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Women's Work #2
RUN Ragged
"A captivating story and a thought-provoking consideration of gender, systemic inequality, and the cost of willful ignorance." -Kirkus Reviews
"5 STAR! Gripping, but not intended for the faint of heart, RUN Ragged is an intriguing dystopian read." - IndieReader
Would anything change if women ruled the world?
Fifteen years after the Last War devastated families and infrastructure, women have taken over under the banner of peace and equality. Only too late do they realize it’s a slippery slope to oppression.
In a devastated country, those in charge rule by fear, inequality, and oppression. Rhia, a strong and independent sea captain, just wants to keep her head down and do her job, unitl she finds herself trapped in a re-education facility designed to help people fit into the rules of the New Way Forward. The warden claims to be guiding those in her care, but Rhia quickly sees the cracks in the system. As she is faced with torture and brainwashing, those cracks become gaping holes that threaten to pull her down into the depths of despair. Can Rhia resist the slow subversion of re-education and become the reluctant hero the new world needs?
RUN Ragged is the thrilling second story by the award-winning author of Women’s Work. This brilliantly imagined novel is both a scathing satire and a profoundly poignant look at the price we are willing to pay for peace and what we are willing to ignore to keep our conscience clear.
"5 STAR! Gripping, but not intended for the faint of heart, RUN Ragged is an intriguing dystopian read." - IndieReader
Would anything change if women ruled the world?
Fifteen years after the Last War devastated families and infrastructure, women have taken over under the banner of peace and equality. Only too late do they realize it’s a slippery slope to oppression.
In a devastated country, those in charge rule by fear, inequality, and oppression. Rhia, a strong and independent sea captain, just wants to keep her head down and do her job, unitl she finds herself trapped in a re-education facility designed to help people fit into the rules of the New Way Forward. The warden claims to be guiding those in her care, but Rhia quickly sees the cracks in the system. As she is faced with torture and brainwashing, those cracks become gaping holes that threaten to pull her down into the depths of despair. Can Rhia resist the slow subversion of re-education and become the reluctant hero the new world needs?
RUN Ragged is the thrilling second story by the award-winning author of Women’s Work. This brilliantly imagined novel is both a scathing satire and a profoundly poignant look at the price we are willing to pay for peace and what we are willing to ignore to keep our conscience clear.
- GenresScience Fiction
334 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 27, 2015
1 person is currently reading
289 people want to read
About the author
Kari Aguila
2Ìýbooks76ÌýfollowersIn addition to writing award-winning dystopian fiction, Kari Aguila is a geologist, gardener, substitute teacher, singer and mom. She has numerous scientific publications, but took a strong bend into speculative fiction with her first novel, WOMEN'S WORK. Her second story, the stand-alone sequel, RUN RAGGED, asks what would change if women ruled the world. It is a timely, thought-provoking look at a country thrown out of balance that will leave you contemplating its themes and characters long after the last page.
Aguila participates in book clubs all over the country via Skype to talk about her thrilling stories. She lives with her family in Seattle, Washington, and is currently working on her third book.
Aguila participates in book clubs all over the country via Skype to talk about her thrilling stories. She lives with her family in Seattle, Washington, and is currently working on her third book.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 24, 2015
Book Review originally published here:
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading RUN Ragged. A book focusing on a world where women having taken control? That sounded right up my alley, but I already saw many ways the book could go wrong. However, it didn’t fall into any of the pitfalls I’d conjured in my mind � if anything, it was a surprisingly original and intriguing read.
Rhia is a strong and independent sea captain who is unwillingly trapped in The Center, a re-education facility. The facility was build to help people fit into the rules of this new society. You can already guess how wrong that went. Torture and brainwashing and manipulation, and while the warden believes she’s doing the right thing, Rhia knows that what’s happening at the facility isn’t right in the slightest. She stands up against the system, although it might cost her everything she ever held dear.
It’s an insightful look into the price humanity is willing to pay for peace, and the lone rebels that dare to stand up against the system. Rhia is an engaging character, complex and easy to relate to, and the author did an admirable job creating this futuristic world so keen on peace it often forgets basic human rights.
It’s hard to classify the right audience for this book. I’d say just about everyone. It touches on some tough subjects while still being supsenseful and entertaining.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading RUN Ragged. A book focusing on a world where women having taken control? That sounded right up my alley, but I already saw many ways the book could go wrong. However, it didn’t fall into any of the pitfalls I’d conjured in my mind � if anything, it was a surprisingly original and intriguing read.
Rhia is a strong and independent sea captain who is unwillingly trapped in The Center, a re-education facility. The facility was build to help people fit into the rules of this new society. You can already guess how wrong that went. Torture and brainwashing and manipulation, and while the warden believes she’s doing the right thing, Rhia knows that what’s happening at the facility isn’t right in the slightest. She stands up against the system, although it might cost her everything she ever held dear.
It’s an insightful look into the price humanity is willing to pay for peace, and the lone rebels that dare to stand up against the system. Rhia is an engaging character, complex and easy to relate to, and the author did an admirable job creating this futuristic world so keen on peace it often forgets basic human rights.
It’s hard to classify the right audience for this book. I’d say just about everyone. It touches on some tough subjects while still being supsenseful and entertaining.
November 12, 2015
Rhia has lived her life on the boat, she learned from her father. Now a runner for several communities she carries their goods to port in exchange for what they need. The madame President is shouting her propaganda, that things are flourishing and all is right with the world. And for the most part Rhia agrees, but the things she doesn't agree on could get her in trouble. Sent her away at the very least.
Rhia is caught with a man and woman, who were helping her after she washed up on the shore. A night of storms, left her boat in the sea, while she landed on the shore. They are caught and sent to The Center for their betterment. But is it really better? They are held like prisoners and forced to comply or be punished. There were rumors about bad things happening to men, but they were just rumors, right? Now Rhia is seeing it first hand. She is witness to it and bares some of it. Her only hope is escape. But can she make it? Will she be able to save herself and her few friends?
This is a well written book, that captures you from the beginning. We met Rhia in Women's Work. Now this is her story. How she survives and how she see's the new world. The changes women have made. Corrupt just like men. But can anything be done? Only time will tell.
Rhia is caught with a man and woman, who were helping her after she washed up on the shore. A night of storms, left her boat in the sea, while she landed on the shore. They are caught and sent to The Center for their betterment. But is it really better? They are held like prisoners and forced to comply or be punished. There were rumors about bad things happening to men, but they were just rumors, right? Now Rhia is seeing it first hand. She is witness to it and bares some of it. Her only hope is escape. But can she make it? Will she be able to save herself and her few friends?
This is a well written book, that captures you from the beginning. We met Rhia in Women's Work. Now this is her story. How she survives and how she see's the new world. The changes women have made. Corrupt just like men. But can anything be done? Only time will tell.
January 22, 2016
Rhia is a runner - a ship captain who trades for her home villages up and down the coast. Well, until a heavy storm knocks her overboard. She survives, swims to shore, and then gets caught up in the Post-Apocalyptic justice system... she's been fingered as a recruiter for the men's resistance and sent to a reeducation camp for reprogramming. Will she survive? Will she get back to her one love - her boat? Or will she start a new life?
The book was well written - and really showed the evils of a misguided regime. The book is focused on gender discrimination to the exclusion of all other facts - Kari has created a world where it's all about the women vs. men.
PS. I didn't read the first book in the series - just this one. It was written so well, I couldn't even tell that there was a first book!
*I got this book through GoodRead's Giveaways - an excellent source of interesting books!
The book was well written - and really showed the evils of a misguided regime. The book is focused on gender discrimination to the exclusion of all other facts - Kari has created a world where it's all about the women vs. men.
PS. I didn't read the first book in the series - just this one. It was written so well, I couldn't even tell that there was a first book!
*I got this book through GoodRead's Giveaways - an excellent source of interesting books!
July 16, 2016
This novel is about women ruling the world thinking they can do so better than men. Had trouble with this viewpoint as am not a feminist. Main character is Rhia, a sea captain that trades with places for the needs of her people. She is shipwrecked in a storm and helped by a couple camping. These three are soon captured by the guard of the day led by a woman that earned my hate. They are placed in a facility to re educate to the rules of the day. Both men and women here and some are treated with drugs to alter their thinking. This is mostly the men. Had real difficulty with the women being evil and turning out just as ugly as male rule. Is an interesting story line and by the end am ready for he sequel. The writing was a little wordy for my tastes but ok. Thanks to Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ for this novel.
January 21, 2016
Aguilia has done it again with another suspenseful page-turner. Run Ragged takes us further into the New Way Forward and provides more insight into previously unanswered questions about the Great War, the new laws that followed and the exchange of power from men to women. Just like the original Women’s Work that gave us our first glimpse into this dystopian world, characters are developed to a point of feeling at one with their world and their struggles. The plot line is more consistent throughout the entire book, without any lulls in the action or lulls in continuing to discover the world Aguilia has created. I couldn’t put it down and thoroughly enjoyed Run Ragged.
September 23, 2016
I received this book for free from Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Giveaways. Very interesting story about a young woman who ends up in a detention center by mistake and she learns the awful truth about what goes on there. Society is now run by women with men taking a subordinate role. Things aren't as rosy as one would imagine.
May 1, 2018
I have finished "Run Ragged" and, as with "Women's Work", Kari Hetcher Aguila has written a very thought-provoking and engaging piece of fiction.
"Run Ragged" is a sequel, in fact, to "Women's Work" but concerns itself with Rhia, a "runner" (someone who goes from township to township to trade and exchange goods on behalf of the various local governments she comes into contact with). Kate and Michael, the main characters in “Women’s Work�, appear briefly via flashback, although their daughter Laura plays a supporting role in the story of “Run Ragged�.
Rhia is falsely accused of theft and insurrection after surviving an accident at sea and comes directly into contact with an institution that was kept off-stage in "Women's Work" - the penal/re-education camps maintained by the national government for the containment and rehabilitation of the men (and the women who support them) who are chafing against the restrictions against men’s rights that have been placed on them since the Last Great War.
What she finds in the camps is the stuff of Alex Jones' fever dreams, but it is all very much real, brutal and savage, and Rhia has to come face-to-face with the fact that women in power who are ostensibly seeking peace and a more co-operative way forward, can tolerate re-education camps and methods that include physical and psychological torture of so-called enemies of the state and their collaborators.
The camps have flourished because the people who might (or should) be horrified by their existence have chosen to disengage from discussions about their responsibilities regarding how just or how fair their new society could or should be now that women hold the important positions. They just want to survive, and when you get to the “I just want to survive� stage, that’s a tacit admission that things are pretty damn badly off. Laura, Kate’s daughter from “Women’s Work�, in a scene with Rhia that’s especially heartbreaking because you truly believe in Laura after WW, tries to justify working in the camp’s laboratory as a way of learning something that can help people, although what she’s doing is essentially studying medicine with Dr. Mengele.
The scene between Rhia and William, Rhia’s eventual love interest, where William forces Rhia to confront her complicity in this system by not speaking up or speaking out when she had the chance, is spot-on in this moment in the culture. Our decisions have larger implications and larger impacts than just the immediate circumstances we find ourselves in. The scene previously mentioned between Rhia and Laura also highlights the issue of complicity beautifully. Trying times demand that people stand up.
Kari’s honest as a writer � she does not let her characters, or her readers, off the hook when it comes to what’s important and what it means for them. What Kari's created is a taut story with some very important conversations happening in it. Reading “Run Ragged� and comparing it to Kari’s comparatively more relaxed prose voice in “Women’s Work�, she’s using a leaner, tighter prose. She's writing like a conditioned athlete here. Her dialogue still rings true to her voice, and to her characters, but she’s a long way more assured this time around and delivers some truly suspenseful stuff, especially the action scenes near the end.
Her villains (Mrs. Deacon, the commander of the camp, and Capt. Banks, the captain of the guard force securing it) are as scary as any villain I've ever read, and that would include one or two of the villains from the 180-proof "Burke" series by Andrew Vachss, noir master supreme. Compare Mrs. Deacon to Goldor from "Flood" and you'll see what I mean.
Knowing her, I would never have guessed that Kari had these characters in her but, more than once, I found myself sitting back in my seat and whistling in surprise.
Kari has written a very intelligent and thoughtful take on what happens when a system becomes cruel, even one that is now maintained by the previously disenfranchised, and on the necessity of engaging with each other as human beings trying to come to an outcome that is mutually beneficial to everyone involved.
I kept going back to a famous quote by Bruce Lee: “Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.� A system of any kind is only as good as the people in it.
Very much worth your time to read.
"Run Ragged" is a sequel, in fact, to "Women's Work" but concerns itself with Rhia, a "runner" (someone who goes from township to township to trade and exchange goods on behalf of the various local governments she comes into contact with). Kate and Michael, the main characters in “Women’s Work�, appear briefly via flashback, although their daughter Laura plays a supporting role in the story of “Run Ragged�.
Rhia is falsely accused of theft and insurrection after surviving an accident at sea and comes directly into contact with an institution that was kept off-stage in "Women's Work" - the penal/re-education camps maintained by the national government for the containment and rehabilitation of the men (and the women who support them) who are chafing against the restrictions against men’s rights that have been placed on them since the Last Great War.
What she finds in the camps is the stuff of Alex Jones' fever dreams, but it is all very much real, brutal and savage, and Rhia has to come face-to-face with the fact that women in power who are ostensibly seeking peace and a more co-operative way forward, can tolerate re-education camps and methods that include physical and psychological torture of so-called enemies of the state and their collaborators.
The camps have flourished because the people who might (or should) be horrified by their existence have chosen to disengage from discussions about their responsibilities regarding how just or how fair their new society could or should be now that women hold the important positions. They just want to survive, and when you get to the “I just want to survive� stage, that’s a tacit admission that things are pretty damn badly off. Laura, Kate’s daughter from “Women’s Work�, in a scene with Rhia that’s especially heartbreaking because you truly believe in Laura after WW, tries to justify working in the camp’s laboratory as a way of learning something that can help people, although what she’s doing is essentially studying medicine with Dr. Mengele.
The scene between Rhia and William, Rhia’s eventual love interest, where William forces Rhia to confront her complicity in this system by not speaking up or speaking out when she had the chance, is spot-on in this moment in the culture. Our decisions have larger implications and larger impacts than just the immediate circumstances we find ourselves in. The scene previously mentioned between Rhia and Laura also highlights the issue of complicity beautifully. Trying times demand that people stand up.
Kari’s honest as a writer � she does not let her characters, or her readers, off the hook when it comes to what’s important and what it means for them. What Kari's created is a taut story with some very important conversations happening in it. Reading “Run Ragged� and comparing it to Kari’s comparatively more relaxed prose voice in “Women’s Work�, she’s using a leaner, tighter prose. She's writing like a conditioned athlete here. Her dialogue still rings true to her voice, and to her characters, but she’s a long way more assured this time around and delivers some truly suspenseful stuff, especially the action scenes near the end.
Her villains (Mrs. Deacon, the commander of the camp, and Capt. Banks, the captain of the guard force securing it) are as scary as any villain I've ever read, and that would include one or two of the villains from the 180-proof "Burke" series by Andrew Vachss, noir master supreme. Compare Mrs. Deacon to Goldor from "Flood" and you'll see what I mean.
Knowing her, I would never have guessed that Kari had these characters in her but, more than once, I found myself sitting back in my seat and whistling in surprise.
Kari has written a very intelligent and thoughtful take on what happens when a system becomes cruel, even one that is now maintained by the previously disenfranchised, and on the necessity of engaging with each other as human beings trying to come to an outcome that is mutually beneficial to everyone involved.
I kept going back to a famous quote by Bruce Lee: “Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.� A system of any kind is only as good as the people in it.
Very much worth your time to read.
October 12, 2018
Much better flow than Women's work. Very much enjoyed the storyline and look forward to reading the next book.
February 15, 2016
An interesting book about a world where women have taken over after the war and the problems they encounter.
August 6, 2016
I could really relate to this book, so much so that I gave it to my daughter to read. Tells it like it is for todays busy women. Enjoyed the book and recommend for all women, you are not alone.
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