Craig Hansen's novel about a high school track runner progresses at the pace of a marathon rather than a sprint. His sentences have a gentle rhythm, and the story moves at a calm and measured pace. Hansen has extensive experience in writing, and you can tell that his plainspoken narrative is purposefully accomplished rather than accidental. Possibly, some readers won't like the pace, but it is done well and consistently.
The author allows the main character Becky to suffer--at times intensely--and doesn't give her any easy wins on or off the track. Good descriptions of Becky's life as a runner give the novel some of the nicer Becky-focused moments of tension. Hansen also does a good job showing the everyday ordinariness of life during rather extraordinary times.
And this probably segues well to something I didn't like. I found some stretches to be overly descriptive for my taste. I like description to advance the action of the plot and not merely my awareness of the character's surroundings or habits. For me, such details had the effect of slowing down an already quiet tempo.
Also, there are times when the lives of adult secondary characters dwarf that of the main teen character. (I.e., their lives are just plain more interesting than Becky's.) For me, this occasional shift of focus onto the adults distracted me from investing in Becky as the most interesting and compelling character.
However, by the end of the story, I found myself sympathetic to Becky and genuinely interested in finding out what would happen to her. I very much enjoyed experiencing Becky's epiphany at the novel's close; many large events pile atop one another, and she draws some good conclusions about herself, her needs, and her future.
