Claws

Book Title: Claws
Author: Dan Greenburg
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Suspense
Reviewer: Chelsea

This book Claws is about a fifteen year old named Cody. In the beginning of the story he decides to run away from his mother, due to mental abuse. His mother had been abusing him from a very young age when she first threatened his love for her with his beloved teddy bear, almost competing with the bear for his affection. As she threatened “do you love me more than the bear?”, and was not satisfied with his answer, she persisted and then proceeded with cutting off the bear’s head. The abuse endures for several years until he finally makes his decision to run away.

He goes across almost the whole country, from New York to Texas, to try to escape his mother who is constantly trying to track him down. He previously worked at a fast-food restaurant for some time, but he likes to keep moving to ensure that his mother will not find him. As he moves on, he finds a job that interests him. It was a job at the Sam Houston Tiger Ranch. Cody begins his job thinking that he would not be able to physically meet the tigers, but he was very wrong.

Right when he thought he met all the tigers, they introduced him to Brutus. Brutus was the biggest and most aggressive tiger they had at the ranch. Cody often tried to avoid Brutus. Cody does the regular chores, cleaning up after the tigers, feeding them, and taking his assigned tiger for walks around the ranch.

While working at the ranch he meets Sunny, the owner. He also meets the co-owner and his three new cabin mates. During his experience he has some rough spots. He finds out from his cabin mates that they heard a rumor that Sunny may have possibly murdered her brother Wayland. As he tries to figure this out, the police come and tell Sunny that they think she killed Wayland a few years back. Cody helps her unravel this mystery by asking some people in town about the whereabouts of Wayland.

A few days after Sunny was proved innocent, a tornado came through the area. Cody and the staff try to find all the tigers that have escaped from their cages during the storm. After all the chaos, his mother finds him and wants to bring him back home. During an intense argument Cody and the staff manage to stall his mother until tomorrow. They ended up calling the police. The next afternoon, his mother returned again only to be confronted by Cody, the staff, and the police. Since Cody was fifteen, the police stated that if he did not want to go back home with his mother he didn’t have to. After another heated argument, his mother finally gave up. Cody decided to stay at the ranch. Now Sunny and the rest of the staff were his family, since he had nowhere else to go.

I would recommend this book because, it has suspense and a very interesting plot. It is an intriguing subject matter to read about, including the topic of tigers, Cody’s wild abuse experienced from his mother, and the independence and determination of Cody to find happiness through freedom. Every time I read one chapter I just had to read the next, and the next, and so on. I couldn’t put this book down.