Running from the Dark

Tifani
Clark
Genre: 
Young Adult

Sarah Raines is a senior in high school and her life turns upside down when she is forced to go on a science field trip as part of detention. After stumbling across a crime scene in the woods, the group of five students and their teacher are taken hostage by the criminals. While locked in the dark storage room Sarah begins to understand that no one is who she thought they were. Once they discover a way out, the group is forced to go on the run through the treacherous Montana wilderness and forced to split up. Sarah and Connor go in search of help, but are soon faced with the impossible decision of taking a life in order to survive.

This gripping and very suspenseful story is about survival in an intense situation and about not judging others before one knows them. The teenagers experience gritty and deep emotions including powerful, strangling fear but at the same time, the group becomes closer and more understanding of each other throughout their ordeal as they try to discover a way out. The plot is steady paced and the characters are strong and very convincing which makes it easy for the readers to become caught up in their story, although it also seems a bit slow at times. The story also has the freshness and smile inducing blush of the blossoming first love romance between Connor and Sarah and of course lots of emotional turmoil that adds depth and makes the story very life like, especially when they are faced with such life altering decisions throughout the traumatic and stressful yet courageous journey to survive. 

E.L. Hurley