Blue Running by Lori Ann Stephens

Blue Running by Lori Ann Stephens.

Published 2nd December 2021 by Moonflower Books.

From the cover of the book:

In the new Republic of Texas, guns are compulsory and nothing is forgiven...

Fourteen-year-old Bluebonnet Andrews is on the run across the Republic of Texas. An accident with a gun killed her best friend but everyone in the town of Blessing thinks it was murder. Even her father – the town’s drunken deputy – believes she did it. Now, she has no choice but to run. In Texas, murder is punishable by death.

There’s no one to help her. Her father is incapable and her mother left the state on the last flight to America before the secession. Blue doesn’t know where she is but she’s determined to track her down. First she has to get across the lawless Republic and over the wall that keeps everyone in.

On the road she meets Jet, a pregnant young woman of Latin American heritage. Jet is secretive about her past but she’s just as determined as Blue to get out of Texas before she’s caught and arrested. Together, the two form an unlikely kinship as they make their way past marauding motorcycle gangs, the ever watchful Texas Rangers, and armed strangers intent on abducting them – or worse. When Blue and Jet finally reach the wall, will they be able to cross the border, or will they be shot down in cold blood like the thousands who have gone before them?

Some things are worth dying for.

*****************

Fourteen-year-old Bluebonnet has grown up in the Republic of Texas, too young to remember much about the desperate days when Texas closed its borders after the secession, except for a repeating hazy memory of her mother fleeing on one of the last flights to America, leaving her and her drunk town-deputy father behind in the small town of Blessing. - a memory that she is not even sure is the truth. The Wall that surrounds Texas is now her reality, supposedly there to protect the people of the Republic from those who want to take their 'freedoms' away, it seems it is also intended to keep them shut in - in any case, trying to cross The Wall in either direction is likely to result in death from the gun-toting vigilantes that guard it.

In the new Republic, open carry gun ownership is mandatory, even for older children, and everyone is expected to conform to fundamentalist religious beliefs. However, far from creating a haven, things are not peaceful in Texas: money talks, corruption is rife, gun crime is widespread, and violent motorcycle gangs terrorise the towns. This is not a place to be poor, or to stand out for being different.

When Blue's friend Maggie, the daughter of Blessing's powerful mayor, is accidentally killed while cleaning Blue's gun, she is accused of her murder. Blue's only hope of escaping the death penalty is to run away and try to get over The Wall - her vague plan is to somehow find her mother, who she knows is in California. On her journey, she forms an unbreakable bond with sixteen-year-old Jet, a pregnant Latin American illegal who is on the run from her rapist uncle, and is desperate to get to America to have an abortion. Both girls are in search of freedom, but how far will they get, and will they ever see the other side of The Wall?

Blue Running is a dystopian thriller that is extremely timely given the recent developments in America, especially states like Texas, and as a piece of all too prophetic fiction it is truly chilling to read. Through Blue and Jet's stories, Stephens explores a myriad of meaty themes around nationalism, feminism, women's rights, abuse, racial discrimination, law and order, immigration, corruption, white power, money, and gun ownership, and she pulls no punches in the process. But she also delves into the strength of the human spirit, friendship, acceptance, love and the kindness of strangers, bringing some much needed threads of gold - and as Blue is forced to confront the beliefs instilled in her, and Jet learns to trust again through their developing friendship, they both work their way into your heart.

I am impressed by the way Stephens incorporates so many thought provoking topics into a fast-paced and entertaining thriller that draws you in from the very first page. This is a book that addresses challenging themes, but her writing is easily accessible to a wide audience from older teens and above, and really encourages discussion around the important issues of the many facets of freedom, the rights of the individual, and political and religious division.

This is a book that breaks your heart, makes you fearful for the future, and fires you up with indignant rage, but it also shows how the right kind of thinking and intent can make a difference. This is exactly the kind of unflinching book we need at this moment in time to raise awareness about how the politics of the hate has been given far too much rein in recent years.

Blue Running is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Moonflower Books and Midas PR for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Lori Ann Stephens is the award-winning author of novels for adults and children, including 2018's Middle Grade novels Novelee and the Spider Secret, Some Act of Vision and Song of the Orange Moons. Her short stories have appeared in Glimmer Train Stories, and other literary presses. She is also the winner of The Chicago Tribune's "Nelson Algren Awards".

A lifelong Texan she's seen the best and worst of her home state and has come to the conclusion that Texans are truly fabulous at heart. She teaches creative writing and critical reasoning Southern Methodist University in Dallas.