale.
While Run has a few hiccups here and there, I actually really enjoyed it. With a few tweaks to balance out a few issues, and it would be a pretty epic zombie adventure. I had a lot of fun though. The book kept me hooked the whole time and I can’t wait to read the next book. 😀
Creature From The Book Lagoon 