'Running Scared' by Susan J Bruce

What if the boy you love is hiding a dark secret?

My name is Melinda and this has been the worst
year ever … We had to leave our family farm,
Mum is in hospital, Dad is losing it and my
freak-out-and-run arachnophobia is getting worse.

The one good thing in my world is Rory.
Maybe he sees things differently because he’s
been in a wheelchair for the past eight years,
but Rory always knows how to make me laugh.

Problem is, Dad doesn’t want me anywhere near
him. He doesn’t trust Rory or his family,
especially as Rory’s brother is wanted
by the police.

And now I’m scared Rory is hiding something ... 

MY THOUGHTS: 

This is an edgy and fast-paced young adult novel which is still brimming with Aussie flora and fauna. I'm not sure how the author, Susan J Bruce, gets us to take in the sensual environmental detail while high stakes action scenes are happening all around us, but somehow she aces it. The theme is all about the illusory nature of fear and building mindsets to disarm it, and it's easy to take on board.  

Melinda Green is a teenager forced to move with her father to a city suburb after they lose their farm. Her mother is in hospital, suffering trauma of her own, and the mean Sartell siblings have taken a dislike to Melinda at school. Her safe spot and haven is their next door neighbour's yard. Rory is a school friend who doesn't let being bound to a wheelchair hold him back from anything. He is a keen athlete and keeps a fascinating menagerie of wild critters in his garage. But although these two are in sync with each other, Melinda's dad warns her to steer clear of Rory, because his brother Luke is a fugitive wanted for murder.      

Everyone Melinda cares most about has vulnerabilities of their own, which can't help impacting her. Her parents, Neil and Jill, are emotionally frail folk who have dealt with some harsh experiences and are trying to stay strong. The book really shows that when one member of a family unit takes a severe blow, everyone suffers and the repercussions are felt months, even years later. They are living with reliable Aunt Lynn, who tries to help heal the hurts in her brother's family using every means she can, including her infamous vegan cooking which nobody likes. And living nearby is Melinda's best friend Thali, a big-hearted but chatty girl whose mouth is a bit of a loose cannon. 

There is even something for those of us with arachnophobic tendencies. Melinda turns out to have a perfectly watertight reason for her intense dread of spiders. It's one of the book's mysteries which comes to light in its proper time, but she still wishes to overcome it. Rory's pet spider, Lucy, steals every scene she's in (unsurprisingly just by being herself). Even if this story doesn't make spider lovers of us all, I'm pretty sure no reader can make it to the end without at least liking Lucy and wishing her all the best.   

I have to say as I was reading, this story really put me in mind of one of my favourite Aussie books of the last few years; Trent Dalton's Boy Swallows Universe. It has that same pulsing underworld of danger beneath the seemingly colourful and innocuous Australian suburban setting. Both Melinda Green and Eli Bell are young adults living in Brisbane, but Running Scared is set in a far more up-to-date, tech savvy era than Dalton's eighties. If you're like me and loved one of these books, I can heartily recommend the other.

Disclaimer: Thanks to the author, for sending me a copy to review. All my opinions are genuine and honest. 

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