Run Away With Me by J.L. Simmonds is a realistic YA novel about two teenage girls, classmates but not friends, who end up together on a desperate road trip filled with secrets and hidden dangers. The main character, Jessie, is quiet, uncertain, and on the run from her abusive stepfather’s corpse. Brooke is self-assured, outgoing, and feels stifled by her family’s expectations. As they travel, they grow as individuals, as well as slowly falling into something like love.
The rest of this review contains spoilers.
The book evokes Thelma and Louise parallels from the plot and cover design. There’s even a running theme that Brooke’s classic Ford only plays cassette tapes, giving this contemporary story a vintage feel. It’s a gentler story at its conclusion. Spoiler alert for a 35-year-old movie, but the story ends with a flying leap into the final freedom for Thelma and Louise. For Jessie and Brooke, the story ends with a recognition that they are girls whose home lives lacked support, and both find happier endings. The change definitely suits the medium. I think a teen novel with the ending of Thelma and Louise would be less than apt for the audience. However, the comparison falls flat for me in exactly the same way the novel does: because Thelma and Louise were close friends whose deepening but already established bond made the movie engaging.
I didn’t like Run Away With Me. In fact, it even sent me to the Lesbrary to double-check that my recent reviews hadn’t all been negative! (Am I just a grump? No, I like things sometimes. Not this time, but sometimes.)
First, the relationship between Jessie and Brooke wasn’t overly compelling. They barely knew one another at first. Their crushes-to-pals-to-girlfriends journey was rocky and marred by uncertainty and anxiety. I picked up this book hoping for a dramatic story. The summary mentions cops and sinister figures; they’re on the run, aren’t they? Mostly… no. This is a road book. The girls pull off some hijinks, pick a few pockets, enter a singing contest. They share small adventures. That’s fine for folks who enjoy road narratives or books defined by awkwardness between two characters; I don’t care for either, so I rather felt misled by the summary.
Second, when the book tried to have high stakes, they simply felt out of place. I just said this is a road narrative—formless, moving forward but more about the journey. The trouble with that is, it also involves a human trafficking plotline, but that plotline is so poorly incorporated as to feel out of place, almost as if the author were told the book needed a villain driving it. At one point, Brooke is taken by traffickers, and Jessie must overcome her own insecurity and shyness to find and rescue her friend. And she does. And… that’s kind of it. Though Brooke is clearly somewhat impacted by her experiences and they worry about being tracked down again, the story returns to its meandering narrative.
There were some strong scenes in the book. I enjoyed when Jessie reflected that though they didn’t win the music contest, they enjoyed themselves and she felt empowered. When Brooke was kidnapped, I felt Jessie’s fear for her and felt gripped by the story. The problem is, there’s no consistency, and the kidnapping came first. Going from something as serious as trafficking and asking me to accept the significantly lowered stakes of how a music contest impacts Jessie’s self-esteem… that’s just too big an ask.
J.L. Simmonds has talent and I hope to see a more consistent and coherent novel from her in the future. Unfortunately, this one is a debut and really reads like one. It’s weakened by unevenness and too much time between sparkling moments. Even for fans of bumblers clashing their way to becoming lovers, or road narratives, Run Away With Me is a miss.
Content warnings: physical abuse, emotional abuse, trafficking, drugging, stabbing
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