Run

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Bo Dickinson is a girl with a wild reputation, a deadbeat dad, and an alcoholic mom. Everyone in town knows the Dickinsons are a bad lot, but Bo doesn't care what anyone thinks.

Agnes Atwood has never stayed out past ten p.m., never gone on a date and never broken any of her parents' overbearing rules. Rules that are meant to protect their legally blind daughter - but Agnes isn't quite sure what they are protecting her from.

Despite everything, Bo and Agnes become best friends. And it's the sort of friendship that runs truer and deeper than anything else.
So when Bo shows up in the middle of the night, police sirens wailing in the distance, desperate to get out of town, Agnes doesn't hesitate to take off with her. But running away and not getting caught will require stealing a car, tracking down Bo's dad, staying ahead of the authorities, and - worst of all - confronting some ugly secrets.
A story about the ferocity of friendship and the risks we'll take to save our friends ... And ourselves.

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

I turn the knob and push open the door. Agnes lets go of my arm and slides her hand along the wall until she finds the light switch. A fluorescent light flickers on above us, revealing two cars parked side by side. One is the Atwoods' regular car, a white Toyota. I've seen Agnes's parents driving it around Mursey, picking her up from school, filling it with gas at the Shell station on Buckley Road. The other is an old, silver Chevy I ain't seen before."My sister's car," Agnes says, like she's reading my mind. "She's still at college, so nobody's using it.""Won't she be home for summer soon, though?"Agnes shrugs. "We need it more than she does."I can't argue with that. Agnes and I toss our backpacks in the back. Neither of our bags are heavy. We just packed what we absolutely needed. "Hop in, Utah," I say, patting the backseat. She climbs onto the seat and licks the side of my face before I shut the door.Agnes gets into the passenger seat and I run to turn off the garage light before I slide behind the wheel. Above my head, attached to the visor, is an automatic garage door opener."Will your parents hear?""No," Agnes says. "They sleep like rocks."My heart is pounding and my hands are slick with sweat as I shove one of the keys into the ignition. It takes me a few tries to get it to turn over, and the revving is so loud it makes me flinch. Her parents had better sleep like the dead, or else we ain't even getting out of the driveway. The clock on the dashboard lights up and tells me it's just past three a.m."Agnes," I say, almost choking on her name. "You sure you wanna do this?""No." She turns her head, and this time she's looking right at me. "But I'm doing it anyway." Excerpted from Run by Kody Keplinger All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Keplinger (Lying Out Loud) explores the unlikely friendship between two girls: Agnes Atwood, who has a genetic condition that has left her legally blind, and Bo Dickinson, a member of the most notorious (and most maligned) family in a small Kentucky town full of gossips. Alternating between Bo and Agnes's perspectives, Keplinger tells this story backward and forward-Bo's chapters take place in the present, as Agnes and Bo skip town in the middle of the night, while Agnes's start at the beginning of their friendship, revealing the local reputation of the Dickinsons and how the two girls met and became close. Keplinger creates strong, distinct personalities for the girls through their first-person narratives; that readers never get Agnes's thoughts about being with Bo as they flee police is the story's main weakness. Agnes and Bo may share equal space on the page, but this is primarily Bo's story, with Agnes left explaining Bo's circumstances. This, along with the drawn-out mystery behind Bo's reasons for running, tends to frustrate the story's tension rather than build suspense. Ages 14-up. Agent: Joanna Volpe, New Leaf Literary & Media. (June) c Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Everyone in Mursey, including legally blind Agnes, knows that the Dickinsons are bad news they are a family full of deadbeats and addicts. Maybe it's because she has always been sheltered due to her blindness, but Agnes is more curious than wary when Bo Dickinson hurtles into her life. Against all odds, the two girls form a close friendship, relying on each other as their lives intensify: Agnes' anxious parents assert increasing amounts of control over her, while Bo fears being sent to a foster home due to her mother's meth addiction. When her mother is arrested, Bo thinks her only option is to run, and Agnes has no intention of letting her go alone. Told in alternating viewpoints Agnes in the past, Bo in the present this is a carefully crafted portrayal of small-town life and deep female friendship. There's plenty to recommend a bisexual character, and a frank, consequence-free first sexual experience though the most effective thing here remains Agnes' and Bo's voices and the strength of their realistically tumultuous relationship. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Keplinger's The DUFF (2010), now a movie, was a huge hit. Her latest employs many of the same tactics: a timely, edgy plot, distinct character voices, and a solid depiction of friendship.--Reagan, Maggie Copyright 2016 Booklist

Horn Book Review

Legally blind Agnes, stifled by her protective parents, and Bo, who has a bad reputation and a drug-addicted mother, run away from their small Kentucky town one night. In alternating chapters, Agnes provides backstory for the friendship and Bo narrates in present tense. Supported by its vivid setting and matter-of-fact portrayal of a disability, this is an intense story about a passionate friendship. (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Two small-town Kentucky high school girls run away together. Bo, whose voice narrates the story going forward from the night they steal Agnes' sister's car, is a sober bisexual virgin who's widely considered the school slut. Most of her family members are drunk or in jail, her father ran off, and her mother's addicted to meth. Agnes, whose voice in alternate chapters narrates the story in flashback from the beginning of her friendship with Bo, is legally blind from birth and chafing at the restrictions her well-meaning but hardly adventurous family puts upon her. She also drinks beer and has had sex with Bo's cousin. The two narratives come at each other from a distance, then cross in a way that drains some of the tension out of the conflict: by the time readers understand the reason for the white girls' sudden departure, they also know that Bo has made promises she never intended to keep, which puts the entire escapade in an uncomfortable light. A pat ending feels tacked-on, but Bo and Agnes' unlikely friendship rings true and strong. Agnes can see lights and shadows, and she is competent at navigating familiar areas with the help of a cane; she can read with heavy magnifiers. Her blindness never feels stereotyped, nor does the sense of small-town suffocation. An ambitiously structured road-trip novel stumbles a bit but gets a lot right. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.