

Eight years ago, SILVIA WOOD’s father died in an industrial accident. After suffering through years of Psychotherapy Services and Mandated Medications for depression and multiple suicide attempts, she longs to work in Botanical Sciences. When the Occupation Exam determines she must work in Mortuary Sciences instead, she wonders if the New Order assigned her to the morgue to push her over the edge.
To appease her disappointed mother, Silvia enters the Race for Citizen Glory, in an attempt to stand out in the crowd of Equals. After she begins training with “golden boy” LIAM HARMAN, she discovers he also lost his father in the same accident that ruined her childhood. Then Silvia meets and falls for Liam’s older cousin, whose paranoid intensity makes her question what really happened to her father. As the race nears, Silvia realizes that she’s not only running for glory, she’s running for her life.
It had been a while (perhaps a couple of months) since I last read a typical YA Dystopian novel like this one. And since it's one of my favourite genres, I was really looking forward to it.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read that I would recommend to fans of the genre. If you enjoyed The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner and the likes and if you don't feel overfed by this particular subtype of book, I really think you'll like it. I certainly did.
I was interested to see what would happen with Silvia being a trainee in the mortuary, but I felt like that angle could have been used a bit more to give the story an original twist. Instead there's the generic something that everyone wants (but which might not be so super-awesome as everyone seems to think) which in Dead Girl Running is a race. For reasons that don't seem too clear to me people who win the race are fit for important jobs.
There was an unneeded romantic subplot (at least it wasn't a love triangle), but Silvia was an interesting though quite naive main character. Exactly what the evil government is doing and why remain to be elucidated but I suppose this we will find out in the next book of the series, which I hope will arrive soon!
Dead Girl Running is the first book of The New Order.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an review during this blog tour, thanks!
About The Author:
My to-do list dictates that I try to cram 48 hours of living into a day instead of the usual 24. I’ve chosen a life filled with animals. I train for marathons with my dog, then go to work as a small animal veterinarian, and finish the day by tripping over my pets as I attempt to convince my two unruly children that YES, it really IS time for bed. But I can’t wait until the house is quiet to write; I have to steal moments throughout the day. Ten minutes here, a half hour there, I live within my imagination. Like all busy American mothers, I multi-task. I work out plot holes during runs. Instead of meditating, I type madly during yoga stretches. I find inspiration in everyday things: a beautiful smile, a heartbreaking song, or a newspaper article on a political theory. For example, a long drive in the dark listening to an NPR program on the SMILEY FACE MURDERS theory made me ask so many questions that I wrote HOW TO DATE DEAD GUYS to answer them to my satisfaction.
I’d love to have more time to write (and run, read, and sleep), but until I find Hermione Granger’s time turner, I will juggle real life with the half-written stories in my head. Main characters and plot lines intertwine in my cranium, and I need to let my writing weave the tales on paper so I can find out what happens next.