A widely interesting and worthy quick read. I'm not sure that I knew where the book was going when I first started reading it but it was a worthy ending and I really had a great time with it.

I recently realized I had not sent feedback for this book and had forgotten to tell you that I had a problem with the pdf

This book has so many things which, together, make it a really gripping, tense, and unique read!

Rich kids doing bad things because they think they can get away with it
Conspiracy theories about the end of the world
Secret groups/societies
Parallel/alternative universes
Time travel (but told in a way that I can totally understand!)
Mean girls
Complicated family dynamics

Skye, seems like she is nothing special to begin with. She moves with her twin brother, Red, her mother and step-dad to NYC, leaving her father back in Memphis. What makes Skye the perfect protagonist is her initial exclusion from the group. It’s a group she doesn’t even know she’s excluded from until she’s no longer on the outside. But her reluctance and hesitation to join in once she’s on the inside is real. Haunted by her past experiences when standing up to the popular girls with more power than her, Skye is incredibly relatable in her wish to stay on the outside and not get involved, and I really enjoyed reading this through her eyes.

Even though this novel is set in New York, where SO many books, TV shows, films are set, this didn’t feel like the run of the mill NYC we see so often. Because the action was confined to a very small part of the city, the book had maps, and the main locations were fully fleshed out, it felt fresh and new. There is an interview with Matthew Riley at the back of the book I have. In it, he said he wanted to set the book in New York because it was so iconic. He uses well known buildings to indicate the extreme length that something has gone to (sorry if that little bit doesn’t make sense, I don’t want to give spoilers!) but he also makes it his own.

I felt for the first 95% of the book, it was really well paced. Unfortunately it became a little rushed at the end. However, I was hooked from the very beginning and was so immersed in this book. It was as if I’d been dragged headfirst into this world as if I’d gone through the portal myself! Reilly did a wonderful job of combining all elements of the plot, from the end of the world conspiracy theories, to the science behind time travel and the portal, and I loved seeing how all the plot points linked together in the end!

I do have a bit of a gripe with this book. Hattie, one of the side characters, is a little chunky. She’s a little bigger than the other girls. But Reilly describes her on more than occasion of being ‘mannish’ or ‘brutish’ in relation to her size. I didn’t even get the impression she was that much bigger than the other characters, not that this would be okay if she was, but yeah, is there any need?

Also it doesn’t really tick any boxes on the diversity front, which is disappointing.

The ending also seemed a tiny bit rushed. In one paragraph, so much had happened that I had to go back and reread it because I thought I’d jumped ahead. I found this quite a lot in the last few chapters. It didn’t ruin the book for me, but I think it would have been just as good an ending but a little more enjoyable to read if Reilly had taken his time with it a bit.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book, so much so that I spent all day thinking about getting home to finish it off when I had only twenty or so pages left to read! I think this would make an action packed, on the seat of your chair TV show/movie so I hope we get an adaptation some day. I’m definitely interested in finding out more about Matthew Reilly’s other books, but by the list at the front of the book, there’s quite a lot. I also think he mainly writes adult books, so I’ll have to look into it !So, I’m not quite sure where to start yet, but I will definitely be investigating. Aside from the little flaws I mentioned, it was a great book! 4 out of 5 stars!

Just couldn’t connect to this one. The characters don’t draw me in. Just not for me this one I’m afraid.

This has so many trigger warnings that it isn't funny such as slut shaming, racism, sexism, bullying and homophobia.

I din't like this what so ever.

Rumours of an impending global apocalypse don’t stop the young elite of New York from partying. A newcomer to the Manhattan elite scene, Skye Rogers is shocked when she’s invited to join a secret club who call themselves the Secret Runners of New York. And what do the runners do? Why, they run through an underground portal that transports them years into the future, of course. But what they discover about the future is truly horrifying, and even the rich can’t survive the end of the world.

Okay, so this is quite a difficult book to review. To be honest, it was pretty terrible, but I enjoyed it. There are so, so many things wrong with The Secret Runners of New York: the key things being the dreadful characters, the number of elements that simply didn’t make sense, and most of all, the frankly disgusting attitudes towards mental health throughout the book.

Let’s begin with the characters. They suck. I know the main characters are all spoilt, rich socialites and are therefore supposed to be superficial and detached from reality, but the way they’re completely insistent on maintaining their social standing and bullying their inferiors despite knowing for a fact that the apocalypse is coming and half of them are going to be dead in just a few days was completely unbelievable. Secondly, they’re clearly modelled on the kinds of characters we know (and love) from the likes of Gossip Girl, but with the unavoidable difference that the Gossip Girl upper East-siders were funny and likeable as well as being flawed. The Secret Runners, on the other hand, are lacking any redeeming features to make them remotely likeable. Even Skye, who I think is supposed to be kind of nice.

Moving on to the plot, I thought the actual story was OK. I loved the gamma cloud idea for ending the world, and that element seemed pretty well thought out. What I didn’t love was that there was no point to the runs that the runners did. Why didn’t they explore outside of the tunnel sooner? What’s the point in just running through a tunnel over and over again, even if you are technically also travelling through time?

Finally, the most problematic element to this book: Mental health. In lots of cases, the abuse directed at characters with mental health issues come from the more snooty and judgemental characters, which can be forgiven because, as already discussed, they are horrible people. However, the author’s treatment of the survivors of the gamma cloud with mental health problems or a reliance on medication as psychos and savages is unacceptable.

Also, a middle-aged man has no business writing from the point of view of a teenage girl, as is clearly demonstrated in the scene where Skye finds Misty crying in a cubicle, holding her blood-stained shorts after getting her period unexpectedly.

And yet, I enjoyed reading it.

DNF. I couldn't connect with this book at all and found it really hard to get into. I had high hopes for this, which is a shame.

Really wasn't for me. I didn't enjoy it, the characters felt kind of flat and the world felt like it needed more work to me.

Sometimes, a YA book will just it the right spot and you find yourself racing through the pages to find out what is going to happen.

Although I enjoyed this one, it did not really do it for me and I found it a little bit of a struggle to finish, as the characters did not really appeal - interesting concept though.

Skye is friends with the popular cliché. The rich, popular mean clique who have a secret underground portal that connects them to the future. But girls have been going missing from their school and suddenly everyone is worried about the apocalypse. Can the portal shed some light on the situation?
The first half is quite slow going and it does take a while to get the point of the “secret runners club” but once you do, it is engaging and quite fast paced.
I wouldn’t say that it is for a younger teen audience as there are some quite graphic and horrific parts to the story.
Yes, the main character is “not like other girls” and there is only one character that has special needs and they are used in quite a clumsy way, but there were redeeming aspects to several of the characters which made them multi-dimensional. Such as the nuances of the clique and the clues about the apocalypse left all throughout.
I’ve read some reviews that slate this book for various reasons, but I have to say that I really enjoyed it.

I didn't like the first half of the book and the second half was better but by then I was already bored and didn't care for the characters.

I did not enjoy this. It was problematic, with sexism and other issues around representation of minorities.

Please note that this book is not for me - I have read the book, However I had to DNF and because i do not like to give negative reviews I will not review this book fully - there is no specific reason for not liking this book. I found it a struggle to read and did not enjoy trying to force myself to read this book.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused and thank you for the opportunity to read this book

I didn't get very far into this book before I had to give up due to the establishment of homophobia, racism and more that was just accepted as okay. This is not okay and checking out other review seems to be something that continues.

This was a book I didn't know I needed but now I love it and can't stop wondering about what happens to all the characters after it ends.
I've always had a secret love of Gossip Girl, and this brought me right into that world, but with the surprising addition of time travel, which made Gossip Girl seem so boring in comparison.
I adored the plot, it was so unique and the way the prologue sucked you in was amazing.
I'll definitely be buying a physical copy to add to my collection.

Thanks to Hot Key Books and NetGalley for the free digital advanced review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Sky and her twin brother Red have recently moved to Manhattan. While Red slots easily into the world of New York’s young elite, Sky has a more challenging transition. But then she is offered the chance to join an exclusive gang called the Secret Runners of New York. With rumours of a global apocalypse growing, this secret club might just have the answer Sky is looking for to escape a world descending into chaos.

I have to be honest and say that this book was a struggle for me. The first forty percent of the book was pretty boring and not a lot happened. This was not my biggest issue though. This book was racist, sexist, ableist, and had the worst mental health rep. So many of the characters were terrible people including Sky. None of this was addressed or challenged to a satisfying conclusion.

This is where I have a mini rant; Not all girls are obsessed by their appearance, not all girls want to get married and have children, not all girls hate PE and are terrible at sports. Girls do not have to wear make-up in order to look and feel pretty. Not all girls CARE if they are pretty—impressing boys is not the be all and end all. Shocking I know. Also, what is a sexless shirt? A shirt is a shirt whether it’s showing cleavage or not it’s still just a shirt.

The book did improve plot-wise after the forty percent mark; however, it was too little too late. All the action and gruesome death scenes did not make up for all the things that were wrong. I was perfectly happy for all the characters, save for Jenny, to burn in a fiery pit of hell.

If you’re looking for a YA book full of cookie cutter characters, then I’m sure you’ll be perfect happy, but I had cavities by the end.

THE COMING END

When Skye Rogers and her twin brother Red move to Manhattan, rumours of a coming global apocalypse are building. But this does not stop the young elite of New York from partying without a care.

CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?

And then suddenly Skye is invited to join an exclusive gang known as the Secret Runners of New York.

But this is no ordinary clique – they have access to an underground portal that can transport them into the future. And what Skye discovers in the future is horrifying: the rumours about the coming apocalypse are true . . .

RUN! AS FAST AS YOU CAN!

As society crumbles and Skye and Red race to figure out how to use their knowledge to survive the impending annihilation, they soon discover that the chaotic end of the world is a fine time for revenge . . .

Hurrah! This week I get to review a book in my favourite sub-genre of fiction – apocalypse fiction. Hold onto your hats, folks, because once again it’s the end of the world. The unique hook for this cataclysmic tale? It’s only those pesky teenagers and their angst-ridden high school lives versus the extinction of humanity.

Our protagonist, Skye, and her brother, Red, have recently moved to New York and are the newest pupils at a super exclusive high school. The students of The Monmouth School exist in a world that is recognisable in one breath and then total alien in another. In some respects it is easy to empathise with Skye. We all suffered through the minefield of adolescence. The peer pressure and trying to fit in seem like the be all and end all. We gravitate towards like-minded individuals, seeking familiarity and reassurance. Ask any teenager and they’ll tell you the same thing. The big difference between most teenagers and Skye is that she is part of the social elite, the ridiculously wealthy. For her and her peers, the prospect of the world ending feels like a problem for those who can’t afford to deal with it.

Thinking about it, I suppose pairing high school with the end of all things is a pretty good fit. High school can be a nightmare at the best of times. When things go wrong during your teenage years you often feel like you want the earth to open up and swallow you whole. Try to picture your own teenage experiences, some of us will have to think harder than others. Now imagine trying to navigate through that with the threat of the world ending as an added bonus.

As the narrative unfolds society begins to fray around the edges, violence is becoming more common place as people begin to accept the seemingly inevitable end. Why bother to follow the rules if you won’t be held accountable? It’s one of the things I really liked about Secret Runners. Reilly spends time fleshing out the story with detail about what is going on outside the bubble of Skye’s life. As the details of a predicted extinction level event become clearer and clearer, the thin veneer of society crumbles. Realising that the balance of power has shifted, many people from the lower classes begin to view Skye and her contemporaries as targets for their blind panic.

I’m as old as the hills so I suspect I’m probably not the target audience for The Secret Runners of New York, but I do think it acts as an ideal introduction to Reilly’s work for young adult readers. If I was trying to best describe this novel to someone else, I think it would be Cruel Intentions* meets the end of the world. That movie reference probably dates me more than anything else in this review. Cruel Intentions was released in 1999. A lot of the readers of this book are going to be younger than that. I’m always a bit jealous of young adult readers now. No, not just because they are young. I wish I had books like this when I was a teen. They act as a perfect bridge to more mature content.

I enjoyed The Secret Runners of New York. It is a solidly entertaining and, like all of Reilly’s action thrillers, the narrative is expertly paced. Well worth checking out if you are looking for an apocalyptic tale with twists and turns aplenty.

My musical recommendation has a distinctly New York flavoured vibe. A few years back there was movie about beautifully carefree teens running around New York doing increasingly dangerous dares for money. The Secret Runners of New York has a similar tone so that’s why I chose the soundtrack to Nerve by Rob Simenson.

The Secret Runners of New York is published by Hot Key Books and is available now.

*Other people who have read Secret Runners have compared the novel to something called “Gossip Girl”. I couldn’t possibly comment as I don’t know what a Gossip Girl is?

The Secret Runners of New York was a book that I found on Netgalley and I was so intrigued by the premise and the storyline. However I have to say that this book fell short in the execution department, this story felt as though it was rushed and under developed. I wanted so much more than this book had to offer, everything felt a little flat and I was so underwhelmed with the way that everything was explained. I think I was expecting a lot more and it was very unsatisfying to get to the end and to feel as though I had no idea what had happened.

I think the biggest disappointment of The Secret Runners of New York would definitely be how fast everything happened. I felt as though there was a lot of filler in the beginning and there was a lot of stuff that could have been written out or made to fit into the story better. There was things that happened that could have developed the characters but actually led to nothing. Plus I wasn't sure whether the 'twist' was actually a twist or whether I just figured it out. I didn't think it was overly well written into the story and I kind of wished that there had been more along those lines, rather than the poorly thought out romance.

Talking about romance, The Secret Runners of New York seemed to have a lot of insta-love. I wanted there to be something substantial for the actual plot line. I do recognise that these are high school students and the love was never going to be something over the top substantial but it all happened too fast and with very little going on within the relationship. Especially seeing as they all seem to rely on one another a lot and I couldn't really understand why as none of them had a lot in common or actually spent any of the book getting to know one another. Kinda felt that it was a check box moment, 'Romance, check'.

I did really love the premise of this book, it was a different way of showing a dystopian world. I thought that it was really cleverly done and I appreciated the tunnel part of the story. However and I keep harping on about it but everything felt a little underdeveloped. A little more information about the actual gamma cloud would have been good, I think the author was counting on blind faith and I kinda wanted a little more of the science behind it to go through the book.

Despite all my issues with the book in hindsight I think I would recommend The Secret Runners of New York. I enjoyed it whilst I was reading it. Yes I do wish that there was more development but it wasn't the worst book I've read and it was fun to read whilst I was reading it. If that makes any sense, probably not!

Skye lives in a world of money and privilege, rich family, exclusive school, but all this doesn't make her happy. All she really wants is friends and a family who care about her, unlike her mother and indifferent stepfather.
Prophecies of the end of the world are looking more and more likely in the run up to the destined date but most people in Skye's circle are ignoring it and continuing with their endless partying. Until she's invited into Misty's inner circle and with becomes part of the Secret Runners. They travel into the future and see that the end of the world is very much going to happen and unless she can do something about it, they are all likely to die.
The story was so fast paced and thrilling that I didn't want to put the book down. There are maps sprinkled through the chapters which I found really useful in orienting myself.
There were a couple of things I didn't enjoy, for example I found it very hard to empathise with the friendships and relationships in the book. They are all quite superficially glossed over, even the ones which are not actually superficial. It made it a bit hard to understand some of Skye's actions. The end was a little abrupt too, after all the action in the lead up.
Overall though, I really enjoyed reading this and found it gripping and entertaining.

Thanks to Hot Key Books and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

As a rule I tend to review books by female authors. It’s not a fully conscious decision as such but I just tend to gel better with female perspectives, particularly when it comes to YA. When I read the premise for this book though, I was intrigued.

This novel has been described as a mix of Gossip Girl and Mad Max and really…that description is pretty spot on. The main character Skye, is a rich kid who has moved to New York with her family after the divorce of her parents. She attends the stereotypical snotty private school and falls in with the cool girls. These aren’t just any cool girls though, their leader Misty, has a magical stone which enables her and her friends to travel to a future post-apocalyptic New York City. As you do.

In Skye’s current timeline the world is about to be engulfed in a gamma cloud that will destroy 99%+ of the earth’s population (yeah, idk either) and there is a growing sense of impending societal collapse. Yeah, it’s a crazy premise no doubt but somehow it works.

Despite being a bit bonkers, this book was very readable. The premise is certainly interesting and even though some of the characters were rather tropey (manic pixie dream girl, bitchy queen bee, jock with a heart of gold) the dialogue was snappy and the pop culture references which I usually HATE really worked in the context of this story and gave it a real sense of time and place. There were some witty observations e.g. ‘it was the classic ‘Republican Voter’s Bookshelf’ and the elitist attitudes of the upper echelons of New York society were portrayed in a hammy, but believable, way.

Both current and future versions of New York were captured really well and I liked the inclusions of the maps too. Some parts of the book were genuinely chilling and creepy but all the more entertaining for it.

This book is not without its issues though. As a main character, Skye is rather one dimensional and quite frankly, not very interesting. At certain points the book teeters on the cliff edge of being more than a little insensitive to those suffering from mental illness and I also couldn’t help but notice fat = bad and gross when it came to some of the characters. The good guys are attractive and the bad guys have physical imperfections. It’s a little tired. I’m not easily offended so it didn’t bother me overall, but others might feel differently.

From a purely nitpicky point of view, bodies still having flesh on them 20+ years after death? In the New York climate? Hmmmmm… Also the whole background explanation for the portals could have been interesting but was just kinda glossed over and never really mentioned again which was a shame because it could have been interesting.

As is often the case with these kinds of books, things start to flag towards the end. It’s ironic that Skye is such a huge Stephen King fan because this novel suffered from one of the issues that King’s novels often do; they just don’t know how and when to quit.

I feel like I probably wasn’t supposed to like this book but I couldn’t help enjoying it regardless. It was fun and imaginative and entertained me enough to overlook most of its flaws.