Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

In Every Student Has a Secret, we follow Safia Famosa as she ventures from her family restaurant in Minnesota to a strange school in an undisclosed location, where betting is the norm and everyone has something to hide.

When I first saw this title, I was very intrigued by the concept. It seemed extremely interesting, and right up my alley. However, I was very disappointed in the end result. I wanted to give up very early on, but decided that it was worth it to stick it out and give an honest review.

Firstly, the writing was not wonderful. I found it to be very overdone, repetitive, and quite childish. The sex scenes read like a teenage boys wet dream, and everything that happened felt like the author was trying to make it more extravagant then it was.

Secondly, the characters were not wonderful. I didn’t find any of them to be extremely likable, and it felt like the author was trying too hard to make them seem whimsical and strange. Additionally, the excessive use of Miss, Mr, Ma’am and Sir had me feeling like I was reading a parody of a southern novel, especially mixed with many of the themes.

Moving on to the subject of the book: it was confusing. In the end you don’t have any idea what was actually happening. You get no closure at all, and the book wraps up like it’s the middle of a scene in the middle of the story. The subjects that was touched upon were also extremely uncomfortable in the way they were written about. Trafficking, sexual abuse, racism, and islamaphobia were all present in the novel, but (similar to the speech patterns) it felt like I was reading a parody of a book that was trying to properly address these issues. It made me extremely uncomfortable.

In the end, I would not suggest anyone read this book. It felt flat, and not really worth the time it took to read.

This book was different! Wasn't what I had pictured at!
The beginning had my attention but as I kept reading it was starting to get a bit dark! Which didn't bother me much! The only thing I would have asked for was a better ending!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Do I love a good school setting fantasy? Yes. Did reading the blurb make me think of that? Yes.

Unfortunately the execution was just short of my expectations. The beginning of the book was slow but I enjoyed the pace to learn the characters and get a sense of the world of the story. I only wish I got a more in-depth sense of the relationships with the “side-characters.” When reading it was hard to note the character’s differences from one another especially in the dialogue. I found the dialogue slightly hard to follow because of the lack of character.

Although I was excited for the school aspect I did not care for what was going on/the content at the school. At some points I cringed and felt like I shouldn’t read on. I had problems with the Islamphobia with some of the characters and the wavy line of consent in some of the scenes.

The ending was so abrupt and I was expecting more from the two characters since I waited for the whole book to see something happen.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

One sentence summary: Safia finds herself suddenly attending Apex Academy, a secret college that runs on a point system where losing your points puts you at risk of servitude to a fellow student- or the Academy itself.

I thought the cover was eye-catching and the synopsis was interesting. Apex Academy was mysterious and haunting in a way that I don't think I'll forget anytime soon. The betting system was as fascinating as it was horribly unsettling. I was also very interested in the backstories of most of the side characters introduced throughout the book, especially the Headmistress.

I wish I had more positives to say about the book, but I honestly don't. From the first chapter, I felt the novel read like a Wattpad story. I almost stopped reading less than 20 percent in and refused to pick the book back up again for a while. Ultimately, I decided that I should at least finish the book to leave an honest review of the entire novel.

(Trigger Warnings for novel and the rest of this review: dubious/non-consent, Islamophobia, slavery, abuse involving a minor, homophobia)

There was no hint of this novel being dark fiction anywhere on Goodreads or NetGalley, so I was taken entirely by surprise when Safia arrived at the college to find out that servitude to your fellow students was a thing that could almost be equivalent to sexual slavery. Not only that, but this seems to be a huge issue that the Academy is totally okay with it- in fact the Academy has former students indebted to them as well.
Buying and selling your fellow classmates (or even teachers) was a major plot point that was shown to be highly abusive and rarely entirely consensual. The fact that a minor found themselves under the ownership of a fellow student and suffered various forms of abuse from him for a year made me nauseous. Everyone except the protagonist seemed to be accepting of this, justifying that you always have the option to leave if you really wished- assuming you haven't made a bet that leaves you indebted to someone. "It just depends on what a person is willing to do to stay here, and how evil a person who owns them wants to be."

The way several women (one of which was a minor in a very uneven power dynamic), seemed to fall romantically enamored with Safia in the novel also didn't sit right with me. Especially the line about her being the "lesbian whisperer" because she is a straight woman that other women kept finding themselves drawn to. In fact, two of them kissed Safia suddenly and against her will. Another made a kiss be part of the 'favors' she was owed. As a wlm myself, this made me uncomfortable. I know nothing about the author but it seemed homophobic for this to be included in the novel. There was no real reason for it, plot-wise or character-wise except to add to the overall sex-obsessed atmosphere of the Academy.

My next major issue was the blatant and completely unnecessary Islamophobia from various characters throughout the novel towards Hashmi, a practicing Muslim who wears a Hijab. I was actually shocked at the foul comments made towards her and wondered why it was included at all.

The confusing ending was at least semi-satisying.