Book Review: The Secret Runners

The Secret Runners by Matthew Reilly

Reserve the Print Book

This book is about Skye: a teenage girl who has the perfect life. Or at least, that’s what it looks like. Skye (or Blue as some people call her) lives in one of New York’s most expensive apartments with her Mom, her super rich stepdad, and her brother, Red. She goes to one of New York’s most exclusive private schools. But Skye’s life isn’t perfect, and she knows it. She doesn’t particularly like her mother who judges her all the time, and she misses her father. She’s really an outcast at school, even though she started out really popular at her old school. Oh, the world is going to end on March 17th. At least that’s what the old wacko scientist said before he died. Skye isn’t sure what to think about the world ending, but she doesn’t have much time to think about it. Red has just told her about a tunnel – a very secret tunnel that only the popular crew knows about. A tunnel that can transport you somewhere… but where? When Skye finally gets an invitation to go into the tunnel, she realizes that the tunnel leads to a different New York… but where? With the world (maybe) coming to an end, Skye needs to figure out where this tunnel leads to… and fast.

I really liked the realistic aspect of this book. Even with it being a dystopian book, all the other elements except for the tunnel were things I can imagine happening in real life. It took place with most of the main characters as high schoolers, and the author did a really good job of making the characters really realistic. I also loved that this was a dystopian book, and it was a little scary, but not too much.

I usually don’t like thriller books, but I think this was a great one for anyone looking for a good book to read.

The only thing I didn’t like about this book was that there were some parts about it that were pretty predictable, and there were also a lot of swear words in it. Overall, I give this book 4.5/5! I thought it was pretty good!

-Review by Teen Advisory Board Member, 11/30/20