The Rules of Survival ~ Nancy Werlin

I think Katie Rose thinks I am a wimp. A reading wimp, that is. Just want the nice, gentle, sweet storylines. Nothing sad, harsh, scary.

It’s funny. She’s right, of course. The sad, scary, harsh stuff SCARES me – or, is it that the sad scary harsh stuff prompts emotions in me that are scary and hard to handle? (whoa, I’m going all psychology on you now), and I have a desire to avoid it. And, I really did hate The Chocolate War, which WAS sad, scary, and hard. But, interestingly I guess that some of the other things I have read also share these qualities (so many books with dead moms, what’s up with that?), and yet, I read them with interest and even enjoyment. Certainly, you could never argue that The Book Thief was not sad, scary, and harsh. Yet, it was also much more, wasn’t it? (at least some people thought so. I know not everyone did, and that is okay..)

All of this brings me to The Rules of Survival, which I read a few weeks back, and which I was gripped by, and really enjoyed reading. Yet, if I give you the “brief description”, the review, you’ll wonder how I could have read it.

The book opens with a particularly self conscious narrative device, a “cover letter” written by the narrator, explaining what he is about to do: tell, to his younger sister and for her benefit, the story of what happened to them, a few years back, with their crazy mother. At the time he writes this opening letter, Matt says he is 17. He acknowledges that what he is about to do, write their story, is certainly going to be painful, but is something that he recognizes he might need to do not just to share what happened with Emmy, the supposed recipient of the story, but also so that he can actually process, make sense of, and, presumably move on from, the events that happened. There’s a fair amount of foreshadowing built in to that short opening section. Yet, since Matt is now 17, and writing it all down, we know that, in some way, it all comes out okay.

Matt is older brother to Emmy, who is around 5 or so when the story begins, and Callie, who is about 11. He is fiercely protective of both of them (though especially Emmy, and, in many ways, he and Callie band together to protect Emmy), and it is this desire to protect them that much of the story revolves around. They live with their totally psycho and wacked out mom who, interestingly, Matt calls Nikki, rather than “Mom.” My guess is that this is a conscious effort, on his/the author’s part, to create a certain distance or lack of emotional involvement. I think it is the sort of thing that might bother a reader, but, I did not find it troublesome at all.

If you ever felt like you were not the best mom (which I realize most of you have probably not felt, but I have), watching Nikki for a few days will quickly make you re-think that idea. She’s a case. Alternately crazy-fun (taking the kids on day adventures meant to prove her love for them and her “worth” as a mom: in one such instance she rents a jeep [you know, a “fun car”], takes them to an amusement park, and essentially force-feeds the kids cotton candy, so that they can know how much she loves them) and crazy-psycho (violent, irrational, abusive, etc.).


Much of the story hinges on the introduction and subsequent involvement of a stranger, an adult named Murdoch McIlvane. The older kids, Matt and Callie, see him one night when they have snuck out for Popsicles (Nikki’s out on date-night and has left them home alone, locked in). For various reasons, which are made clear as the story unfolds, they take an interest in him, eventually pursue him, and manage to involve him in their lives. Ultimately, what they are looking for is someone to save them. None of the adults in their immediate world are able to help them with the Nikki problem. Matt and Callie have a dad, but he’s only marginally present, and way too intimidated by Nikki to actually help his kids. Likewise, Nikki has a sister, who lives in the same building as Nikki and the kids, but she’s equally unhelpful.

There are some unrealistic things in the story. For me, I find it hard to believe that the above-mentioned adults could be so lame. But, I suppose it’s possible. Also, the kids success in weaving Murdoch in to their world seems contrived, and his staying seems hard to believe. Nevertheless, if you suspend your disbelief a bit, it all works and comes together. In the end, I think what helps is just Matt, who he is as a character, how he narrates the story, and what he learns and how he reflects throughout the process. I found myself just really liking this kid, and wanting to see happened to him (and whether he and his siblings were able to end up in a better place), and I think that was what pulled me through the story with such interest.

The Rules of Survival was a National Book Award finalist.