The Rules of Survival

The Rules of Survival is the 2006 young-adult novel written by American author Nancy Werlin. Set in south Boston a few years into the future, the story follows three young children who are forced to endure and overcome the abusive behavior of their unstable mother, Nikki. When 14-year-old Matthew realizes how dangerous Nikki has become, he does all he can to rescue his two younger sisters, 12-year-old Callie and five-year-old Emmy, from the vicious abuse. With their father Ben out of the picture, the children find hope when a nice neighbor named Murdoch begins dating Nikki. However, things take a turn for the worse when the relationship ends and Nikki goes back to her abusive ways. The story is framed as a letter written from 17-year-old Matthew to Emmy three years after the events of the novel. The Rules of Survival was named a 2007 National Book Award Finalist and was named a 2007 Best Book for Young Adults by ALA.

Narrated in the first-person past tense by 17-year-old protagonist Matthew, and told as a recollection to his younger half-sister Emmy, the story begins in south Boston three years prior. Matthew is 14, Callie is 12, and Emmy is five. The children live with Nikki, their neglectful and verbally abusive mother who they live in constant fear of. Nikki doesn’t physically or sexually abuse her children, but constantly subjects them to erratic behavior, mood swings, careless endangerment and other reckless treatment. One of Matthew’s earliest memories is sneaking into the kitchen at night for a cookie, only to be threatened by Nikki with a knife to his throat. Ben, the father of Matthew and Callie, has left the family long ago. While Ben loves his children, including Emmy (whose father is unknown), he is too terrified of Nikki’s crazy and volatile behavior to help protect them. Same goes for Aunt Bobby, Nikki’s sister, who fails to help the children in times of need.

During a heat wave one day, Matthew and Callie sneak out to the Cumberland Farms convenience store to purchase popsicles. While at the store, Matthew and Callie witness a father yelling and screaming at his son for bad behavior. During the tirade, Matthew and Callie witness a stranger intervene and stop the father from abusing his son. After witnessing the stranger’s heroic act, Matthew and Callie wish to get to know the man more and use his help to overcome Nikki’s abuse. However, all they have is the name Murdoch to go on. Eventually, Callie finds Murdoch’s address on the internet, which she gives to Matthew on his fourteenth birthday. Murdoch turns out to be a kind neighbor who lives nearby.



When Nikki catches Matthew with Murdoch’s address, she hurls seafood paella at Matthew. Later, Nikki pays Murdoch a visit and soon begins dating him, which gives hope to Matthew and Callie that their mother will stop abusing them and return to normalcy. But like everyone else, Murdoch can’t stand Nikki’s insane behavior for very long. Murdoch breaks up with Nikki after a short time. Afterwards, Nikki becomes even more out of control. In a fit of vengeful rage, Nikki threatens to call Social Services and blame Murdoch for abusing her children. Nikki begins stalking and harassing Murdoch by following him in her car. As a result, Murdoch issues a restraining order on Nikki. Now even more enraged, Nikki hires a thug named Rob to physically beat Murdoch. The plan fails however, and Nikki and Rob end up in prison as a result. When Nikki gets out of jail, she manically searches for Murdoch. She can’t find him at first, so instead finds pleasure in tormenting Murdoch’s friend, Julie. When a confrontation results in a car accident, Julie is left without the use of her legs. Julie moves to her mother’s house. Nikki is again jailed for her violent behavior, and loses custody of her children as a result.

While Nikki’s imprisoned, Ben and Aunt Bobbie use her absence to gain joint-custody of Matthew, Callie and Emmy. Callie goes to live with Ben in Arlington, Massachusetts. Matthew and Emmy stay in south Boston with Aunt Bobbie. Everything seems normal and peaceful for a while. As a means of payback however, Nikki gets out of jail again, kidnaps Emmy and gets the five-year-old girl drunk. While Emmy is missing for days, Matthew becomes extremely enraged. Matthew searches for Emmy night and day and panics when Murdoch fails to answer the phone at three o’clock in the morning. Eventually, Emmy calls Matt and tells her where she is. When Matthew rescues Emmy, he runs into Nikki and almost murders her out of sheer anger. However, Murdoch stops Matthew from inflicting harm on his mother. Murdoch explains that he does not want Matthew to fall into a similar pattern of violence and abuse. Murdoch agrees to not call the police as long as Nikki runs away and never comes back.

As time passes, Nikki begins sending letters to her children. Some of the letters are perfectly fine, but others include threats such as “I will kill you” and “it was Murdoch’s fault.” In the end of the novel, Murdoch explains to Matthew that he too was abused by one of his parents as a boy. Murdoch confesses to killing his own father as a child due to the abuse, and does not want to see Matthew fall down a similar path. Despite writing the letter to his young sister to remind her of their rough past, Matthew does not give the letter to Emmy.



In addition to The Rules of Survival, Werlin has written several children’s books and young-adult novels. Her work includes Are You Alone on Purpose?, The Killer’s Cousin, Locked Inside, Black Mirror, Double Helix, Impossible, Extraordinary, Unthinkable, and And Then There Were Four. Locked Inside was named an Edgar Award finalist, and The Killer’s Cousin was named winner of the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Novel in 1999.