Renee M. P. T. Kray's Reviews > Runaway Max

** spoiler alert ** 2.5 stars.

This book is season 2 as told through Max's eyes, which actually doesn't bug me as a concept. I liked delving into Max's home life and her thought process, and there were some really solid scenes. To be fair, the first half was really enjoyable.

But ultimately, it didn't even attempt to fill in any blanks or add to the story of the show. The ending of the season, which is arguably Max's best stuff, was skimmed over so quickly that, as a ST fan, I was genuinely insulted. Add that with repetative prose (she describes figuring out who Nancy is twice on two separate pages) and typos and it's clear that no one really cared about the ending of this book.

Lucas is presented as "nice," but nothing else. We actually get more emotional Mileven stuff in here than Lumax, which I thought was just.... odd. Isn't this about Max? Wouldn't this be a great opportunity to really focus on their relationship? One would think.

As mentioned above, no creative attempt was made to give any supplement to the show. We don't get anything about, maybe, what went on after that last night- did Max go home and face her mom? Or did she camp out at the Byers' with the guys and wait for everyone to come back? How might that first awkward conversation between her and El have gone? Instead we get a summary so brief and pointless it's basically a sparknotes of the end of the show. We end at the snowball, not even with Max looking at Lucas but with her "craning her neck" to watch Mileven. Whut. Even.

Like I said. Enjoyable through the first half. Insulting in the last half. I went down from a 4 star rating to a 2.5 because of the last 75-100 pages. If you want a purely movie tie in, you'll enjoy this. But don't look for anything to expand the ST universe because this one just kind of gave up on that halfway through.