Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Four

things I liked:
• the setting was beautiful, High Realms (the school) was so vivid in my mind - I loved the vibes of the first 20%
• audio narration was good - it was read by Ellie’s friend Ell Potter and they have an interesting chat/interview at the end
• lgbt rep
• the ‘four’ characters themselves were fleshed out imo - although some of the other characters were confusing
• as this is a debut I’m excited to read more Ellie Keel in the future!

things I didn’t:
• it was quite long and lacked direction at times
• it seemed like the author grabbed a thesaurus and threw in big words in for the sake of it where they didn’t make sense and to make it sound ‘academic’ and pretentious
• romantic relationships were so random / out of nowhere and not well explored
• an ‘event’ (no spoilers) happens about 20% in that is the focus of the rest of the plot. this was not the direction I expected the book to go in and I enjoyed it much less
• it was too much? it’s so sad and lowkey traumatising from then onwards!!

I’m here for the dark academia vibes, but the plot was a little too harrowing once the setting is taken away.

⚠️⚠️⚠️
please check the trigger warnings - it’s pretty intense

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for providing me an audiobook ARC

Content Warnings

booknerdcoco's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

OK firstly. This book needs a list of trigger warnings. I was so disappointed that one wasn't supplied in the book or online, especially given the graphic content of the book. My concern is that a younger reader may pick this book up - it is set in a sixth form, which may lead one to believe it is a YA novel. It is NOT!!

This is a very dark and explicit thriller. Was it good? Yes. Was it great? I don't think so.

Whilst the plot itself is decent, the text can be confusing in parts. I understand that the author was trying to keep things mysterious. But honestly, I just felt that it didn't land in places.

The story follows the life of four scholarship students as they embark on a scholarship in a rural boarding school
There appears to be no leadership, and the bullying is rife. Due to the vulnerable nature of the students and the negligence of the staff, thigns soon take a turn for the worst. And somebody is accused of a crime, which then leads to even darker revelations.

I felt like the story could have been shortened in places.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, but only to the right reader. This story isn't for the faint of heart, and as previously mentioned, it could be triggering for some due to the content.

Content Warnings

tiasy97's review against another edition

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3.5

I’m not really sure what to say about this one, this story is just devastatingly sad. no one is particularly a good person, all of them are a little bit shitty… except for marta. Her story is so so so sad, I was tempted to DNF at one point because of what the author was putting her through, it seemed to be so unnecessary to put her through all of the trauma and to just keep piling on top of it constantly.
The story also didn’t really seem to have a route at times either which made bits quite boring.

check your trigger warnings for this one, it is VERY triggering.

Content Warnings