The Secret Runners of New York

Book Review : The Secret Runners of New York : Matthew Reilly

Wow! Was This Something Totally Different From My All-Time Favourite Author, Matthew Reilly
And I have 2 say I loved it! Another Homerun Hit Out Of The Ballpark!

Skye (Blue) & Alfred (Red) Rogers, Jenny Johnson, Misty Collins, Chasity Collins Hattie Brewster, Verity Keeley, Bo Bradford, Griff O’Dea, Oz Collins,
Time Travel. A Parallel Universe Of New York City 20 Years Into The Future. The San Remo Building, Central Park, The Monmouth High School has students whom are direct descendants of the Mayflower and ancestors who signed the Declaration of Independence (Old Money).
The Monmouth missing girls : Ternia Miller, Delores Barnes a special needs student from the little sister program affiliate, Rebecca (Becky) Taylor.
Belle of the Ball of the East Side Cotillion Ball -The most exclusive debutant Ball.
Headmistress of Monmouth Ms Constance Blackman.
High School Groups & Their Cliques, Mean Girls (Bitches), Psychotics, the mentally ill and the downright deranged. The Gamma Cloud & Caltech scientists Dr Harold Finkelstein who discovered & wrote of the Gamma Cloud – a high density-ultra-short-wave-ionised gamma radiation electromagnetically charged Energy that would spell an extinction event on 17th March 2019.

Is it any wonder the owner of the DeLorean (the Time Machine Car) from the infamous Back to the Future Movies has finally written his own time travel saga!

I must admit I was very surprised to find out that this book was written about a popular high school clique “the nasty girls” & their “athletes boyfriends” & mates, but this is not your average High School Drama-a-Rama!

It must be strange coming from a world where you rarely ever hear the word No!
Is it any wonder these kids have no respect for anyone else other than their own class?
If you never have to earn your own money and work your ass off for it, you’ll never respect it & to quote Verity Keeley speaking to teacher Mrs Hoynes in class while discussing the novel Pride & Prejudice when her teacher ask Ms Keeley “Don’t you think you could learn something that will help you later in life by paying attention here” & Verity tartily replies “Its just a stupid book, & I’m absolutely certain of that, Ma’am, I plan to marry a young man with name-value and a whopping big trust fund, punch out a couple of munchkins for him, hire a full-time nanny, drive a BMW SVU, do luncheons in the city everyday! Reading books does not feature in those plans at all”!

The parents of children like this have a lot to answer for, we all want to give our children everything, but does that really help or harm your child? And what does it teach them?

Giving your children the world and not making them earn any of it is just asking for future trouble or troubled young adults!

There was one part of this book where I was reading so intently & fast, totally engrossed in the book & must admit I was scared absolutely shitless!
I was reading the chapter where the ‘runners gang’ walk up to the front door of Hattie’s apartment in the future to see what occurred to her & her families future selves as Griff kicked in the door saving “No keys needed in this New York” when, my puppy (sleeping on my legs) barked so loud, almost sending me thru the ceiling!

I had no idea I was that intently engrossed in the novel, but did notice my hands were shaking shortly before Luna barked as I held my tablet & was racing to flip through the pages of the ebook!

High school in Australia & America is so different! There will always be the popular girls & those who are not. But I could never imagine seeing a group of girls as nasty as these at our schools! Although school in the 80’s is very different to now!

I came from ‘The Popular In group’, but the majority of the stronger girls (both mentally and physically) took care of all the kids who were not as popular, had disabilities or were dirt poor.
I’m glad I went through school when I did and I’m not doing it now especially in the digital age where everyone has a camera & people hide behind anonymity bullying from afar on cyberspace.
Kids are & can be so bloody nasty & words do hurt!

Congrats once again Matt for writing another incredible book with awesome characters. As usual I loved the characters in this book, but whether I liked them all was another story.

But who wants a whole book filled of good & honest characters (it would be pretty boring).
Some I liked very much reminding me of my own friends, such as Skye Jenny, Bo & Red (which is one of the greatest compliments you can give an author). Then you have those that need a real life lesson or two. I’ll leave the names of these not so liked characters out (no spoilers here).

I’d love to cut off their money, cut up their Black & Gold Amex cards, the use of their Daddy’s name & let them live life like the other 99% of us do with a job & making ends meat each week!

Experience a real taste of real, life where their personality & attitudes towards others are all that matter, not their parents surname & trust funds & see how they’re judged & treated then or how they judge & treat others should I say.

whether you like or despise them they all they certainly elicit incredible feelings inside of you.
Who will survive & who will get what they deserve? Well there’ll be no spoilers here!

Another 5 OUT OF 5 Book!!!!!

I borrowed the e-book version of this from my local library The Len Beadell Library and this is my fair, honest & impartial review.

Reviewed by : Jewelz Pederick.
From The