Run, Hide, Fight Back by April Henry

Loosely based on actual shootings and exhaustively researched by April, this novel covers approximately three hours, starting with a sudden shoot out in the food court of a mall. Caught in the chaos are six teenagers, five hiding in a store and the sixth in the mess of hostages, trying to watch over his young sister.




This is a quick read, with short chapters and almost no downtime between Things Happening. It's a breathless read, well researched. But I found the characters kind of flat, maybe because of the speed. They all had one or maybe two character traits and that was all; no one really developed or changed. Near the end, one character makes a massive leap about another, based on absolutely nothing I could see.

It's a good, entertaining read, though, well worth the time it took to read it.

When a deadly shooting breaks out in a Portland shopping mall, a diverse group of teens ends up trapped behind a store’s security shutter. To her own surprise, seventeen-year-old Miranda finds the others looking to her as their leader. But she’s hiding a big secret—and she’s not the only one. The group has only three choices—run, hide, or fight back. The wrong decision will have fatal consequences.