Freeyah and the Race of Life - by Niki Lambropoulos (Paperback)

About the Book

After discovering a secret passage to an underworld realm, a 13-year-old Black British champion runner must reconnect with her memories and risk her life to win the one-on-one race.

Book Synopsis

After her father's death, Freeyah, a 13-year-old girl and gold medal runner, lives with her mother. She loses her job and can't support Freeyah. Freeyah discovers that a Banga, a new kind of monster that attaches itself to humans, has taken over her. She runs away following her father's golden memory thread. But she falls into a secret web of abandoned London tube tunnels to Cosima Hills, an incredible multimodal underworld built by children's dreams, fears and sorrows, woven around the Prime Meridian under Greenwich. Freeyah finds two unexpected co-travellers, her neighbour Wan Wei, who used to be her biggest running fan, and Laurie, a Banga monster who is a runaway. She also discovers her Cosima Hills dream home.

Princess Cendra var der Mean has banned running in Cosima City despite the fact she is a gold medalist as with Freeyah. Aiming to conquer All Lands, Cendra and Bangas' Leader, Max Banga who is also Laurie's father, have created a passage to Cosima City from Northern Downs and to Gaea's homes, specifically targeting London homes. Being the most dangerous monster of All Lands, only Max Banga does know where the Isu Thunder Key and the 4 Necessities with their sister, Cosima, are located. Freeyah and her friends must find the Four Sisters to bring her father back from the dead and keep her memories.

Freeyah opposes Cendra and Max Banga. With the help of Wan Wei and Laurie, she gets the Isu Thunder Key, finds the 4 Necessities and Cosima, and attempts to seal the passage. However, Cendra snatches the key and, with Max Banga, they destroy the central memory cord of all humanity, causing Freeyah to forget her mission, and completely lose her memories, as with Wan Wei and Laurie. The Four Necessities advise Freeyah to visit her dream home in Cosima Hills. When Freeyah gets there, she confronts her worst memories that have survived, forcing her to meet her dad and discover who she really is. Freeyah opposes Cendra and Max Banga as All Lands collapse. She creates an internal symbolic connection with her father, adapting his skills to fight to get her life back.

In the final conflict, Freeyah redefines her world, breaks her family's old patterns, and has one shot to run for her life and everyone else's before the entire realm collapses. Ultimately, Freeyah meets her father, saves humanity's memories and the world, and gets her life back with her mother.

Review Quotes

"Run with your heart - Freeyah will stay with you."

"A dazzling, heart-thumping adventure that weaves memory, grief, and courage into pure light. Freeyah is a new classic of modern mythmaking."

"Freeyah is the heroine we've been waiting for - brave, messy, strong, and real. I cried and cheered every step."

"This book made me believe in magic again. And in friendship. And in running!"

"A story of memory, magic, and one unstoppable girl."

"Epic. Emotional. Unforgettable."

"The race that rewrites a world."