The Last Runaway Review

The Last Runaway By Tracy Chevalier

New York Times bestselling author of Girl With a Pearl Earring Tracy Chevalier makes her first fictional foray into the American past in The Last Runaway, bringing to life the Underground Railroad and illuminating the principles, passions and realities that fueled this extraordinary freedom movement. 

In New York Times bestselling author Tracy Chevalier’s newest historical saga, she introduces Honor Bright, a modest English Quaker who moves to Ohio in 1850, only to find herself alienated and alone in a strange land. Sick from the moment she leaves England, and fleeing personal disappointment, she is forced by family tragedy to rely on strangers in a harsh, unfamiliar landscape.

Nineteenth-century America is practical, precarious, and unsentimental, and scarred by the continuing injustice of slavery. In her new home Honor discovers that principles count for little, even within a religious community meant to be committed to human equality.

However, drawn into the clandestine activities of the Underground Railroad, a network helping runaway slaves escape to freedom, Honor befriends two surprising women who embody the remarkable power of defiance. Eventually she must decide if she too can act on what she believes in, whatever the personal costs. 

A powerful journey brimming with color and drama, The Last Runaway is Tracy Chevalier’s vivid engagement with an iconic part of American history

Claire's Review 3 of 5 Stars

Firstly, thank you to Harper Collins for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The last Runaway is a nice story about the life of Honor Bright, it is a historical novel set in the 1850s. It was a well written story but something just didnt click for me. I like to feel I can connect to the main characters in some way and I just felt distant and at times dislike towards Honor. She seems very dull in places and also very judgemental and critical. I also found the storyline very repetitive.

However the book is not all bad! it is well written enough to keep your reading and I found finding out about the Quaker community and the slavery at the time. There was just something missing for me in this book which i cant quite put my finger on.