Hello beautiful people! Welcome to a new review! For this review, I get into a family-based mystery thriller by Harlan Coben Run Away. I’ve checked out a few of Harlan’s other books in the past and really enjoyed them so I was looking forward to getting into this one. With an interesting plot focusing on real-world issues like religion, addiction, and struggling families, with a bit of a theatrical edge to it. Run Away follows a father trying to save his family before others and society can destroy it.
Main Characters:
- Simon: Husband to Ingrid and father to Michael and Paige, feels like he failed Paige ever since their family lost her to drug addiction and is desperate to get her back, when Paige’s drug dealer boyfriend is found dead he is placed at the top of the suspect list along with his now missing daughter, must find his daughter before the police do to try and figure out what really happened
- Ingrid: Has always had a much tougher approach to Paige than Simon and wanted the family to cut contact with her until she decides to get clean, is shocked to find out her husband hasn’t been doing that and may now be suspected in their daughter’s boyfriend dying
- Paige: Had a bright future before meeting her boyfriend Aaron who got her hooked on hard drugs forcing her life to take a completely different path than anyone could have seen, when Aaron is found dead and she goes missing the question becomes did she kill Aaron or did the person who did take her?
- Aaron: Paige’s boyfriend who through his own addiction introduced her to drugs, is found dead but also has more than just Paige’s family who doesn’t like him or the things he has done
- Ash and Dee: Killer cult members
My Review
I always really enjoy when books focus on real-world issues and aren’t afraid to dive into the ugliness of some of these things. Going into Run Away by Harlan Coben I was aware there was the topic of addiction in the book but I was curious about how it was going to be tackled. Personally, I feel like if we are going to touch on topics like addiction either you do it right or you don’t do it at all. I thought Run Away handled the topic pretty accurately and I appreciated the element of the topic that was brought in by how it is for the people who love the addict. It’s painful and hard to process and I appreciated how Harlan tackled the topic with delicacy but also reality. Through the topic of addiction we are brought into the family of Simon and Ingrid and how the addiction their daughter Paige has been suffering is affecting the family’s well-being as a whole. With differing opinions, they struggle to rely on one another for support because they each see Paige and her issues so differently. When the things they see as controlling their daughter are finally gone it only opens up a world of more questions, worries, and concerns.
While I did definitely appreciate how different topics were handled in this book there were a few downfalls as well. I landed on giving Run Away by Harlan Coben a 7/10 rating. As mentioned before the book follows Simon and his family as they work through a major struggle that has hit them. A bright future ahead of her Simon and his wife Ingrid’s eldest child Paige was off to college with all her hopes and dreams. When she meets Aaron they don’t expect that their relationship will lead to Paige dropping out, becoming homeless, and devoting her life to the usage lifestyle. With their son Michael still in the house Ingrid pushed that she and Simon make the difficult decision to cut Paige off until she decides to leave Aaron and get clean. Agreeing in the moment but not in his heart Simon struggles to not see or talk with Paige. Sneaking to a park that he knows Paige frequents Simon will watch her to feel better about the situation. One day he decides enough is enough and approaches Paige after having no contact for quite a long time. When the conversation is interfered with by Aaron it gets ugly and he and Simon get into a physical altercation in the park turning Simon into a viral sensation. Paige of course does not go with her father and leaves the altercation with Aaron. When Simon is approached by police some months later he’s surprised to find that Aaron has been murdered, and of course, because of their past, Simon is at the top of the list. When police inform him that they also haven’t been able to find Paige Simon and Ingrid decide they must look for her before the people who really killed Aaron hurt her.
An aspect I struggled with in the book was this little subplot that was going on while the main plot of Simon trying to find Paige was going on. It wasn’t exactly unenjoyable or anything, but to be honest it just made me feel a bit lost throughout at least the first half of the book. As we go along with Simon we are introduced to these very strange characters Ash and Dee. The two are in some type of romantic relationship and are also members of a cult, well at least Dee is, and it seems like she’s trying to get Ash to join her or something. It’s a Manson-style cult that likes to kill people I guess because these two go along killing people in their little subplot parts. I just genuinely had no idea throughout a good portion of the book what these two were doing here. Did they kill Aaron? I mean it didn’t really seem like it because they mention nothing of Paige and Aaron. Look, I mean everything does come together at the end of it all, but I just wish it was a tiny bit more clear why they were here, or what they were after. I was just confused because I honestly thought throughout most of the book that maybe Aaron and Paige were a part of this cult or something and that’s why he died, but them being heavy drug users on the street didn’t totally line up with that either. When it does all come together it’s honestly pretty good and a super mind-boggling twist. I mean maybe all that confusion was required to get to that point but I maybe would have just enjoyed Dee and Ash’s sections more if I understood why they were there concerning everything that’s going on with Paige and her family.
When it comes to the topic of addiction in this book I enjoyed how it was handled. It’s often really accurate that when it comes to having an addict in the family different members are divided on what to do or how to handle the situation. In terms of the research Ingrid definitely had the right idea. Addicts will not, under any circumstance, get clean unless it is their idea alone. If they are forced or don’t want to get clean it won’t stick, it’s just as simple as that. Simon learns this firsthand when he approaches Paige at the park. She seems interested in going with him but as soon as Aaron arrives she is reminded of what really controls her, the drugs and who supplies them, she dismisses going home with her family. When Simon tries to force the issue and Aaron hits him it’s no surprise that this doesn’t convince Paige to go with her father. If anything seeing Aaron beat him probably pushed her to stay with him more. Look I am not blaming Simon at all for what he did. I know all of this stuff because I have a history of working with addicts but if my child was an addict and truly I am not sure I could keep things professional, so I get it. I think everyone wants to believe they can save a person so lost, but it isn’t true, but that doesn’t mean it would stop us from trying.
I also really enjoyed the different twists that came up in the book and how the whole thing ended. It was totally unexpected and I didn’t see it coming the whole time. It was a really interesting way to end the book and spoke a lot about the different issues the family was experiencing together and within themselves. It spoke a lot to control and the desire for it but recognizing what we can and cannot do, and when we try to control something that is not our to, we suffer the consequences.
Has anyone else checked out Run Away by Harlan Coben or any of his other books? What did you think?
*** Don’t go any further if you don’t want to read any spoilers ***
I was super uncertain throughout most of the book what the hell Ash and Dee were doing here and what this killer cult had to do with Paige and Aaron.
Turns out Aaron was adopted as a baby. This cult I guess would impregnate young women and get rid of the boys for adoption out of fear they would take the leader’s place. So the leader gets Ash who is an assassin and connected to the cult through his relationship with Dee to deal with the boys. Another twist to it all though is that the cult didn’t kill Aaron. His mother did.
I guess Aaron and Paige weren’t in a relationship. They somehow figured out that they were siblings and I guess used drugs to cover up the pain of their lives together. Ingrid apparently grew up in this cult and gave birth to Aaron as a young teen. Not knowing that her now grown son was seeking out her family I guess he had chosen Paige to make his mark. Ingrid thinking that Aaron was of course her daughter’s boyfriend and not her estranged son killed Aaron in the hopes of getting her daughter back. The cult was after Simon because he knew too much about why they were killing all of these men I guess. It really didn’t make a ton of sense to be honest but I just went along with it all. Paige knew that her mom killed Aaron and hid to protect her and went to a facility to get clean.
As I said it was pretty hard to see all of that coming so it was pretty fun once all the twists started to get spilled. It was definitely a nice ending to see Paige working to get clean and some of the wounds starting to heal.
I hope you enjoyed this review! Thank you for checking it out! Feel free to follow me on my socials @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when I release a new review!
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