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Dry Run #2
Flanked
Run. Hide. Survive.
When he finally — violently — escapes his sadistic boss at sex tourism den Flights of Fantasy, Joe has a plan: he and his lover, Devin, will hike over a thousand miles from bleak and barren Austin, deep in the Texas Territory, to the crown jewel of New America’s domed cities, Minneapolis. Joe’s been planning the escape for years, hoping to locate the father who left him behind, but he has no idea what he’ll find. All Joe wants is to keep Devin safe. All Devin wants is Joe.
Life on the road is unforgiving and even more desperate than life in Austin, and it isn’t long before Joe’s careful plan falls apart. When he and Devin rescue a band of teenagers also on the run from Flights of Fantasy, things go from bad to worse.
Battling hunger, thirst, pain, and prejudice, with every stranger more dangerous than the last, Joe will do anything to keep Devin and the teenagers alive. He can’t afford mistakes, and he doesn’t have time for anyone, even Devin, to question his decisions.
But mistakes happen. And Joe finds the hardest questions are the ones he asks himself.
When he finally — violently — escapes his sadistic boss at sex tourism den Flights of Fantasy, Joe has a plan: he and his lover, Devin, will hike over a thousand miles from bleak and barren Austin, deep in the Texas Territory, to the crown jewel of New America’s domed cities, Minneapolis. Joe’s been planning the escape for years, hoping to locate the father who left him behind, but he has no idea what he’ll find. All Joe wants is to keep Devin safe. All Devin wants is Joe.
Life on the road is unforgiving and even more desperate than life in Austin, and it isn’t long before Joe’s careful plan falls apart. When he and Devin rescue a band of teenagers also on the run from Flights of Fantasy, things go from bad to worse.
Battling hunger, thirst, pain, and prejudice, with every stranger more dangerous than the last, Joe will do anything to keep Devin and the teenagers alive. He can’t afford mistakes, and he doesn’t have time for anyone, even Devin, to question his decisions.
But mistakes happen. And Joe finds the hardest questions are the ones he asks himself.
332 pages, Paperback
First published November 12, 2019
1 person is currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
Lolly Walter
3 books14 followersI love writing about smart characters in tough situations. Dry Run, my debut novel, is available now, and the sequel, Flanked, is due out this fall.
Grammar snobs, wonky journalists, and the Chicago Cubs make my heart beat faster. I live outside Austin, Texas with my husband and three children.
Grammar snobs, wonky journalists, and the Chicago Cubs make my heart beat faster. I live outside Austin, Texas with my husband and three children.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 12, 2019
Hurray! The long wait is finally over!
I have a confession: I’ve been waiting very impatiently for this book, frequently checking Goodreads and Amazon and Ms. Walter’s instagram just in case I missed a release date announcement. Now the moment has finally arrived, and let me assure you that I devoured Flanked almost as quickly and with nearly as much enjoyment as I had with Dry Run.
Nearly as much, you ask? Well here’s another confession, I’m not the biggest fan of the “characters take a long journey on foot” plot device. I blame all the Lloyd Alexander and C.S. Lewis I read as a child. That being said, I kind of knew what I was in for with Flanked, given the setup that occurred at the end of Dry Run. So I can’t really say I was ambushed into reading a foot journey book. And, for all that, I still found a lot to enjoy in Flanked.
Flanked is Joe and Devin’s journey north to Minneapolis, where Joe has vowed to go to find his father. They end up traveling in a slightly larger group than they intended, having been tailed out of Austin by a few Flights of Fantasy runners that they had left behind. The structure of the novel is split in two, with a stop near the middle to visit some old friends of Joe’s. A few characters appear that I was NOT expecting and was very pleasantly surprised to see. As with Dry Run, there is a lot of hardship and suffering that the characters must go through in order to survive in such dystopian world.
It was really interesting to see how my initial opinions and expectations of the futuristic setting morphed along with the characters as we both got to experience life outside of Austin, and the dubious safety of Flights of Fantasy, for the first time ever. Some of the world-building was amazing. There were a few situations that the characters encountered that I wish could have been drawn out longer (like the tunnel scene, for anyone who has already finished reading). There was also a lot of overly convenient future-tech, but that’s fairly common in light character-driven sci-fi and I don’t personally mind it. Overall, I really enjoyed seeing the expansion of the world and getting a broader view of what life is like after the extreme environmental changes that were set up in the first book.
One thing that frustrated me at first while I was reading was the apparent lack of effect that each character’s past traumas seemed to have on him. For the most part, these guys seemed almost entirely unfazed by their former jobs and lives. I appreciate that the author probably didn’t want to dwell too much on the issue (keeping this in the new adult genre, after all) but I was expecting that, freed of their obligation to work in the sex trade, there might be some level of… processing or healing or something that they would go through. Or that they would have some obvious emotional and interpersonal scars. It’s possible that they do and that these issues are being saved to be dealt with in another sequel, but it seemed strange that they weren’t addressed much in this book.
Despite that being an overall issue for me, there were some moments - especially later in the book - that were really poignant and touching. I loved seeing the characters forming new estimations of each other and each find their own strengths. And of course I loved anytime the past did come back to haunt Joe or the others, especially Joe’s realization By the time the book ended I was actually desperate for more. And it does end on a pretty big cliffhanger, so beware of that. I’ve found myself thinking of the story in the days since I’ve finished it and wanting to go back to the world and the characters, so I’d say that overall it was plus and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for the next volume.
I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you so much to the author for providing it!
I have a confession: I’ve been waiting very impatiently for this book, frequently checking Goodreads and Amazon and Ms. Walter’s instagram just in case I missed a release date announcement. Now the moment has finally arrived, and let me assure you that I devoured Flanked almost as quickly and with nearly as much enjoyment as I had with Dry Run.
Nearly as much, you ask? Well here’s another confession, I’m not the biggest fan of the “characters take a long journey on foot” plot device. I blame all the Lloyd Alexander and C.S. Lewis I read as a child. That being said, I kind of knew what I was in for with Flanked, given the setup that occurred at the end of Dry Run. So I can’t really say I was ambushed into reading a foot journey book. And, for all that, I still found a lot to enjoy in Flanked.
Flanked is Joe and Devin’s journey north to Minneapolis, where Joe has vowed to go to find his father. They end up traveling in a slightly larger group than they intended, having been tailed out of Austin by a few Flights of Fantasy runners that they had left behind. The structure of the novel is split in two, with a stop near the middle to visit some old friends of Joe’s. A few characters appear that I was NOT expecting and was very pleasantly surprised to see. As with Dry Run, there is a lot of hardship and suffering that the characters must go through in order to survive in such dystopian world.
It was really interesting to see how my initial opinions and expectations of the futuristic setting morphed along with the characters as we both got to experience life outside of Austin, and the dubious safety of Flights of Fantasy, for the first time ever. Some of the world-building was amazing. There were a few situations that the characters encountered that I wish could have been drawn out longer (like the tunnel scene, for anyone who has already finished reading). There was also a lot of overly convenient future-tech, but that’s fairly common in light character-driven sci-fi and I don’t personally mind it. Overall, I really enjoyed seeing the expansion of the world and getting a broader view of what life is like after the extreme environmental changes that were set up in the first book.
One thing that frustrated me at first while I was reading was the apparent lack of effect that each character’s past traumas seemed to have on him. For the most part, these guys seemed almost entirely unfazed by their former jobs and lives. I appreciate that the author probably didn’t want to dwell too much on the issue (keeping this in the new adult genre, after all) but I was expecting that, freed of their obligation to work in the sex trade, there might be some level of… processing or healing or something that they would go through. Or that they would have some obvious emotional and interpersonal scars. It’s possible that they do and that these issues are being saved to be dealt with in another sequel, but it seemed strange that they weren’t addressed much in this book.
Despite that being an overall issue for me, there were some moments - especially later in the book - that were really poignant and touching. I loved seeing the characters forming new estimations of each other and each find their own strengths. And of course I loved anytime the past did come back to haunt Joe or the others, especially Joe’s realization By the time the book ended I was actually desperate for more. And it does end on a pretty big cliffhanger, so beware of that. I’ve found myself thinking of the story in the days since I’ve finished it and wanting to go back to the world and the characters, so I’d say that overall it was plus and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for the next volume.
I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you so much to the author for providing it!
November 21, 2019
I received Dry Run and it was the first book I had read from this author, along with Flanked ARC. It was an amazing read and I read it one night in bed, was very fast paced and not being a usual genre I read I was thoroughly surprised how much I enjoyed it.
It covers so many different subjects and I feel the author created such a good story through all of them. Very well written.
I then was lucky to read Flanked as an ARC, the next night straight after. I was very excited for the read and it was also a great page turner. Character storylines were written with great detail and the book left on a huge cliffhanger, so eagerly waiting for the next one now.
It covers so many different subjects and I feel the author created such a good story through all of them. Very well written.
I then was lucky to read Flanked as an ARC, the next night straight after. I was very excited for the read and it was also a great page turner. Character storylines were written with great detail and the book left on a huge cliffhanger, so eagerly waiting for the next one now.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews