Semi Finalist
Assessment:
Plot: This memoir is skillfully plotted and perfectly structured. Readers will relate to and understand the author's decision to run away.
Prose: The writing here is very strong and one of the book's chief pleasures.
Originality: The topic of teen runaways has been done before. But this book is as strong as other volumes, or stronger. The author's prose elevates the work to a higher level.
Character Development: At times, readers will have to remind themselves that the protagonist is a teen, not an experienced woman. The author's dialogue and character insights are organic and believable.
Blurb: An honest, unflinching, tightly crafted look at the life of a teen runaway—from the inside. A stunning memoir of loss and redemption.
Date Submitted: April 02, 2018
I will be watching for future literary works from J.J. Maze. Her harrowing memoir is a masterpiece. Walk Until Sunrise is most highly recommended.
Maze's memoir, Walk Until Sunrise, is a visceral tale of a girl’s journey from childhood to late teenage years. The story, and the older-than-her-years voice of the narrator, create a world like that of Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye and Jack Kerouac in On the Road.
