Reviews for Running Out of Time
Review - Running Out of Time
It’s 1840, and 13-year-old Jessie Keyser lives in the small Indiana town of Clifton with her family. When several of the children in town come down with diphtheria, Jessie’s mom gives her some startling news. It’s really 1996, and Clifton is just a tourist spot. Twelve years earlier, her parents and some other families agreed to move there and live just like it was 1840 so tourists could watch them on video screens. None of the children were supposed to know, but now the sick ones need medicine. And something is wrong in the town — the people who run it have started to treat the inhabitants like prisoners. Jessie’s mom can’t go because she would be missed. But she has old clothes that Jessie can wear. She explains modern America to Jessie as best she can and sends her off through a hidden tunnel.
Jessie enters the tourist area and falls in with a school group. When she tries to leave, she finds a high fence, guards and security cameras. She sneaks out in a bread truck and walks until she finds a phone. She follows her mother’s instructions and calls Mr. Neely. He comes and gets her and puts her to bed in his apartment. But before she falls asleep, she hears him talking to some other men. He says Jessie will have to be killed because of what she knows. She sneaks out a window and takes a bus into Indianapolis. She’s not feeling at all well, but she manages to contact some reporters and tell them what’s happening in Clifton. The authorities go there and arrest the managers in time to save most of the children. Jessie has diphtheria, but a hospital stay cures her.
It turns out the whole Clifton thing was a plot by some scientist to try to develop a group of people who build up natural immunities to all diseases by letting the sick ones die off. The town is broken up, but Jessie’s family is allowed to stay until the state decides what to do with it.
A clever idea, but totally implausible. The idea that a group of men in 1996 Indiana can keep a town-full of people prisoner and let them die of treatable diseases for the several generations it would take to develop immunities is preposterous. The account of Jessie trying to deal with modern technology doesn’t ring particularly true either.
Jessie enters the tourist area and falls in with a school group. When she tries to leave, she finds a high fence, guards and security cameras. She sneaks out in a bread truck and walks until she finds a phone. She follows her mother’s instructions and calls Mr. Neely. He comes and gets her and puts her to bed in his apartment. But before she falls asleep, she hears him talking to some other men. He says Jessie will have to be killed because of what she knows. She sneaks out a window and takes a bus into Indianapolis. She’s not feeling at all well, but she manages to contact some reporters and tell them what’s happening in Clifton. The authorities go there and arrest the managers in time to save most of the children. Jessie has diphtheria, but a hospital stay cures her.
It turns out the whole Clifton thing was a plot by some scientist to try to develop a group of people who build up natural immunities to all diseases by letting the sick ones die off. The town is broken up, but Jessie’s family is allowed to stay until the state decides what to do with it.
A clever idea, but totally implausible. The idea that a group of men in 1996 Indiana can keep a town-full of people prisoner and let them die of treatable diseases for the several generations it would take to develop immunities is preposterous. The account of Jessie trying to deal with modern technology doesn’t ring particularly true either.
Reviewed by Roger on 2008-08-22 09:59:05