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Review: The Running Dream

The Running Dream The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was 10/10. Go read it.

I guess that was the short version of this review. The Running Dream was just so good. Part of my enjoyment definitely stems from the fact that I am a runner myself, but I'm sure that that is not something that's required in order to enjoy this book.

A huge part of what made me enjoy this book was the feels it gave me. I naturally don't feel like I have very many emotions, and that I am instead in a constant state of neutrality. So anything that makes me feel is super welcome in my book, and oh boy, this book made me feel.

"I am a runner. That's what I do. That's who I am. Running is all I know, or want, or care about.”

This is for sure the most I've ever cried from a book... or from any form of media really. I just sympathized with Jessica so much, and I could put myself in her position and it was just... it really hit me. Basically what happens is that Jessica is a 400m track sprinter, the best in her age group, but one day due to an accident she loses her leg from the knee down. Running was her entire life, and it ripped me apart reading about how it was so brutally taken away from her. I cried in the beginning because of how sad it was, and then at the end because of how amazing the whole book was.

I also loved this book simply because: Sports! This is my second sports novel I've read and I'm hooked. I absolutely loved reading about Jess's last race, the description of the run was so exhilarating. It made me really crave reading a book that was just about sprinting, but I knew that that wasn't going to be this book. This was probably my only disappointment about this book: I thought that by the end we would see Jessica compete again. I was craving another sprint during the entire book and I was left still famished.

This book seemed like a really accurate depiction of exactly what it would be like to loose a leg. It was also really accurate in terms of running, and it has a lot of really good quotes. Man, this book was the bee's knees, okay? I maybe didn't really care about the slice-of-life aspects, with school and love and whatnot, but it doesn't even matter because what I do love about it I just love so much.

Ack, I have such a strong craving for reading sport books right now! But most of them seem to centre around romance, with the sport being the secondary focus. Sigh.

Bonus: My Favourite Sports Anime! (No Spoilers!! Just behind a tag)
(view spoiler)


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