Thanks Netgalley for the ARC.

Marta, Rose, Sami and Lloyd. The Four. Four children chosen on the scholarship programme for a very exclusive, privileged, private boarding school. Their back ground aside they would never fit in with the wealthy and elite who had been there since childhood with friendships and allegiances already formed.

High Realms is the school in question and from day one it is clear school bully Genevieve will stop at nothing to remind The Four who they are and where they come from especially Marta. The bullying is non stop. The events happen more frequently until a nasty accident puts in place a serious chain of events. The Four will never be the same again.

I did enjoy most aspects of this and would give it a 3.5. The story is told from the point of view of Rose and events seems to happen over a long period but then you realise it was a short time. Also I found some parts a bit much to believe, the hiding, the police not following them. As much as children experiment there was a lot of sex for such young adults. Overall I found that I felt I was constantly waiting for something.

I struggled to get into this book. It seemed a slow paced start and the subject matter didn't make it an easy read..
The four students of the title were likeable but the school they were at and the bullying and dark and violent activities that occurred were unsettling and this influenced my enjoyment.

The Four will not be a book for everyone. In fact, I didn’t think it was for me at first. It is a very slow burn and at times incredibly difficult to read. If you can think of a dark theme, it is in this story. So many parts made me feel very uncomfortable.

The Four are the scholarship students starting at The Hugh Realms. They are the outsiders, not rich, not from a family with stature. They had to work hard to get a place here, and will have to work hard to stay. The other kids are not kind to them at all. It isn’t long before a tragic incident occurs between the 2 groups and things will never be the same again.

This an adult novel, but at times it does feel a little YA to me. These kids are 16 and have had hard lives already. Sometimes it is easy to forget that they are kids, and at times they act older than they are. The teachers in this school are despicable, they have no control over these out of control teens.

Full of dark secrets and lies, these kids will grow up very fast in this environment.

Thanks to Harper Collins for my copy of this book to read. I am glad that I stuck with it in the end.

A very dark psychological drama about four scholarship students who get a place at an elite boarding school. The book describes horrendous bullying and a chaotic environment which is often uncomfortable and horrific. Not an easy or enjoyable read.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

My review is pending.
I couldn’t get this to download but I have ordered the book so waiting on the delivery I’m so excited to get started !

The Four follows a group of 4 scholarship students admitted to a boarding school on scholarships for their A-Levels. This is incredibly difficult for them as they do not know the rules, are note part of the groups, and are obviously poor compared to the other students who bully them atrociously. I found the book very difficult to read, I can not believe that the students were allowed to get away with their behaviour towards the 4 students.

Of the 4 students it was hard to feel any empathy for them as I felt they were all horrid. We follow them as they try to fit in, after an accident Marta goes into hiding with the other 3 (Lloyd, Sami and Rose) helping her.

One of my favourite books of all time is The Secret History by Donna Tartt, so when I heard about The Four, billed as “A dark academia suspense debut perfect for fans of The Secret History”, I jumped at the chance to review this. If, however, the publisher had been upfront about the content warnings for this book, I would have steered well clear. For clarity, here is a (non-exhaustive) list:

Gratuitous and graphic scenes of sexual violence/assault/rape; suicide; torture; physical violence; self-harm; bullying; mental illness; controlling and abusive behaviours, including neglect from the teaching/support staff; and drink/drug misuse.

To compare this title to The Secret History is a massive disservice to Tartt’s classic. To release it without any warnings regarding its graphic and, in places, horrific content is a massive oversight and disrespects the reader.

Avoid.

I received an e-ARC from the publisher, HQ, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Four outstanding students accept scholarships to High Realms, an elite and privileged boarding school. However their families and backgrounds seem to mark them out as victims in a school where bullying and violence are the norm. A fast read, this book reads more like YA than I was expecting and some of the subject matter would definitely need trigger warnings as it is at times very dark and disturbing. With a cast of what I found to be wholly unlikeable characters I personally didn’t warm to this novel although I believe it will appeal to many readers. I will be interested to see what this author does next. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

3.5*

I really wanted to love this with all of the dark academia comparisons being made but I just couldn’t fully get into this one.

I felt that it was a very slow starter with perhaps too many subplots and it also felt quite far fetched and unbelievable at several points.

However, the last 30-40% or so when it started to pick up pace, The Four became a much more interesting and enjoyable read.

Not my favourite but worth a read all the same!

The Four was the kind of book that roots itself within your brain and refuses to leave. It was a tragic Dark Academia tale full of secrets, lies and anger.

This was Dark Academia at its finest. It peeks behind the glossy curtain of power and privilege in an extreme setting, exploiting the seedy undercurrent of abuse and exploitation. In particular, it hones in on unpicking the legacy upon which this institution thrives. By choosing to focus on the four scholarship students, Keel instantly examines the prevalent imbalance of power. We focus on class, but threads of race and gender are also keenly felt. This book is also not afraid to get dark in its exploration of the abuse of power – delving into sensitive topics with a nuance and emotional core that hit home for me. It does not feel sensational or purely for shock value, rather the explosive consequences of actions that have been building throughout. At times, it is a very tough read and the trigger warnings are there for a reason.

Rose serves as our primary protagonist, tying together the story threads. We see most actions through her eyes, though there is plenty to pick up from smaller details and context in the background. At the centre of it all is the ferociously intelligent, passionate and loyal Marta. She is somewhat of an enigma but clearly loves her friends and values the family built within this pressure cooker. This focus on characterisation is exactly what adds another layer of pathos to the eventual tragedy. It feels inevitable in its destruction, even as Keel takes your breath away. The writing is executed perfectly, keeping a balance that I adored.

The Four was character focused and introspective mystery that also looks at the fundamental failings of an institution only concerned about protecting itself. In short, it was dark, intense and incredible.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.


The Four by Ellie Keel tells the story of 4 students Marta, Rose, Sami, and Lloyd who beat thousands of 16 year olds to full time scholarship at prestigious boarding school High Realms, a school which needs to change its image due to previous Events.

The Four by Ellie Keel is a dark-academia novel which examines, class, friendships, mental health and how people become institutionalised, with their surroundings to make life easier.

While the story does focus on the 4 students who have won the scholarship, Marta, Rose, Sami, and Lloyd it also focuses on a number of staff and students who were already at the school.

Having said that, the main character of the novel was Rose the Daughter of a Taxi Driver who recently lost her mother to cancer and it is her perspective that The Four is told through, getting to know her thoughts and feelings.

While Rose seems to give a balanced perspective of the story, having the one narrator means you miss some of the events as they happen. Though you do gain in the level of mystery and suspense that the writer Ellie Keel brings to the story.

One thing I must say about the Four being a dark-academia novel which gives its setting and a lot of the plot line of the story, Ellie Keel definitely brings out the dark in the novel as it goes into deep with bullying, mental health, including self harm, suicide, rape and its after effects on individuals.

While the writer deals with these through the eyes of Rose the narrator of the story with tact and sensitivity from my perspective, just a heads up they are the main part of the story and may have an effect on some readers.

Having said that, none of the actions and emotions are played for shock value in an over the top way only to explain the plot or move the story along.

All this makes The Four by Ellie Keel a fascinating mystery thriller and dark-academia novel, set in an English Boarding school.

This was not the book I was expecting,, it was much darker. I enjoy a dark academia read and for the first third of the book this book unveiled as anticipated. It is turn of the century in a prestigious UK boarding school. Four scholarship students begin the first term and bond quickly as they are very different from the other students who have been there for years. They don't come from monied and connected backgrounds and settling in is mired with bullying, threats and getting used to this new world. They are bright and ambitious and the friendship develops until a serious of events happen and the book switches, delving into much darker depts.

I did like this one but I will admit I didn't realise it was a school setting before reading and reading about 16 and 17 year olds isn't my usual fare. I would suggest this is more of a mature Ya book exploring mental health, resilience , friendship and maturing. I did find some elements of the book a bit of a stretch but the quality of the writing kept me reading.



3 stars for me but for a younger reader maybe this is a strong read.

I was incredibly excited about reading The Four, however unfortunately for me I just couldn't connect with the book or the characters, I felt in places it was incredibly far fetched and I often just wanted to shake some sense into the characters for their actions.

I haven't read a thriller in a long time and I was sat at the edge of my seat for most of this book, which I absolutely burned through. I loved how big reveals surrounding important events were disclosed in a very calculated manner, which kept them suspenseful, but at the same time they were not held back so long to make the reader feel impatient and eventually disengaged. One thing I also found very unique in Keel's writing style is how some facts surrounding events are dropped without fanfare and without any prior hints, which makes them really hard to preempt or second guess, whereas others, perhaps surrounding the more poignant and traumatic experiences, are slowly eased upon the reader as the information is delivered slowly in hints and snippets, which makes them less jarring and demonstrates that Keel is not including them with the sole purpose to create shock factor, which I really appreciated. However, I found that the flip side is that this technique doesn't work so well around emotional attachment to characters. For example, I found Marta's fate quite predictable due to the impossible situation that she is ultimately propelled towards and the inevitability of it all took away some of the emotional charge of the resolution scene, which I felt was a missed opportunity, especially considering how much the author had invested in the detail and depth of feelings between the four friends.
I also found the overuse of very big words slightly ostentatious, but I appreciate that this is down to personal bias and that at times this style actually worked well in the backdrop of the academic setting.
The characters in this book are really interesting though I found it challenging to not completely like anyone. Normally I would struggle with a book where characters are written this way, but I felt this works well here, perhaps due to their age and the lack of self awareness and personality definition that this brings.
In terms of atmosphere, it doesn't get much better than a really posh old residential public school and I loved how this book explores class divide and the extreme consequences of feeding hatred into this dialogue, presented through events perpetuated by young people who might not yet have developed the inhibition and consequential thinking which comes with age, in the name of spite, loyalty, friendship and revenge.

The Four is a dark, sometimes brutal, journey into the world of private schooling, privilege and what is means to be an outsider in a world where popularity is power. Dark academia indeed. With themes of bullying, self-harm and assault, the school, High Realms, is a world away from the seemingly innocent and wistful world of Enid Blyton that the book’s narrator, Rose, had dreamed of. As scholarship students, there is no getting away from the fact that she and her roommate, Marta, and fellow Millennium Scholars, Sami and Lloyd, live a life that is a country mile away from their peers, students from rich, affluent and powerful backgrounds, who do not hesitate to make their contempt for the group known. If only it had ended there …

This is not a book to be taken lightly or overlooked because it feels like it might be a YA book. Although, in theory, with the age range of the protagonists, it is, at the very least a book featuring young adults. The characters are, by and large, 16-18 years of age - teachers, or Mags, aside that is. But if you simply look at it in that manner, and turn away thinking that it won't be quite your thing, you'd be doing yourself a disservice. The book takes readers to some very dark places and I don't think that it really matters what age you are, there will be aspects of the book that resonate with you, if not as a victim of bullying, then certainly as an adult aware of the impact that peer pressure can have upon people. And bearing in mind the disparity between the four central teenagers and their peers in terms of wealth and standing, the impact is quite severe and certainly enough to madden me at times.

The writing is superb, really capturing that sense of foreboding from the very beginning. Ellie Keel does a brilliant job of bringing High Realms to life. From the boarding rooms, to the classroom, to the stables, I found there was a really acute sense of place leaching from the narrative. The oppressive nature of the hallowed halls, that sense of grandeur and of expectation - if such a thing can be felt from bricks and mortar - all added to the tension that builds around the eponymous four. And in creating the characters, she has excelled, creating people I wanted to root for, but who also angered me with some of their ill-advised decisions. Rose is a brilliant character to act as our narrator, her testimony coloured by the part she played in events, but also giving a real insight into the life of the ostracised group of misfits. Well, all except Lloyd who found his own way to fit in. Marta was so beautifully and sympathetically crafted that the tragedy of her story really feels like a visceral blow as each new revelation hits home. the low and steady deterioration of her already fractured mind is really hard to read at times, the harrowing events that shape this are kept off the page in a balanced rather than sensationalised way.

I don't want to say too much about the story - needless to say that bullying plays a key part in it all, and that relentless pressure cooker environment of the boarding school, especially where that majority of the other students have grown up together, just serves to amplify the negativity aimed towards the group. I abhor bullying, and reading much of this made me mad but with a strange kind of acceptance as I didn't feel that it often had to step too far from the realms of reality and into fiction, as sad as that all may be. Touching on the psychological impact of this upon such young and still impressionable minds, The Four is certainly a book I won't forget for a while. An emotional, dark, and often stark look into the lives of four young people whose lives are going to be irrevocably changed in just a few short months. Recommended.

A definite 3.5 star rating, though I’m keen to see what this author comes up with next.
The Four tells the story of a group of scholarship students at High Realms. Something of an experiment Marta, Sami, Lloyd and our narrator Rose are marked as outsiders in this intensely privileged environment. Intensely clever the four group together…and this is meant to explain their behaviour when Marta is accused of hurting one of the elite students.
From the moment the accident occurs we see our group caught in a dangerous game of subterfuge as they try to keep Marta hidden. Given the resources such a school would have available to them, and the profile of the injured student, it seems highly improbable that nobody would have discovered them earlier.
The setting was suitably claustrophobic and we definitely get a sense of the environment they’re in. The characters and situations they’re in seemed exaggerated to the point of absurdity, and though the book was narrated by an adult character looking back this didn’t really become obvious until later, and little was made of the aftermath (which would, I assume, have been at the fore of our interest).
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this. A definite starting point for teen readers curious to dip their toes into the genre of dark academia.

Thank you NetGalley, HQ and Ellie Keel for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! A gripping debut from this author. Here we meet 4 students embarking at High Realms on an elite scholarship. With twist and turns throughout the story and the characters friendships we unravel a series of events in this YA dark academia story.

Never knew which way this would go! Overall great debut!

I found this a deep and distressing novel with much to explore and be dismayed by the characters and students at this highly privileged school. When four scholarship students arrive in an experiment, to see if poor people can be clever to, what could possibly go wrong?

It turns out pretty much everything that could go wrong, does so. The explorations of character, privilege and endurance are hard to read and some of the events in the book seem pretty far-fetched, but the story holds throughout and reaches a conclusion of sorts.

I was a sucker for the cover on this book and knew I wanted to read it as soon as I saw it. It felt very dark and eerie to me and that exactly what the story delivered. The Four turned out to actually be a lot darker than I was expecting but I was there for it and I loved it.

Firstly, I am so happy that I am not smart or rich enough to have gone to private school because if it's anything like in this book, it's a hard pass from me. I had to remind myself so many times that these characters were late teenagers. They were treated so horrendously by those that were supposed to be working in their interest and the absence of care was devastating for the pupils. On top of that, they were vile to each other. This story was school bullying on a whole other level than I have ever heard of or seen. What it did mean is that where there were pockets of care and love between characters, they really stood out to me and made me quite emotional.

Rose was by far my favourite character. She wasn't perfect (because who is) and she made some poor decisions; but in my opinion, they were only poor in hindsight. She had all of the best intentions and she was fiercely loyal to her small group of friends, even when they may not have deserved it. Alongside all of that, she was struggling with her own grief and loneliness yet she was always the first person to go to bat for her group. Sylvia ended up being a surprisingly likeable character. Underneath her hard exterior, she was kind and caring. I firmly believed that she was a product of her environment, having basically been raised within the school.

This book turned out to give me so much more than I was expecting. It was difficult to read in places and the characters were beyond cruel but the underlying thread of friendship, loyalty and self preservation smoothed out the darker moments for me. I highly recommend this book, but I would definitely advise reading up on some of the themes covered before jumping in. A brilliant debut and I can't wait to read more from this author.

After securing a prestigious scholarship at an elite boarding school, Rose and the other three scholarship students must keep their heads above water to prove they belong there - academically and socially. But one fraught moment will change everything for all of them.

I loved the 90s vibes of this book and the British boarding school setting. The writing is very inviting and I very quickly fell into this world of school rules and social hierarchies. But at the very heart of this book is unwavering, steadfast friendship, the boiling pot that creates and solidifies those friendships, and the lengths you’d go to for your people. I really enjoyed reading it (mostly - there are some dark bits!) and was gripped throughout.