Night Runner by Max Turner
Thanks to Stephenie Meyer, teen fiction and vampires is on fire and the past couple of years has seen an explosion of new series riding the popularity wave. One of the newest entries in this subgenre is Max Turner’s debut which was originally released in Canada last year.
Not quite 300 pages long, Night Runner is a nonstop, high-speed adventure / mystery / thriller starring 15-year-old Zack Thompson who discovers that he’s — what else — a vampire! The initial setup is actually pretty interesting with Zack living in a mental institution to care for his ‘condition,’ but from there the book starts falling into more mundane territory including finding teenage love. Fortunately, the novel really picks up towards the end with some unexpected surprises and revelations. Plus, even though the book is undoubtedly the first in a series, the author does a reasonably good job tying up loose ends.
Max’s vampires, meanwhile, are of the more generic variety, but he does institute a couple of cool twists like vampirisim being a retrovirus “that alters the DNA of the host” so they may develop certain ‘talents’ such as shapeshifting, reading people’s thoughts, being granted visions of the future, and so on. Unfortunately, it also means that most people infected with the virus don’t survive for more than a year, and those that do eventually end up going mad, or what is known as ‘Endpoint Psychosis.’ The book also features vampire hunters: the Fallen — humans who serve vampires, and the mysterious Coven of the Dragon.
Writing-wise, Night Runner is a solid effort with Zack’s charming, humorous and energetic first-person narrative voice the book’s best quality. (Personally, I felt Zack’s innocence and naivety was a little hard to swallow, but I guess he has a reasonable excuse). A close second are the characters which produce a decent supporting cast: Zack’s best friend Charlie, potential love interest Luna, uncle Maximilian, and the menacing Baron Vrolok.
In the end, Night Runner is a pretty enjoyable book … if you’re a teenager. Because of its lack of depth and PG presentation, adults like myself might find the novel unsatisfying. Therefore, I would mostly recommend Night Runner to teens, especially male readers since the book is less about romance, and more about action and adventure…
Night Runner — (2009-2015) Young adult. Publisher: For Zack Thomson, living in the Nicholls Ward isn’t so bad. After his parents died, he developed strange and severe allergies, and the mental institution was the only place where he could be properly looked after. As strange as it was, it was home. He could watch as much television as he wanted; his best friend Charlie visited him often enough; and Nurse Ophelia — the prettiest no-nonsense nurse ever — sometimes took him bowling. Of course, that didn’t mean he had it easy. His allergies restricted his diet to strawberry smoothies, and being the only kid at the hospital could get lonely. But it never once crossed Zack’s mind to leave… until the night someone crashed through the front doors and told him to run. Now he’s on a race for answers — about his past, his parents, and his strange sickness — even as every step takes him closer to the darkest of truths.
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