Run [Mass Market Paperback]

William Sleator (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Avon (1973)
• ISBN-10: 0380453029
• ISBN-13: 978-0380453023
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Run" is an interesting novel, highly underread, February 24, 2001

By 

"carolyn5000" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Run (Paperback)

"Run" was a suprisingly heart wrenching read involving a girl who is left alone by her parents for the weekend. She has a secret fear of being alone in her parent's cottage which freaks her out. She befriends two guys who are bicycling through, and unsuccessfully tries to make them grilled cheese sandwiches to get them to stay! The plot thickens when the three encounter a desperate guy who robs the house. But this book will lead you into questioning what is "right", and what faith can be placed in authority. A beautiful book on all levels.

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't RUN right out to get a copy of this book., May 25, 2009

By 

Dwight Blubaugh "MichiBlue" (The only Eaton Rapids on Earth, MI, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Run (Paperback)

I'm a big fan of William Sleator's book - I own them all and have read all but about eight or nine of them. Books like The Green Futures of Tycho, The Boy Who Reversed Himself, The Duplicate, The Singularity, and others are young adult science fiction / fantasy at its very best, making the reader really think. And his autobiography of his family, Oddballs, is very entertaining and offbeat.

Then there is RUN. Having read most of Sleator's early books, I can see a clear progression of his talents - he wasn't all that great of an author for his first several books (with maybe the exception of House of Stairs). Sleator's first book was a picture book, illustrated by Blair Lent, which won a Caldecott Honor. Run is Sleator's second novel, and it just isn't all that good.

When 15-year-old Lillian's parents are called away on business, Lillian is left alone at their cabin for the weekend, which lengthens when their return is postponed. She rescues two 14-year-old bicyclists, Mark and Jerry, who've gotten themselves stranded on a nearby island when the tide comes in quickly, and realizes after they come into the cabin afterward that she's afraid to have them leave, meaning she'll face the nights alone at the cabin. And to add fuel to the fire, she thinks her family's radio was stolen while she was out. Lillian succeeds in getting the boys to stay with the promise of grilled cheese sandwiches. When the sandwiches get burned, she adds to it with a bottle of wine, upon which they all get drunk. When they go out the next day, they return to find the television also missing - there is now no doubt that someone is burglarizing the cabin, and the boys don't want to leave Lillian by herself. To top it all off, they've started seeing a strange man lurking around the area.

It seem that the characters act quite irrationally throughout the book. When Lillian's parents suggest that, because of their delay, she should call a cab to take her to the bus station and join them in faraway New York, she refuses, feeling like they're treating her as a baby, even though she's terrified to stay by herself. When, after coming face-to-face with the creepy burgler outdoors in the dark, Lillian insists on calling the police, Mark argues that the man must just be someone who is more a victim of society than a criminal. He practically tackles Lillian to keep her from calling the police, then rips the phone out of the wall without thinking. They then lie to a unidimensional police officer who comes to the cabin, badgering and belittling them, telling them there is a burglar on the loose - they claim that everything there is fine, though they've been terrified by the burglar and his thefts. The kids just keep doing all the wrong things, things that kids would be least likely to do in a real-life situation like this.

Sleator keeps using plot devices to build the suspense and element of danger, but many of them just don't seem very logical. Even at the end of the book, the police storm the cabin along with a vigilante mob, busting down the front door and acting rashly without provocation. Doesn't seem very likely to me, as the police are not usually accompanied by mobs helping them do their job. It all just seemed a bit too contrived and hokey to me. And much of the description in the book was weak - difficult to visualize things.

Don't let this book sour you on the rest of Sleator's fine work (though the other two reviewers loved this book). You can see a listing of his books on Wikipedia - I know of no book titled Cupcake (1998 - a mistake on the list, I believe), and they've left off his adult self-help book co-authored with William H. Redd, Ph.D., Taking Charge / A Personal Guide to Behavior Modification (1976) - yes, it's really by him, as the back refers to his other books. Though I haven't disliked any of the books, Run is easily the weakest I've read. Almost anything after 1980 is great, though I didn't care much for Sleator's pair of books about an angry Asian spirit - Spirit House and Dangerous Wishes. Most of those classified as science fiction do have strong roots in real / theoretical science, thanks to Sleator's strong family background in science. The Green Future of Tycho is my personal favorite.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not your typical William Sleator, but pretty good, December 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Run (Hardcover)

This is not your typical William Sleator book. No space monsters, no scientific concepts... it's not even written in first-person like most of his books are. It's basically a suspense book. But it's still good, and it has a lot more characterization than most of his recent books. It's also "deeper." Whether that's a good thing or not is open to question.