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e_r_elmwood's review against another edition
3.0
The beginning was rather slow, if I'm being honest. It felt like I was reading about some 6th graders, not rising 9th graders. But as I kept reading, I felt as if the book grew up more and more with each chapter. I read this all in a day and found it to be an easy and interesting read, I just think I was too old for it when I read it. I would recommend it to older middle schoolers.
mldeblois13's review against another edition
5.0
I think this book was pretty interesting and unique... The story is told from four different perspectives- two of them from journals, one from artwork, and the fourth from third person. All four of the perspectives are very different and mirror their characters. This is an excellent book for use with point of view and theme. It is a journey of pain for all the characters involved... and it is amazing what power secrets can hold over our lives.
sde's review against another edition
4.0
Face-paced and clever book told from the point of view of 4 people - three teens in juvie for the same crime and their social worker. Each teen and the teen they perpetrated the crime against all have a secret. Each narrator tells the story in a different way, including a fantasy/fictionalized version and through drawings.
The story was slightly creepy in tone, and I didn't quite get all the points of the story. What exactly were the teens trying to do when they "kidnapped" the fourth teen? What did the boys do to Renata that she couldn't at least somewhat be protected? (In our school a kid who was getting that kind of treatment from others would be allowed to pass through the halls earlier than others or go to the school social worker's office whenever she needed a safe haven.) What was so horrible about Katie's secret if her mother had told it to townspeople before?
Despite these minor plot deficiencies, the book was thoroughly entertaining and the characters were interesting, even if their secrets weren't especially so.
The story was slightly creepy in tone, and I didn't quite get all the points of the story. What exactly were the teens trying to do when they "kidnapped" the fourth teen? What did the boys do to Renata that she couldn't at least somewhat be protected? (In our school a kid who was getting that kind of treatment from others would be allowed to pass through the halls earlier than others or go to the school social worker's office whenever she needed a safe haven.) What was so horrible about Katie's secret if her mother had told it to townspeople before?
Despite these minor plot deficiencies, the book was thoroughly entertaining and the characters were interesting, even if their secrets weren't especially so.
emarmo's review against another edition
3.0
This book was good. Everyone's secrets totally blindsided me which I liked. I didn't enjoy Nate's writing style however. It is a good easy short read.
mactammonty's review against another edition
5.0
A story that is written as journal entries by all of the protagonists except one, whose story is told be the other people in the book.
The journal entries lend some ambiguity to the story, slowly revealing the truth of what happened. Each journal is written differently giving each character a distinct voice.
I really enjoyed this story and how it was written. The ending was very realistic.
The journal entries lend some ambiguity to the story, slowly revealing the truth of what happened. Each journal is written differently giving each character a distinct voice.
I really enjoyed this story and how it was written. The ending was very realistic.
allie_schick's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
hspaulds's review against another edition
4.0
A great read about kids with secrets and a social worker trying to figure out the events that led to them being in juvie. I really loved how the author used the journal entries they had to do and how each kid had a very distinct style -- especially the illustrations for Renata's entries.
cbashore's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this for so many reasons. It was complex with grade issues for kids of this age ( maybe a little far fetched but still..wow) andddd a Michigan author !!!
dtaylorbooks's review against another edition
3.0
The most prominent issue I had with FOUR SECRETS was the age of the three protagonists and the talked-about antagonist. They're all supposed to be in eighth grade but I kept finding that I had to remind myself that these weren't kids in high school. Just the extent of the issues they were having, how they spoke about it, how they carried it out it, just seemed so far beyond someone still in middle school.
Granted have it set their freshman year in high school and I probably wouldn't have batted an eye. Not much of a difference age-wise in the slightest but the association is different. In my mind there's a pretty big gap between middle school and high school and the voices I kept reading, at least to me, were high school age. I just wasn't convinced they were middle school, especially when body sizes came into play. All except Renata were described as large, either in stature or bulk (and by bulk I mean muscle). It just didn't fit for me and it was a point of contention throughout and every time I was reminded of their ages it wrenched me out of the story a little bit.
But other than that it was a really good, pretty fast, read told from the perspectives of four different people, Chase excluded. I could wholly empathize with the feelings of the social worker whose job it was to get to the bottom of why these kids kidnapped their classmate. Because they entered into some kind of pact they wouldn't talk and she ended up getting the creative runaround from all three of them.
Nate told his view in story form, referring to the people involved by assigned fantastical names and set in a scene that only vaguely alludes to what actually happened. Yeah you can get what he's saying but his was the portion of the book I liked the least. I was over his method of storytelling pretty quickly and while I'm sure it helped him to cope with the situation he was seeking solace in a fantasy world instead of coming to terms with what happened. He frustrated me the most.
Renata you see very little of within her own viewpoint, told, or rather shown, through her drawings. Otherwise you get a picture of who Renata is by the way Nate and Katie describe and talk about her. That would have been annoying to me if it weren't such a perfect way to get across Renata's personality. She is very much a background girl that doesn't speak very often but when she does, whether it's actually with her vocal chords or with her drawings, it's so poignant you can't help but listen. She's described as incredibly small and for most of the book that's the image I had in my mind: someone who was frail, tiny and needed rescuing when in fact she was exactly the opposite. Next to the social worker I think I liked Renata the most.
Katie is the most prominent voice in the story aside from the social worker and its through her you learn the most information in a manner that won't have you trying to put puzzle pieces together. Her method is very straight forward and when she started the second "rouse" journal I grunted in agitation. I WANTED her to reveal what happened because I knew it wasn't what the situation looked like. I think that was pretty evident from the beginning. But there wouldn't be a story if that happened so I bided my time reading Katie's story broken up by lunches and homework and recreation time. She was the most readable in terms of figuring everything out.
All three were hard-set in their ways when it came to not breaking this pact. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why and while it worked out in the end I don't feel there was proper punishment doled out for the responsible parties. The story resolved itself nicely enough but it was a little on the abrupt side and lacking in satisfaction. I wanted more. Comeuppance, maybe. A knock off one's high horse, if you will. The story resolved itself within one book which is a plus all around but there's a little bit more there, even if it's just ten or twenty pages.
While not my favorite Carolrhoda Lab book that's not to say it wasn't a good read. FOUR SECRETS has points of view for every type of reader of a multitude of ages telling a story about bullying and how NOT to go about remedying it. I don't want to give away the ending but through the eyes of the social worker you can see just how hard the gears are grinding, what's up against these kids and just how thin of a wire they're all walking on. Bullying sucks, sure, but there are ways to go about fixing it that won't land someone in jail. There's an air of noble cause and valiance in the book as well that may sway towards, in my eyes, the wrong way of fixing things but there is a balance there and Willey does a good job of playing both sides of the game. It also goes to show that everyone has secrets, even the most perfect of people, and sometimes they're far darker than bad hair days.
Granted have it set their freshman year in high school and I probably wouldn't have batted an eye. Not much of a difference age-wise in the slightest but the association is different. In my mind there's a pretty big gap between middle school and high school and the voices I kept reading, at least to me, were high school age. I just wasn't convinced they were middle school, especially when body sizes came into play. All except Renata were described as large, either in stature or bulk (and by bulk I mean muscle). It just didn't fit for me and it was a point of contention throughout and every time I was reminded of their ages it wrenched me out of the story a little bit.
But other than that it was a really good, pretty fast, read told from the perspectives of four different people, Chase excluded. I could wholly empathize with the feelings of the social worker whose job it was to get to the bottom of why these kids kidnapped their classmate. Because they entered into some kind of pact they wouldn't talk and she ended up getting the creative runaround from all three of them.
Nate told his view in story form, referring to the people involved by assigned fantastical names and set in a scene that only vaguely alludes to what actually happened. Yeah you can get what he's saying but his was the portion of the book I liked the least. I was over his method of storytelling pretty quickly and while I'm sure it helped him to cope with the situation he was seeking solace in a fantasy world instead of coming to terms with what happened. He frustrated me the most.
Renata you see very little of within her own viewpoint, told, or rather shown, through her drawings. Otherwise you get a picture of who Renata is by the way Nate and Katie describe and talk about her. That would have been annoying to me if it weren't such a perfect way to get across Renata's personality. She is very much a background girl that doesn't speak very often but when she does, whether it's actually with her vocal chords or with her drawings, it's so poignant you can't help but listen. She's described as incredibly small and for most of the book that's the image I had in my mind: someone who was frail, tiny and needed rescuing when in fact she was exactly the opposite. Next to the social worker I think I liked Renata the most.
Katie is the most prominent voice in the story aside from the social worker and its through her you learn the most information in a manner that won't have you trying to put puzzle pieces together. Her method is very straight forward and when she started the second "rouse" journal I grunted in agitation. I WANTED her to reveal what happened because I knew it wasn't what the situation looked like. I think that was pretty evident from the beginning. But there wouldn't be a story if that happened so I bided my time reading Katie's story broken up by lunches and homework and recreation time. She was the most readable in terms of figuring everything out.
All three were hard-set in their ways when it came to not breaking this pact. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why and while it worked out in the end I don't feel there was proper punishment doled out for the responsible parties. The story resolved itself nicely enough but it was a little on the abrupt side and lacking in satisfaction. I wanted more. Comeuppance, maybe. A knock off one's high horse, if you will. The story resolved itself within one book which is a plus all around but there's a little bit more there, even if it's just ten or twenty pages.
While not my favorite Carolrhoda Lab book that's not to say it wasn't a good read. FOUR SECRETS has points of view for every type of reader of a multitude of ages telling a story about bullying and how NOT to go about remedying it. I don't want to give away the ending but through the eyes of the social worker you can see just how hard the gears are grinding, what's up against these kids and just how thin of a wire they're all walking on. Bullying sucks, sure, but there are ways to go about fixing it that won't land someone in jail. There's an air of noble cause and valiance in the book as well that may sway towards, in my eyes, the wrong way of fixing things but there is a balance there and Willey does a good job of playing both sides of the game. It also goes to show that everyone has secrets, even the most perfect of people, and sometimes they're far darker than bad hair days.