The Secret Runners of New York
Matthew Reilly
It can be extremely challenging to join the cliques of the upper echelon of society, but once you do, a whole new world awaits. When Skye Rogers befriends Misty Collins, she is invited into an exclusive group, with secret access to a portal into the future. As friendships fall apart, and the future shown by the portal is discovered, their games turn from fun to terrifying.
The book started off slowly but picked up the pace over time. The plot was intriguing and executed very well. While there was a time-travelling portal, the book didn’t revolve around it, instead focusing on the behaviour and personalities of the characters, using the portal to help achieve that end. This made the book feel much more layered and complex than a simple story about some kids having fun travelling through time. The book was very immersive, and once I had gotten past the slow beginning, I was hooked.
The end of the book was absolutely wonderful! I was worried that somehow the characters would magic everything into perfection, and it’d be like the catastrophe talked through the whole book never happened, but instead the author managed to make an ending that tied up loose ends, was satisfying in not having all the characters die, and clearly changed the lives of the characters drastically.
I definitely felt that the beginning of the book was a let-down compared to the rest. The relationship between the main character and her brother Red wasn’t really shown, but rather we were told about how close the two were. The references to movies and games also felt a bit strange to include in a book. I had to google one of the references they talked about (which broke the continuity for me a little), and some of the others felt outdated.
This was a really good book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I wouldn’t recommend it for younger readers, especially if they are easily spooked, but I found it a solid book and will probably read it again, which is why I’m giving this book 4 stars.
Pan Macmillan | 26th March 2019 | AU$16.99 | paperback
