Wow! I wasn't expecting this! First few chapters are a little bit slow paced but stick with it as you will not regret it. Excellent writing, fantastic character development and brilliant plot. What more do you need?! Many thanks for the opportunity to read and review!

The Four was a brilliant read for me. Mallory Towers for grown ups! Set in a boarding school at the millennium, four scholarship pupils have to deal with entering an elite school at sixth form, and not being from the same background as anyone else. It is a gripping and at times horrific read, eloquently written, and voiced solely from the point of view of one of the scholarship pupils Rose.

Tension is built gradually, and although I guessed the path of the book it didn’t spoil my enjoyment. The author made me feel empathy, horror, disgust, fear, love and much more. I highly recommend this book as a strong contender for my book of 2024, and it’s only January!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC, in exchange for my honest review.

*Trigger warnings* Rape, self-harm, suicide.

‘The Four’ by Ellie Keel, has left me torn overall the book is well written with an intriguing plot at the centre of it - four scholarship students thrusted into the world of ‘High Realms’ an exclusive British Boarding school and documents a tumultuous year for Rose Lawson, Marta De Luca, Sami and Lloyd - often mistreated and bullied by their superrich peers and ostracised constantly. There are moments of joy for the students, but it is overall a very very dark book which may be triggering for some there is explicit discussion of self-harm and mental health episodes.

Whilst I usually love books with a dark, and somewhat twisted narrative at the heart of them this fell somewhat flat for me - it is quite a slow paced book and despite being narrated by adult Rose does not delve into the characters adult lives following their time at ‘High Realm’ which I thought was a shame. With the ending for me, feeling a bit rushed and I think in parts the book could have been fleshed out in terms of narrative and characterisation - I did not particularly warm to any of the characters.

The audience for this book I think remains a small mystery, it seems it should be a young adult book as it is set at a boarding school where most students are sixth-form aged but the book is so dark tonally and in parts triggering I would suggest it is more a book for an 18+ audience.

Despite, this somewhat negative review Keel, certainly has a talent for writing but this is not a book I feel demonstrates this.

Thank you Netgalley.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book had me intrigued and held my interest! I was invested in the characters and I had to keep reading to see what was going to happen! A bit far fetched at times and a disappointing ending which left me unsatisfied, although I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting.

I gave this book 3.5 stars purely on the basis that it entertained me and kept me turning the pages.

Thank you to the publishers for providing an ARC of this book through NetGalley.

2024 52 Book Challenge - 13) An Academic Thriller

To start with, this book was really interesting. I really liked the "looking back on events now" style that it had going and I felt like it was really building up to something.

And then, the events from the blurb happened at about 20-25% and the book plateaued. It became this mess of unlikeable characters competing to be the most unlikeable, from Marta who was suffering from severe mental health problems that her friends attempted to cover up, to Rose who kept talking about how hiding all of the secrets she was, was ruining who she was - and yet, kept keeping them all even when she was given more than enough options to give them up. Also, I'm not sure why, but she effectively cheats on her girlfriend with one of her other friends, tells her girlfriend about it who completely kind of just ignores it and then Rose turns around and dumps her girlfriend when she does the same thing. Then again, this entire relationship came out of the literal blue, so I didn't have any feelings whatsoever about it.

I understand the ending, because it shows the extreme decline of Marta's mental health, but at the same time, it was such a let down for the novel. You spent all this time trying to get invested in these bad characters, and you finally have some hope at the end, and its extinguished in a matter of seconds.

Also, I don't believe, however incompetent the police or the school staff in the book are, that the main characters could get away with hiding their friend away in a tower on school property for almost six months and nobody could figure it out. They lie repeatedly to the police and a lawyer gets them off in the space of half a chapter. There is only so much suspension of disbelief you can manage, and the end half of this book way went over it.

I did however like the English assignment foreshadowing where Marta and Rose are talking about the likelihood of people keeping wives locked in the attic and how unlikely it is, and they they do the exact same thing.

What on earth do I say about this book. It was definitely a journey. It took a while to get into it with so many different characters to get to know and to try and remember all the details of. But after that first little stumble into it does it really get going. There's so much tension constantly, who's telling the truth? Who's telling the whole truth? Is it only the truth to them? Every page left me anxious on what was going to happen next.
I enjoyed how they founded a formidable friendship that was so strong against all adversaries. It was tense, there was always drama and trauma and more things that you would have thought possible going on but it truly did highlight the dramas of 17-year-olds and how fast paced life at that age can feel.
The ending was a nice wrap up in most aspects though I wished so desperately it had been different after the hope I had.
Overall, a great story but the dark academia vibe that was featured for this kind of fizzled out once it got going other than in the setting.
Favourite Quote - I believed my best lies myself.
Favourite Character - Ros

A YA book about four students from ordinary backgrounds who win a scholarship to an elite British public school.
From the moment they arrive, they face hostilty, horrific cruelty and abuse from the privileged students who look down on them.
I did struggle to engage with this book. I thought that the plot which was there to shock than anything, was very disjointed.
Having said all that. I am not seventeen. I think the seventeen year old me would have absolutely loved it !!!

I was really looking forward to this but unfortunately it wasn't quite what I expected.
I'd advise readers to check possible trigger warnings (bullying & self harm).
The concept was really good just the excessive bullying and shallow characters were off putting.

Dark academia with an English twists. Four scholarship girls are bullied and worse, A riveting tale about outsiders who know they'll always be on the outside.

Unrelieved grimness and unpleasantness, without nuance or variety

The only reason I haven’t 1 starred this is because I did stick with it as I wanted to know what happened. Unfortunately, all I needed to do, at every turn, was to think ‘what is the next nastiest, most graphically sordid and brutal revelation about these almost completely horrible and vicious pupils and staff of an expensive and elite boarding school which this author is going to come up with next..?’

No surprises, just a continuing pile up of gore and dung, metaphorically, to wade through.

When she needed finally to find some end to it all, and some kind of redemption for some of the pretty ghastly crew, this felt pretty unreal and contrived, too

This is nothing like the inevitable book the marketing blurb compared it to. Poor, traduced, wonderful The Secret History, which just about every book set in some kind of elite academic setting involving some kind of dark side to adolescent or young adult behaviour is compared to. And pretty well every comparison will be undeserved.

Brief synopsis. 4 brilliant sixth formers from poor or at least not filthy rich backgrounds, from state schools, are awarded scholarships to a hideously expensive and elite boarding public school, who desperately need to raise their statistical academic standards, hence the admission of these Millenium Scholars to this school for the sons and daughters of the superrich elite. Who are pretty well all violent and sadistic bullies, not particularly bright, drinking, drugging and screwing around, ditto most of the sneering, bullying, hypocritical staff. And on and on, more of the same, the uncovering of even darker more of the same from previous years, for some 360 pages. Deeply unpleasant

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review. I have to be honest and say I really struggled with this book. I found it difficult to get into and I couldn’t like or empathise with the characters. The story contains some tricky scenes and rough subject matters such as bullying and self harm. In my opinion it felt like the author was trying to shock me with relentless descriptions of abuse rather than draw attention to the topics themselves. I feel like this book could have so much potential but for me it just didn’t sit right. I have given it 3 stars.

Four scholarships students are awarded places at the prestigious High Realm boarding school in Devon. They have been selected for their exceptional academic abilities to boost the school’s academic reputation. They are from diverse backgrounds and immediately there is a clash of cultures between them and the current cohort of A level students.

This is a dark story centred around these four students who are, individually and collectively, subjected to prejudice, discrimination, bullying, victimisation and violence. The school is run by the senior students through a strict hierarchy with continual undertones of threats and violence.

The tension builds quickly within the first few chapters and the pace does not abate until the final chapter. The four scholarship students become firm friends, looking out for each other with some moving moments of love and affection to occasionally lighten the mood. As the story unfolds they go to great lengths to support and protect each other and find unexpected allies.

In summary, this is a well written story that draws the reader in and is hard to put down. My only minor criticism is that the ending felt a bit rushed.

A powerful story about life at a private school! A story of love, friendship, loyalty and power! The book was written with style too!

The four main characters are scholarship students and come from wide ranging backgrounds. The story centres on their various methods of surviving the striking requirements of the formal and informal regime at school. Sophisticated bullying was very much part of life there!

It is a tale about friendship and repressed love. The characters were all pretty interesting and the plot evolved to tell you more about them.

In passing, this book possibly explains how the U.K. has evolved into its current position of moral and economical decline. Many Government ministers come from a private school education and often come across as detached, entitled and arrogant - much like the senior pupils in this book!

The Four is a tense, dark academia thriller, where we follow four scholarship students beginning sixth form at High Realms: Rose, Marta, Lloyd and Sami. Coming into the boarding school on a scholarship has caused many of the 'higher ranked', privileged students to bully them relentlessly, especially Marta.

When Genevieve, one of the students responsible for the bullying, is greviously injured - all eyes point to Marta. To save Marta, Rose, Lloyd and Sami come up with a plan - but this plan may have disastrous consequences.

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀
This book definitely gripped me from the opener. I love dark academia reads, and this had a lot of dark themes included within the plot. The plot definitely had me glued to the pages wondering what was going to happen! This is definitely a story about how far you would go for your friends and the loyalty that comes with that.

As with a lot of dark academia, the majority of the characters aren't necessarily 'likeable', and the bullying was rather intense at times - but I did warm to Rose. We also see the corrupt ways of the headteacher too - doing nothing to stop the bullying (and rather a bully himself!), only caring about how far these scholarship students can raise High Healms up the rankings with their grades.

Overall, I enjoyed this! It was gripping, dark and page turning. Thank you to NetGalley and Publisher for this copy. This review is voluntary.

So many thoughts! I couldn’t stop reading, page after page brought new twists and turns and layers to the plot. Seeing the different relationships develop through this book was amazing, as well as watching the story evolve. I felt for all of the characters, I cried and smiled and screamed. Really recommend.

Dark academia fans rejoice: this should be on your to-be-read pile. Scholarship students are not welcomed to an exclusive boarding school, and yet they find each other and make their own gang, of sorts. For them, life isn’t just about being the best academically, it’s about dodging their peers, who are delighted to aggravate the differences between ‘them’ and ‘us’. But this is a much darker plot than you’d imagine as the school year takes a toll on each of the students and their relationships with each other and those they come across in the college. At times bittersweet, at others extremely sad, this is a tragically beautiful tale that embraces everything that adolescence offers.

Thank you to the author for allowing me to read and review this title.
I have read a few books similar recently and was intrigued by the blurb. A very well thought out story with some interesting characters

Being a scholarship student at an elite boarding school like High Realms often comes with a high pricetag too - feeling like a misfit, social isolation etc. So what do you do? Easy, you hang out with the other scholarship kids!

Except that unfortunately, that doesn't always turn out so well. As a gang of four friends in this dark academia tale discover to their detriment...

This book is all about toxic friendships, twisted loyalties and terrible consequences. It is gritty and gripping and makes you grateful not to be a teenager anymore. Or, if you're lucky, never to have been a certain kind of teenager in the first place.

"Can we sense tragedy, before it happens? Is there an obscure murmur, a flicker of the light, a tremor in even the oldest and sturdiest of buildings?"

The novel opens in 1999 at High Realms is an exclusive boarding school in the English countryside. The elitist darlings of wealthy families would give anything to secure a place at this secondary school. The scholarship program, which awards full board to academically gifted pupils from underprivileged backgrounds, certainly ruffled some feathers among the classes. The plot centres around the (mis)adventures of four scholarship pupils, Rose, Marta, Sami, and Lloyd, as they try to fit in at the school where they obviously stand out.

What appealed to me about this book was the promise of dense dark academia and it delivered. The setting is evocative and so picturesque, I wanted to delve into the pages and imagine myself walking the courtyards. The characters are complex and well developed. They are also well depicted as teenagers, sometimes I find when adults try write from the POV of teenagers it doesn't read well. There's drama, socially forbidden relationships, dark events, and plentiful twists and turns.

The only thing I didn't like was the constant revenge the cliques were inflicting on each other, and many of these acts seemed melodramatic. It reads like a YA novel, so with that in mind, the melodrama fits the bill. I did certainy enjoy the book, but it might be best suited to those YA audience who want to try darker fiction. So, if I read this book 15 years ago, it would become my entire personality 😂

3.5/5

Huge thanks to @netgalley , @harpercollins for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Published 11th April 2024.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the ARC of The Four By Ellie Keel. Loved the characters. Loved everything about it. I will be looking for more by this author! 5 Stars