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Thursday 12 December 2019

Review: The Secret Runners of New York

The elite of New York party like there is no tomorrow. What they don’t know is an apocalyptic event is coming and there may be only one chance of stopping it.

Twins Skye and Red move to Manhattan and are quickly ensconced in the usual teen angst of being in a new school and not being one of the popular kids. Rumours are rife that the end of the world as they know it is coming. Skye and Red are both sceptical about this story and pay it little heed.

That is until Skye helps out popular girl Misty from an embarrassing situation and is invited into their exclusive gang. Joining up with the popular kids Misty, Hattie, Verity and Bo, Skye and Red soon discover the rumours are true. Together they make up the secret runners of New York, who use tunnels hidden beneath the city to access a portal.

Entering through the grungy looking door, the portal allows them to access the future. Shocked at what they find, Skye and Red realise the apocalypse will destroy everything they hold dear.

Skyscraper windows are smashed, there is no power, no light and worse there are no signs of life – the city is totally deserted. The result of a gamma cloud that wipes out 99% of the population.

The portal represents the future, entering it allows the group to experience time spirals. However long they stay in the future, is how long they are missing from their own time/reality. Access to the portal is by age, limiting the damage that can be done by the gang.

Red makes it back through the portal, however Misty has another plan for Skye. Trapping her in the future, Skye will need all the help she can get. Her only chance is to locate a gem that will allow safe passage back through the portal. Along the way she encounters adult versions of her friends, including her brother Red. Danger, revenge and a litany of clues will take Skye on a journey into the unknown.

Skye and Red will do anything to stop their world from ending up like this, but nothing worth fighting for is ever easy. Separated, Skye and Red must both fight to save their world, their family and each other.

Who will have the ultimate revenge? Will Skye and Red make it back to each other? Is this really the end of the world?
  
Title: The Secret Runners of New York
Author: Matthew Reilly
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia, $16.99
Publication Date: 26 March 2019
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781760559076
For ages: 14+
Type: Young Adult Fiction