Summary:
Eight years ago, SILVIA WOOD’s father died in an industrial accident. After suffering through years of Psychotherapy Services and Mandated Medications dealing with her loss, she longs to work in Botanical Sciences. When the Occupation Exam determines she must work in Mortuary Sciences instead, she wonders if the New Order assigned her to the morgue to push her over the edge.
To appease her disappointed mother, Silvia enters the Race for Citizen Glory, in hopes to stand out in the crowd of Equals. Once she begins training with “golden boy” LIAM HARMAN, she discovers he also lost his father in the same accident that ruined her childhood. Then Silvia meets and falls for Liam’s older cousin, whose paranoid intensity makes her question what really happened to her dad. As the race nears, Silvia realizes that she’s not only running for glory, she’s also running for her life.
My Thoughts:
Dead Girl Running is my first indie author review of the year! Noser kindly provided me with a copy of Dead Girl Running, and I am so thankful I agreed to read it.
What an interesting dystopian story. The main character, Silvia Wood, has been coping with the loss of her father for many years. She has denied medication and other treatments recommended by the overbearing doctors of this society and instead taken to working out. Through years of excises, she healed herself as best she could. In this society, young adults take a placement exam and based on their results, they are placed in a job that best suits them. There is not a lot of explanation of the exam or the process, all we know is that Silvia was assigned to work in the morgue with an older man.
One day at the gym, she is approached by Liam, who invites her to train with him for an upcoming marathon. The longer they train together the stranger Silvia’s life becomes. So much so, you being to wonder what really happened to her father? Is there more to Silvia’s family than we have been told? Is there something beyond the city walls? What is really going on here??
Through training for the race, Silvia finally connects with others and makes friends. But everything in this society comes at a cost. After placing second to Liam in the race, Silvia is thrown into the inner workings of the society and hell breaks loose.
If you like dystopian young adult thrillers, this is the one for you. I bought book two, Dead Girl Fighting, as soon as I was done with Dead Girl Running.
Lit Lemon Books 