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Lucy Hull, a young children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both a kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten- year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. The precocious Ian is addicted to reading, but needs Lucy's help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes with celebrity Pastor Bob. Lucy stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds Ian camped out in the library after hours with a knapsack of provisions and an escape plan. Desperate to save him from Pastor Bob and the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian. The odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip from Missouri to Vermont, with ferrets, an inconvenient boyfriend, and upsetting family history thrown in their path. But is it just Ian who is running away? Who is the man who seems to be on their tail? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
July 28, 2020 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593339251
- File size: 252310 KB
- Duration: 08:45:38
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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The premise is promising, if a little far-fetched in an Amber-alert world: A librarian finds a young patron camped out in the library and agrees to facilitate his multi-state road trip. Lucy Hull, now 36, tells how, 10 years earlier, she hit the road with 10-year-old Ian Drake, her favorite patron at the Hannibal, Missouri, library. While the story is told by an adult female, Emily Bauer's voice sounds more like that of 10-year-old Ian. The device of inserting passages from various children's classics is clever, but its execution in audio form gets tiresome as parodies of IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE and THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT go on too long. Additionally, the "Make Your Own Adventure" chapter, while clever in print, is interminable in audio. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine -
April 4, 2011
Makkai shows promise in her overworked debut, an occasionally funny crime farce about a hapless librarianâcumâaccidental kidnapper. Lucy Hull is a 26-year-old whose rebellion against her wealthy Russian mafia parents has taken the form of her accepting a children's librarian job in smalltown Missouri. After an unnecessarily long-winded first act, the novel picks up when Lucy discovers her favorite library regular, 10-year-old Ian Drake, hiding out in the stacks one morning after having run away from his evangelical Christian parents, who censor his book choices and are pre-emptively sending him to SSAD (Same-Sex Attraction Disorder) rehab, and Lucy soon aids and abets his escape. The tale of their subsequent jaunt across several state lines dodging cops, a persistent suitor of Lucy's, and a suspicious black-haired pursuer is fast-paced, suspenseful, and thoroughly enjoyableâthe real meat of the book. Unfortunately, the padding around the adventure too often feels like preaching to the choir (censorship is bad, libraries and independent booksellers are good) and the frequent references to children's booksâincluding a "choose-your-own adventure" interludeâquickly go from cute to irritating. There's great potential, but it's buried in unfortunate fluff.
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