#MMGM: YA audiobook review, Run Like a Girl

I may have gotten the idea of reading this from another Magical Middle Grade Monday reviewer.

After not posting with them at all in August, I'm back, posting today with the fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle. Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. 

This one's kind of fudging, as it's more YA than MG, though not hopelessly YA.

 

Title: Run Like a Girl

Author: Amaka Egbe. Read by A'rese Emokpae

Publication Info: HarlequinAudio, 2025. 12 hours. Hardback HarperCollins, 2025, 384 pages.

Source: Library

Publisher's blurb (Goodreads): 
Dera Edwards knows her life is over when she's shipped off to live with her estranged father in the middle of White Suburbia. To make matters worse, Dera learns that her new school doesn’t have a girls’ track team, shattering her dreams of getting a track scholarship and, one day, competing in the Olympics.

Not one to give up easily, Dera joins the boys’ team instead. But while she has the school administration’s blessing, her new teammates and classmates are less than welcoming. Between that and her frustratingly distant father, Dera is positive her junior year is ruined.

Just as she starts to accept her status as an outsider, Dera’s approached by her classmate Rosalyn, who wants to feature Dera’s story in her blog. Eager to change the narrative and spend more time with Rosalyn's gorgeous cousin Gael—also known as one of the few teammates who will talk to her—Dera agrees.

But when she goes viral and gains attention across the state, Dera’s new notoriety opens the door for trolls both online and at school. Paired with her deteriorating relationship with her father, she soon finds everything to be too much. Will Dera be able to keep outrunning her problems, or will her dream be the very thing that derails her?

My Review:
I think this is a very good YA book about a lot of challenging issues. I don't usually do YA because I don't care to relive teen angst and teen romance isn't my thing. But this one is about running, so I gave it a chance, and didn't regret it.

What I liked:  

• It's about running! I was the worst runner on my HS track team one year, but much later I discovered the joy of trail running. Age and injury have mostly stopped that, but I still like to break into a run.
• It's about being an outsider. Dera has a lot of reasons to be an outsider, and the book copes with those well.
• The parents aren't the enemy. Even her dad... maybe isn't a total jerk? You'll have to read it and decide for yourself.
• The value and dangers of social media alike made me cringe, but it was a good depiction of both.
• Sexism and racism are addressed in a good way, i.e. realistically but not violently. I liked that when Dera screws up she knows it and makes the right apologies.
• The narrator was great! I got a sense of people from their different accents and voices, which made it easy to track who was who. 

 What I didn't like:

• Okay, I'm just a curmudgeon. I could have done without the dithering about the cute boy, though it was a LOT less than in many YA novels.
• I wondered about the giant HS with no girls' track team. I thought at first the book might be set in a pre-Title 9 era, but no. I get that it doesn't have to be any particular sport, but track... is about the easiest way for a school to bring up the numbers of girls in sports, and I can't imagine a big school just letting that go. I also didn't get the part about them not having a coach for the girls. Maybe it's because my HS was small, but on our track team, boys and girls trained together under the same coaches. So the whole "no girls' team" thing felt kind of artificial to me.
•  I really hate the way I feel when reading about teens making teen blunders, especially with relationships. Okay, that's on me. The author made me feel it, so I have to say it was well done!

My Recommendation:
I think this is a good read to help teens understand some cultural differences and the sometimes subtle ways racism and sexism play out in the real world. It's also got some good stuff about running, but not as much as I expected.

 

FTC Disclosure: I checked Run Like a Girl out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  



Rebecca M. Douglass, 2025
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