All Nate wanted to do was spend a little time kayaking on his own, away from both his mom in New York and his dad in Vancouver. He devises a plan and sneaks away with his kayak, but things start to go wrong. He starts to run out of supplies and money. The police are after him. He finds real runaways that need his help. And a huge storm blows him past the Canadian border and right onto an island with a girl and some drug dealers that cause a good amount trouble.
Runaway Storm, by D. E. Knobbe, is a classic adventure story: boy runs away, boy gets in trouble. I won't spoil the ending, but it was predictable. However, plot was fairly exciting, and the growth of Nate as a character was also a favorable aspect of the story. It did start off a little slow, but when Nate actually started his kayak trip, it picked up in intensity. The supporting characters were well-formed. They weren't phenomenally unique, but were definitely believable. The writing, too, wasn't superb, but was adequate for a YA adventure book whose audience will primarily be guys. In all, Runaway Storm was an exciting, pleasant read that I might recommend to my male friends.
- Reviewed on: 4/29/2010
- Publisher: Emerald Book Co.
- Publish Date: January 2010
- Genre: Teen Fiction (adventure)
