The Rules
Tracy Darnton.
Young Adult.
Amber's an expert when it comes to staying hidden - she's been trained her whole life for it. But what happens when the person you're hiding from taught you everything you know?
When a letter from her dad arrives, Amber knows she's got to move - and fast. He's managed to find her and she knows he'll stop at nothing to draw her back into the extreme survivalist way of life he believes in.
All of a sudden the Rules she's spent so long trying to escape are the ones keeping her safe. But for how long?
The Rules launches into action at the start of advent when Amber receives a letter from her absent father. On the surface it’s all warmth and willingness to reunite. But Amber knows there is nothing warm about her dad. Desperate to evade his controlling clutches, she runs away from her foster placement school, and hits the road with the aim of staying two steps ahead of her dad. On the way she meets light-hearted joker, Josh, who’s been homeless long enough to know a thing or two about surviving out in the open. He didn’t expect Amber to know several things more than him: Amber was raised as a “prepper”, ready for any apocalypse situations. She follows rules laid down by her obsessive father when they lived together on a remote smallholding in Wales.
The Rules had me turning pages to find out how this chase across a Christmassy UK would play out.
The bad-ass and gritty Amber is contrasted nicely by laidback Josh in a dynamic that worked very well. I found myself deeply curious about the hints of a dark past that Josh hides under a mask of happy-go-lucky humour. I hope for a sequel that delves deeper into Josh’s story. Amber is very focused on her own problems, and as this story is from her perspective, we get only small hints of Josh’s hidden conflicts.
I loved how this story explored how it can be hard to identify the difference between an ordinary person with a sensible emergency plan, and an obsessive-compulsive psychopath wishing for the apocalypse to justify a prepper lifestyle. I liked how Josh’s people skills and street smarts proved to be as important, if not more so, than Amber’s ability to look out for herself.
A must-read YA thriller.
