Desert Angel

Angel escapes from her mom's abusive boyfriend, Scotty, after he murders her mother and burns their trailer to the ground. But Scotty will track Angel from here to the ends of the earth for the mere thrill of the hunt: he wants her dead. Can she escape?I thought this book was going to be a survivalist thriller - the description kind of made it sound like Angel was going to brave a giant desert and survive in the wilderness while on the run from Scotty. But in actuality she runs from house to house, trying to anticipate where Scotty will strike next in his attempt to kill her. I liked a lot of the book, but I felt like I spent the entire story waiting for something to happen. The body of the book is one long lull in the action - with a couple of pages in the back to wrap it up. There are some thematic elements in the book that will fly right over most kids' heads - but I wouldn't recommend it to anybody under 15, unless they're already familiar with themes like graphic abuse and murder.