While We Run ~ Karen Healey (earc)) review [@kehealey @lbkids]

While We Run (When We Wake #2)
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
May 27, 2014
336 pages
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**Contains some spoilers for Book 1, When We Wake - read my review here**

LBYR US cover

Abdi Taalib thought he was moving to Australia for a music scholarship. But after meeting the beautiful and brazen Tegan Oglietti, his world was turned upside down. Tegan's no ordinary girl - she died in 2027, only to be frozen and brought back to life in Abdi's time, 100 years later.

Now, all they want is for things to return to normal (or as normal as they can be), but the government has other ideas. Especially since the two just spilled the secrets behind Australia's cryonics project to the world. On the run, Abdi and Tegan have no idea who they can trust, and when they uncover startling new details about Project Ark, they realise thousands of lives may be in their hands.

A suspenseful, page-turning sequel to When We Wake that will keep readers on the edge of their seats and make them call into question their own ideas about morality - and mortality, too.

When We Wake introduced readers to Tegan Oglietti and introduced Tegan to 2128 and all of the dangers of being the first cryogenically frozen person revived. Now the future world is known to readers and character,  alike, from the new technology to the extreme climate and the politics surrounding Tegan's current existence.

Allen & Unwin Aus/NZ cover

It's time for even more of the bigger picture to come into play. It is no longer just about Tegen adjusting to this new life, this second existence. (Not that it ever completely was.) When We Wake looked at the future and how Tegan, someone from (almost) the present viewed things. While We Run features question on morality, what's really right that don't need a 'past-timer's' view to be asked.

That Tegan is from another time does, definitely, factor into things, it's just less of the focus.

While We Run is told from Abdi's point of view (after the first book was from Tegan's). The new narrator is something that author Karen Healey takes full advantage of. Abdi's life - apart from being the 'singing thirdie student' - is now a part of the story. We learn about his past, his family, how he came to Australia and more of what it has been like for him. The fuller picture of Abdi does more than grow his character, it impacts the plot, as well.
While we learn more of Abdi, who he is, what he's experiencing and thinking, we lose some of the same when it comes to Tegan. This end up working incredibly well, keeping readers - and Abdi - from knowing everything.

This sequel has a darker tone and heavier plot than the first book did; due both the plot and Abdi doing the telling. The novel definitely followed a different course from what I was expecting following When We Wake's ending. It was unpredictable and not something I would have imagined. How it all comes together is fantastic, though. As much of a page-turner as the first book, While We Run will keep you reading from beginning to end. Then leave you with some things to think about. It has a great ending that concludes the tale without wrapping everything up too neatly, something that wouldn't fit the books.


Rating: 8/10






thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my ecopy to review