Night Runner by Max Turner – review

Zach Tomsen is a teenager who has lived most of his life in a mental ward.  He isn’t suffering from a mental illness, but he is allergic to sunlight and can’t tolerate any food except for a special milkshake mixed for him every night by the staff at the ward where he lives.  Zach’s entire life is abruptly turned upside-down when a stranger crashes a motorcycle into the front door of the ward.  Soon, Zach learns the truth about what he is and discovers that he has a very dangerous enemy.  Because he’s been isolated from the outside world for so long, he has little idea of how to survive.  He has to start learning fast, because he’s running out of places to hide, and he’s running out of time.

Max Turner has added a welcome volume to the multitudes of teenage vampire fiction that seems to be populating bookshelves these days.  Much of the subgenre focuses on teen angst without paying much attention to the practicalities of normal life.  Turner’s book, however, gives a very plausible way for a teenaged vampire to stay hidden from the general population.  Zach subsists on a blood substitute, rather than actual human or animal blood. He spends most of his time watching TV and running on a treadmill, and he has exactly one visitor most of the time, his friend Charlie.  Zach’s an unusual kid, and an isolated one, but he doesn’t feel sorry for himself. He’s lived in the mental ward long enough that he accepts his situation pretty readily.

When Zach has to run, he has help at first, so he gets some bare-bones advice about survival.  However, he doesn’t know much, so when he finally seeks out his friend Charlie, they concoct a scheme that seems a bit hair-brained.  The author has a good feel for the scheming capabilites of actual teenagers, because their plan works temporarily, but it’s only a matter of time until they get caught.  There isn’t much time devoted to self-pity.  Sure, Zach faces some anxiety because he’s worried about his friend and how he’s going to survive, but he realizes very quickly that if he wants to survive, he has to focus more on solutions  than anything else.

Night Runner has a good amount of action and suspense; it should certainly be exciting enough to entertain readers who want a good action story without having to worry about a lot of gore and splatter.  Turner’s book isn’t a particularly high body count book and doesn’t contain much to make squeamish readers turn away.  There are a few bloody scenes and some fights, but it’s certainly far tamer than an average night of prime-time network television.

While there isn’t a whole lot that seasoned fans of vampire ficion will find particularly original or innovative, the storytelling is good, and the pacing and unfolding of the plot make the book a nice, quick read. Zach is the kind of character readers can care about. He has flaws, but he isn’t evil or particularly bad, and he’s not hopeless or inept.  Mostly, he’s just young and lacking in real world experience.  He learns quickly from his mistakes and does the best he can given his new, unusual circumstances.

There isn’t much, if any, truly objectionable or controversial subject matter in this book. I’d highly reccommend it to teen readers who might be seeking a vampire novel that isn’t too scary, especially if they like good action stories. This is supposed to be the first novel in a series, and I look forward to seeing how Max Turner will develop to character of Zach.