Blink & Caution (Runaways)

Book Title: Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones

Topic:  Runaways, Friendship, Crime

Thoughts: If the novel takes place in Toronto, why does the cover have a forest of trees with bullet holes?  This intrigued me and the reason becomes clear later in the novel.  Each chapter switches between the points of view of two runaways: sixteen-year-old Blink and seventeen-year-old Caution (not their real names).  I am still trying to figure out why when Blink narrates, he refers to himself as "you."  Is it because of his lack of self-esteem?  Is it because his conscious is telling his side of the story?  Is it because he wants whoever reads his story to put himself or herself in his shoes or situation?

Driving through Columbia today, my daughter saw a homeless person and made the comment that she would hate to be homeless.  She wondered how a person would find food.  I began telling her how Blink would go to four star hotels, walk down floors, and take food off the room service trays left outside the rooms.  Of course, that grossed her out, but I told her when you are starving, you will eat almost anything. 

While Blink has run away because of his abusive stepfather, Caution has run away because of her guilt over her older brother's death.  We meet Blink as he steals food off room service trays.  We meet Caution trying to get money from one scum bag drug dealer who owes her scum bag drug dealer boyfriend money.  It took me awhile to understand why Caution would be willing to live with and sleep with a thirty-year-old drug dealer who abuses her and cheats on her with another women in the apartment building.  Through bits and pieces Caution does eventually tell us why she stayed with him so long.

When Caution steals Blink's money at a train station, her guilt bothers her enough to give it back to him when on the train, and they end up working together risking their lives to solve a mystery for another girl.  While I enjoyed reading to see if they would survive, I enjoyed the complexities of Blink & Caution's friendship more.