Enjoyed it though it wasn't what I expected
After, I read the except form the book I was thrilled by the first chapter of it about Becky's last run. Maybe, it was it that made me want to read the book. Though, the next chapters questioned my wish. (I'll explain below.) This is my introduction to Matthew Reilly book and so far I like it, although it is not what I expected to be from the summary.
The book opens with typical high-school drama. In addition, we can supplement money and rich, spoiled kids with confidence boosted to the Moon. Of course, there is the new girl who is their mocking target. Yeah, sounds like young adult drama. But we are expecting dystopian Sci-Fi, aren't we?
Slowly the plot is unfolding around the events that will lead to the end of the world as we know it - a gamma cloud passing though the Earth and destroying all electrical supplies, mechanization and human race along with them. One of the main themes is for social cast and differences between them along with the end of the world motif. It is kind of constricted. Although it is with the highest possibility to consider that only the rich will survive an apocalypse because they can pay $17 millions to somebody to cover their asses. Quite not what I expected from the book with this annotation.
Alfred and Skye are twins. Everybody knows Alfred as Red because of his reddish hair. He is the one who makes friendship with ease. When they moved to New York to live with their mother, they get involved into high society of New York - private school, rich kids, fashionable clothes. But there is not only a hierarchy, they get in the middle of secret group of teenagers, lead by Misty, they run through an underground tube, under Central Park. But things can get difficult.
This tube is a portal to the future. Future after the gamma cloud. The portal can be open only with special stone, placed on the top of knee-height pyramid. There are two of these stones, both yellow, inherited from ancestors of Misty family. World in the future is a land of anarchy where only psychopaths and criminals survived. And their curiosity drive them to explore this world. To find out what is their and their families destiny. And the picture is ugly.
On the top of all there are girls that went missing from their expensive Monmouth School. The question is - what happened to them and how somebody can disappear without leaving any track, like they never existed. And all of them crossed Misty or her sister Chastity life at some point.
I might say I felt let down. The blurb promised a dystopian story. But more than half of the book is about high-school life, drama and rich-bitch life. I do understand that the author needs time to set up his plot, but it takes so long to unfold the plot and lead us to culmination
First half of the book is completely out of point. But don't leave the book, I promise it gets better. I couldn't get enough from the second half of it. I was consumed by it. The author has 328 pages to develop this end of the world scenario and make it interesting and devouring. Instead, he decided to dig down deep into cheap teen drama and create a soap opera. Though the parallel worlds theme is developed pretty well and this new world is so creepy, gloomy and completely awesome!
He had to put more efforts on developing the dystopian part, invest more into involving these two missing stones with different colors. Make the characters investigate this underground tub, find its story, its origins. Find the other two stones and discover their capability. Personally, I wanted to know what happened with Becky and the other girls. Wanted to see more from the destroyed world. The story itself sounds unfinished with lots of gaps in it. The idea is great, but is poorly performed.
I'm slightly disappointed as the book turn out to be not what I expected. I wanted more dystopian part. Don't get me wrong, I truly enjoyed reading this book, but you can stand and declare that this is an end of the world book, a dystopian one, and there is not a single clue to remind us that.
Huge thanks again to Readers First and Published for this ARC!
https://theantagonistdiaries.wordpress.com/2019/03/18/arc-review-the-secret-runners-of-new-york/
The book opens with typical high-school drama. In addition, we can supplement money and rich, spoiled kids with confidence boosted to the Moon. Of course, there is the new girl who is their mocking target. Yeah, sounds like young adult drama. But we are expecting dystopian Sci-Fi, aren't we?
Slowly the plot is unfolding around the events that will lead to the end of the world as we know it - a gamma cloud passing though the Earth and destroying all electrical supplies, mechanization and human race along with them. One of the main themes is for social cast and differences between them along with the end of the world motif. It is kind of constricted. Although it is with the highest possibility to consider that only the rich will survive an apocalypse because they can pay $17 millions to somebody to cover their asses. Quite not what I expected from the book with this annotation.
Alfred and Skye are twins. Everybody knows Alfred as Red because of his reddish hair. He is the one who makes friendship with ease. When they moved to New York to live with their mother, they get involved into high society of New York - private school, rich kids, fashionable clothes. But there is not only a hierarchy, they get in the middle of secret group of teenagers, lead by Misty, they run through an underground tube, under Central Park. But things can get difficult.
This tube is a portal to the future. Future after the gamma cloud. The portal can be open only with special stone, placed on the top of knee-height pyramid. There are two of these stones, both yellow, inherited from ancestors of Misty family. World in the future is a land of anarchy where only psychopaths and criminals survived. And their curiosity drive them to explore this world. To find out what is their and their families destiny. And the picture is ugly.
On the top of all there are girls that went missing from their expensive Monmouth School. The question is - what happened to them and how somebody can disappear without leaving any track, like they never existed. And all of them crossed Misty or her sister Chastity life at some point.
I might say I felt let down. The blurb promised a dystopian story. But more than half of the book is about high-school life, drama and rich-bitch life. I do understand that the author needs time to set up his plot, but it takes so long to unfold the plot and lead us to culmination
First half of the book is completely out of point. But don't leave the book, I promise it gets better. I couldn't get enough from the second half of it. I was consumed by it. The author has 328 pages to develop this end of the world scenario and make it interesting and devouring. Instead, he decided to dig down deep into cheap teen drama and create a soap opera. Though the parallel worlds theme is developed pretty well and this new world is so creepy, gloomy and completely awesome!
He had to put more efforts on developing the dystopian part, invest more into involving these two missing stones with different colors. Make the characters investigate this underground tub, find its story, its origins. Find the other two stones and discover their capability. Personally, I wanted to know what happened with Becky and the other girls. Wanted to see more from the destroyed world. The story itself sounds unfinished with lots of gaps in it. The idea is great, but is poorly performed.
I'm slightly disappointed as the book turn out to be not what I expected. I wanted more dystopian part. Don't get me wrong, I truly enjoyed reading this book, but you can stand and declare that this is an end of the world book, a dystopian one, and there is not a single clue to remind us that.
Huge thanks again to Readers First and Published for this ARC!
https://theantagonistdiaries.wordpress.com/2019/03/18/arc-review-the-secret-runners-of-new-york/