The Four

by Ellie Keel

Powerful. Sinister. Heart-wrenching. Unmissable. We were always The Four. From our very first day at High Realms.

The four scholarship pupils. Outsiders in a world of power and privilege. It would have made our lives a lot easier if Marta had simply pushed Genevieve out of our bedroom window that day. Certainly, it would have been tragic. She would have died instantly. But Marta didn’t push her then, or – if you choose to believe me – at any other time. If she had, all of what we went through would not have happened.

I’ve told this story as clearly as I could – as rationally as I’ve been able, in the circumstances, to achieve. I don’t regret what we did. And I would do it all again.

Genres: Dark Academia, Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery Thriller, Adult

435 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 2024

About the author

Ellie Keel is an award-winning producer and campaigner. She is the Founder Director of The Women’s Prize for Playwriting, a literary prize and campaign for gender equality among writers for the stage in the UK and Ireland.

Ellie creates critically-acclaimed, fearlessly imaginative theatre and audio productions with her company EKP, often in partnership with organisations including Audible, the Barbican and Southbank Centre. In 2022, she was the youngest producer ever to be shortlisted for Producer of the Year in The Stage Awards. She is a frequent contributor to masterclasses, panel discussions and the media on theatre and wider cultural topics.

In 2017, Ellie collaborated in the founding of Just Like Us, an award-winning LGBT+ youth charity. She is passionate about issues surrounding social justice, inclusivity and access to art and culture.

Ellie studied German and Italian at Brasenose College, Oxford, spending a year in Berlin and Milan. She now lives in East London and in her spare time enjoys road cycling, fitness, literature and films.

Her debut novel, The Four, will be published by HarperCollins in Spring 2024.

Reviews

[Laura Lovesreading · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's suspension of disbelief and then there's THE FOUR...

Wow this book was one hell of a struggle to read!

Besides it being wayyyy longer than it needed to be, the behaviour and decisions from the characters in this book was WILD! and not in the fun way!

In a nutshell we have four students (Rose, Marta, Sami and Lloyd) who are accepted into an exclusive boarding school on a scholarship but they are not accepted or tolerated by the other rich bitch students who have mummy and daddy pay for their school fees. There's one superior bitch in particular called Genevieve who just likes to harass TF out of Martha and after one devastating event and a bombshell of a secret the four face their real test of loyalty and friendship...

I am truly baffled as to why this book is not a YA book? I mean it pretty much read like one and was so juvenile and unrealistic, there's no way you could try to convince me that the actions that took place in the book could actually surpass?
Had this been targeted for an audience of 13-18 year old's, i would have probably rated this higher and tolerated all the plot holes and unbelievable actions.

⋆｡°✩ WHAT I LIKED ⋆｡°✩

➽ The atmospheric dark academia settings/ vibes was definitely felt
➽ The character of Rose read and felt authentic
➽ The Queer representation

⋆｡°✩ WHAT I DIDNT LIKE ⋆｡°✩
➽ Extremely slow and way too long!
➽ Most of the student characters were highly irritating and annoying
➽ Rose spoke so eloquently and wise but in the same boat went ahead and made stupid choices
➽ Forced relationships
➽ Common sense was not common
➽ The poor irrational decisions were so unbelievable and completely unwarranted
➽ All the adults were dumbasses!
➽ The police work was so shoddy, i thought i was reading a skit!
➽ The ending.... you're joking right????
➽ hailed as dark academia for millennials (this millennial was not impressed)

There's no doubt the author can write and she is able to create a great level of atmosphere, i just wasn't blown away by this debut unfortunately.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
⋆｡°✩ pre read ⋆｡°✩
Dark Academia Suspense ✔️
Dubbed as 'Secret History' and 'If We Were Villains' for millennials ✔️
This is screaming Rich, Entitled, and Hella Drama Filled! ✔️
Fingers Crossed!!!🖤🖤

[Ceecee · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

How far would you be prepared to go for the sake of friendship when it’s being tested to the extreme?

The Four are Lower Sixth (Year 12) scholarship students at exclusive High Realms boarding school in Devon, they’re outsiders and feel the contempt and hostility of many fee paying pupils. Rose Lawson and Marta De Luca are roommates, both very clever but Marta exceptionally so. The remaining two of the quartet are Sami and Lloyd. Here we have a difficult and increasingly dangerous story. It’s one that defines the rest of their lives and the loss of any remaining innocence of youth as Marta in particular is on the receiving end of the cruelty and hatred of Genevieve in particular.

It takes me a while to get into this very promising debut novel but I do become immersed in the lives of the four. It’s an unrelenting tale , the mood is dark and at times there’s a reaction of horror at the extent and depths of what the four face. The unedifying contempt and antagonism especially of Genevieve is palpable and jumps from the pages, you feel the fear and the tension is sky high. The deep bonds of friendship and the lengths they go to in the face of such toxicity breaks your heart, makes you so sad and you obviously root for the four. The characterisation is good especially of Marta but all are well portrayed.

However, the events are very dramatic and at times seem overly dramatic to be entirely believable but it’s undeniably intense and certainly creative. The way the characters chop and change in various ways gets a bit bewildering but it’s not necessarily out of keeping with seventeen year olds behaviour! Despite the issues, I keep reading on as somehow Ellie Keel has hooked me into their lives and makes me invest in the outcome. I look forward to reading what she comes up with next.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to HQ for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

[Linzie (suspenseisthrillingme) · Rating 4 out of 5]

All I can say breathlessly is…WOW. A powerful tale of unending loyalty, brash naïveté, and limitless friendship, The Four was nothing like what I was expecting but, at the same time, everything that I wanted. Thanks to a beautifully illustrated group of main characters, their poignant feelings and misguided actions simply oozed from the pages. Not once did I judge them unrealistic or far-fetched. Instead, while their conduct was far from error-free, I connected with each of them 100%.

The plot itself was a definite long, slow burn…at least for the first half. A finely spun mashup of drama and suspense, the somewhat leisurely reveal of dark secrets and even darker events was an utter home run. And while not exactly teeming with twists, the few included were impeccably well done. Gasp-inducing and startlingly tragic, each deepened the storyline and pulled me in more. And as the plot transformed due to each, the tension and unease tripled in score as trauma after trauma were unblinkingly probed.

As for the characters, they were both infuriating yet also utterly compelling. Entering the school as a group of wide-eyed teens, each member of this foursome demonstrated mesmerizing and dynamic character arcs. And while their tribulations couldn’t be further from my own boarding school experience, it nevertheless came across as recognizably lifelike. So much so that I was easily reminded of horror stories from the often lauded British prep school system.

All in all, I couldn’t have loved this dark academia tale any more. Despite its somewhat literary feel, my mystery/thriller loving soul was beyond bowled over as I ripped through the pages. Atmospheric and filled with low-level foreboding, it somehow straddled YA and adult fiction thanks to the characters’ ages and serious topics. Together, though, it was an immersive story that was downright impressive. All told, Ms. Keel has me hooked and I can’t wait for whatever she comes up with next. Rating of 4.5 stars.

SYNOPSIS:

I don't regret what we did. And I would do it all again.

Each of the four had, for their own reasons, been desperate to come to High Realms. Marta, Rose, Sami, and Lloyd beat out thousands of applicants for spots at one of the most exclusive private schools in the UK, whose alumni can be found at the highest levels of society. As the only scholarship students in their class, the four form a crucial comradery as they navigate the school's web of rivalries, honor, loyalty, and revenge.

Because within the storied institution, amongst the majestic buildings and rolling grounds, a sinister undercurrent of violence is brewing. And when one of the four reveals a devastating secret, each of the friends must wonder just how far they will go in order to remain at High Realms.

Thank you to Ellie Keel and William Morrow for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

PUB DATE: August 20, 2024

Trigger warning: bullying, self-harm, sexual assault, mental health issues, mention of: drug and alcohol use, suicide

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite silly and very entertaining. You can probably glean everything you need to know about this book from the marketing tagline branding it ‘the dark academia event of 2024’. Like The Cloisters, it appears to have been written and published with this particular niche in mind, and also feels quite juvenile compared to the novels it strives to emulate – perhaps best suited to readers who are just making the jump from YA to adult fiction. It’s the tale of four scholarship students at a private school where the social hierarchies are strict and the bullying is relentless. While narrator Rose makes some headway towards fitting in, her eccentric roommate Marta is less fortunate. When a popular girl is involved in an accident, Marta is blamed and the central ‘four’ are dragged into a bizarre game of subterfuge. The story is told from an adult perspective by Rose, but aside from a brief epilogue, it doesn’t delve into the characters’ lives after these events, instead concentrating on their school experience only (which, again, makes the book feel like it has quite a young focus). At the same time, the miseries heaped on one character are so extreme that they start to tip the scale into parody. Still, I can’t deny the narrative power this book has. It held my attention and absorbed and compelled me when nothing else could. It’s a gripping story that’s best not taken too seriously.

I received an advance review copy of The Four from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Alexis Hall]

Source of book: Bought for myself
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.

***

I’ve thought for ages whether I felt able to talk about this book or not and eventually kind of came down on ‘yes’ because I don’t want to forget I read it and accidentally read it again. Basically I have no individual beef with this book. It’s not a ‘bad’ book (whatever that means) or a book devoid of literary merit or a book that ‘shouldn’t have been published (I’m saying these things explicitly because I’ve recently learned that these are terms in which other people may think about books). It’s technically speaking a very good book. It’s, you know, well-written, mostly well-characterised (mostly because it has a large cast and some of that cast ends up blending together a little sometimes, especially because a large proportion of the large cast is ‘mean posh people’), well-structured, and has an expertly crafted atmosphere of ever-spiralling tension and despair.

But the truth is the book made me very very sad. And, y’know, it was meant to: mission accomplished. I will give it full credit for not flinching from how utterly fucking brutal young people can be and how school so easily intensifies that brutality. So often books elide the reality of bullying because, as adults, we train ourselves first to minimise, then to forget. If any of us had to live with the people we were when we were young we would hate ourselves beyond the point of functionality. So basically this book successfully left me feeling powerless and sad twice over: once remembering school from the perspective of someone who lived through it, and then all over again from the perspective of a teacher, seeing and knowing, and doing your best, and always knowing it will never be enough.

So. Uh. Fun?

The basic setup here is that the narrator, Rose, gets a scholarship to an elite private boarding school. There are three other scholarship students--Marta, brilliant but damaged, Sami, easy-going and overlooked, and Lloyd, messily bisexual because you can’t write academia without including at least one messy bisexual--with whom she forms a connection, partly out of genuine solidarity, but to some degree as protection from the extremity of the school’s social stratification. Rose’s own dreams of access to privilege and the magical boarding school lifestyle represented in so much of England’s fictional quickly evaporate when faced with the reality of High Realms (yes, the school is actually called High Realms: The Four is extremely effective, but subtlety is not something it’s interested in). But things only get more complicated as constant bullying coupled with a traumatic homelife drive Marta ever closer to complete collapse. And then it gets worse.

I’m not sure it’s really fair to characterise The Four as dark academia because, apart from being set in a hyper exclusive academic environment, it’s not actually interested in any of the things dark academia is interested in. This isn’t a book that’s--to mildly misquote from Alan Bennett’s The History Boys--confused learning with the smell of cold stone. While all four central characters are clever enough to win a scholarship to a school they could never otherwise afford to attend, only Marta has the passionate love of learning that--corrupted or sincere--tends to lie at the heart of most dark academia. No, The Four is ultimately a story about survival. As I've already said, there’s many things it does exceptionally well--the voice of its central character, the general atmosphere of claustrophobic dread, the genuine grimness of the entitlement and disregard that saturates High Realms from staff to students--but it mostly makes a coherent case for its central characters behaving in ways that are unhelpfully driven by fear, immaturity and misplaced care. Narrating from the future, Rose is quick to condemn herself for her mistakes, which makes it hard to be too frustrated with her younger self as a reader. It’s depressingly easy to understand why she and her friends behave the way they do, where betrayal and cruelty come from, and even why the few teachers who mean well are unable to meaningfully help.

But, God. It’s punishing to read. Especially because this is not a particularly short book. Of all the characters in the book--and there is a fairly extensive cast--Rose and Marta are the best-realised. I think Sami and Lloyd were meant to contrast each other in the sense that they bring a different set of advantages and disadvantages to the shitshow that is High Realms: Sami is sweet but not particularly charismatic (he’s bullied for being overweight at one point) but he comes from a loving supportive family, Lloyd is queer and the more attractive of two, but he’s volatile in ways Sami isn’t on account of being a LAC. The problem is, both of them lack the reality of Rose and even of Marta. And while there’s an attempt to bring nuance to the rest of the school--particularly Lloyd’s secret boyfriend, Max, who has inveigled insider status for himself through capitulation, charm and force of will, and Sylvia who Rose starts a relationship with--but mostly they’re all blur into an amorphous mass of horrible poshness.

Sylvia and Rose’s relationship, especially, lacked depth to me and came somewhat out of nowhere. Even putting aside the fact that Rose seems remarkably willing to be into someone who has been, at best, complicit (and at worst actively involved in) in bullying people Rose is supposed to care about, I didn’t really ‘get’ the what was going on with those two. The spent most of the book not-interacting, so it’s bit difficult to know what’s drawing Sylvia to Rose and vice versa. At least, when it comes to thinking of them both as individuals. On a more abstract level, it’s pretty easy to conclude that Sylvia sees Rose an escape from the pain and cruelty of her current social circle, and Rose desire what Sylvia represents as much as Sylvia herself.

All of which would have been fine, I think--they’re young and traumatised when they tumble into bed with each other--if it hadn’t become Rose’s permanent relationship. And, obviously, the book is narrated by Rose, looking back from the past, so there’s questions about her reliability to be asked. But I felt I was broadly being encouraged by the text to take this relationship, this relationship I felt was pretty negligible, seriously:

Then she was holding me differently, and the final secrets between us fell away, swiftly and simply and with greater tenderness than I could have ever imagined. The things we did that evening amazed me so much that I felt helpless – but I felt entirely safe in my vulnerability. I wanted Sylvia to have all of me, in that moment and forever. And although I knew that Sylvia hadn’t fully healed – how could she, how could anyone? – it didn’t matter, because she knew she was safe too. I was inside her, and she was inside me, and there were long moments of perfect, blissful release.

As for Marta, and Marta’s fate, this one is messy. Because this book borrows from dark academia tropes and traditions, even though its preoccupations are different, it isn’t long before the book has made it clear to us that Marta will die and that Rose (and her friends) blame themselves. There’s shades of The Secret History here, since it’s impossible to talk about dark academia without mentioning it, but it’s fascinating to consider the way the same elements--a tragedy, a death, an academic setting, a close knit group of friends, a narrator who is or feels them responsible, relating the past from the future, with more or less degrees of reliability--can come out so very differently. Or, err, not. That’s literally how ideas work. My point is, though, that Richard’s narration deliberately leaves us unsettled: this man is a self-justifying liar who, much like Humbert Humbert, is trying to re-frame our sense of morality and aesthetics to make his actions seem reasonable. Rose tells us repeatedly that her perspective has been warped and shifted:

After October 1999, there were crucial, untruthful narratives that came to live in my mind as the truth, and my moral compass spun so that truth-telling was no longer an imperative or even a priority.

And yet--and maybe this is a me problem--I never truly felt it in the construction of the narrative. I mostly found her fairly straightforward, even if hindsight has caused her to re-evaluate actions she took as a lost young woman, far from home, trapped in a deeply hostile environment. All of which means that a lot of this book is just kind of watching a different character rack up trauma after trauma, betrayal after betrayal, until it pushes her over the edge in a way that feels, and is very much intended to feel, both inevitable and preventable.

Which brings me back to: this book is depressing as fuck.

And, of course, it’s okay for books to be depressing as fuck. I don’t like to be prescriptive of what I read. I try not to be one of these “you should never do [x]” people because I believe context matters. I can remember being vaguely aware of the backlash when the second season of Our Flag Means Death aired and a lot of people lost their ever-loving shit over the fact Izzy dies, alongside some claims that it was an example of burying your gays. That’s precisely the kind of mindset I try to avoid when it comes to thinking about art of any kind: it can’t be wrong to kill a queer-identified person just by default in any story regardless of any other factors. OFMD is full of queer folks. Death is part of life. Izzy’s arc was complete by the time he dies. And, on a representational level, if we see him partly as a reflection of Ed’s worst impulses, he needs to die for Ed’s redemption to complete (not that I necessarily feel Ed’s redemption *does * complete but that’s a different issue). Point is: sometimes it’s okay for queer people to die as part of storytelling, and the same standards should be applied to the traumatised and mentally ill.

Except.

I don’t know what is being said precisely by Marta’s death. Other than, y’know, it’s bad.

And let me be very clear, I’m not saying it’s wrong she died. Or that it was ineffective storytelling that she died. Or that the book should have done something different. The whole thing is about Marta’s death. I guess I just feel, on a purely personal level, entirely divorced from anything this book was doing or trying to do, as someone who has gone through both trauma and mental illness, I kinda prefer us to live.

And that’s why this book isn’t for me, irrespective of everything it does well, of which there’s plenty for the right reader. So yeah. YMMV. I wish I'd never taken the damn car out the garage.

[Maria Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

BRUTAL!

Así de fácil y de sencillo!

🌸Vamos, si lo tuyo es un buen DARK ACADEMY, ya me entiendes, del de verdad, sin artificios, con sus castas de alumnos, su crueldad, con sus mentiras, traiciones, sacrificios y rivalidades, bienvenida al Internado Realms!

🌸Eso sí, ojito, porque no saldrás como has entrado!

🌸Y es que no sabes lo bestial que es esta historia!

De las que arrancan, arrasan y trituran…
De las que te enganchan de tal manera que es imposible soltarlas hasta haberlas terminado!

🌸Es más, aquí también hay romance y amistad, pero, mucho ojito, porque no todo es lo que parece, o si?

🌸Si te adentras en sus páginas, PREPÁRATE PARA UN ENGANCHE MOSNTRUOSO!

[Lady Fancifull · Rating 2 out of 5]

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

[Roxana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Turns out traumap*rn and violence isn't really an adequate replacement for character motivation, an absorbing atmosphere, or well-constructed storyline, unfortunately. The plot holes are enormous, the story barely hangs together, and for a book with so much brutality for the sake of shock, it is simply a slog to read. Also, it's 2024, are we seriously still doing this unsocialized, feral, doesn't-know-how-to-behave-in-public homeschooler stereotype?

Comparing this to The Secret History is laughable - Donna Tartt has a sense of subtlety and psychology. The Four is merely choppy melodrama.

[Brittany (whatbritreads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Thank you to the publisher for sending me an early copy for review!*

I think realistically if Goodreads would allow half ratings, I’d definitely give this book a 3.5. I’ve ended up rounding it down for the sake of this website instead of up because in my heart something just feels like this book doesn’t have enough oomph to really boost it up to that four for me. I can’t quite put my finger on why I feel this way, my feelings about this one are a little all over the place. I think it was trying so hard to be dark, mysterious, and literary that it felt like at points like a spoof.

This was marketed as dark academia for fans of books such as Bunny, TSH, and If We Were Villains and while I can definitely see aspects of all three of those widely loved titles integrated in this one, this feels like one of the weaker players out of the four (no pun intended). It definitely lived up to the dark academia title initially, but I feel like we kind of lost that along the way. The only dark academic thing about it turned out ot be the setting, there was definitely the eeriness and the mystery and the darkness too, but the entire studying aspects and school bit felt lacking, and the main group of friends didn’t seem to have an overly close bond on page which is always a key bit of the subgenre for me. They need to be toxically intertwined, and here they just felt like spare parts vaguely gravitating in one anothers orbit.

If you’re looking for a wild ride, this definitely had that in terms of plot. I can hand on heart say I was wholly unprepared for what was about to unleash in this book. It was a bit mad. On that front though, there is a nagging voice in the back of my head questioning how realistic this book was, which always takes me out of the reading experience. It just felt a little overdramatic (one of my main criticisms of IWWV) to the point where I couldn’t take it seriously at times. The storyline goes in absolutely wild directions which is arguably very fun and from an entertainment point of view, this book definitely had it. I just couldn’t picture a lot of it happening, and especially when it’s supposed to be really tense and a bit of a thriller, that ruins it for me.

The characters were definitely interesting, but I’m so on the fence about a) whether they were well written and b) whether I liked them. Liking them I suppose is entirely irrelevant, because I find in most DA books the characters are supposed to be very flawed and irritating and get on your last nerve. It’s not that I didn’t like the characters here, more that I didn’t feel like I knew them at all. They almost felt like parodies of real people? But at the same time I was reading them, finding them at times easy to understand and relate to?

This book just confused all of my feelings to be honest and I’m unsure on how I feel entirely about all of it. Their actions did confuse me at times and I feel like that’s mainly because reading about a deterioration of mental health never quite reads as real, and always seems over the top and unnecessary, but in real life things play out in similar ways, oftentimes worse. I don’t know, the characters were really confusing for me to get to grips with. Their relationships didn’t feel very stable at all and I don’t even think they had anything in common, but they were supposedly best friends. We also had a romance come out of thin air which didn’t work for me, but I loved that it was sapphic.

This review was a bit chaotic, this book is a bit chaotic, my feelings are still a bit chaotic. This is definitely a book I’d lean towards more saying I enjoyed and I would recommend, I just think it was maybe a little all over the place and unpolished. It has the foundations of something excellent, but the execution rinsed it of its narrative power a little. Still very intrigued to see what else this author can do, she has an excellent imagination.

[Francesca (pavisfrancesca) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75. I have such mixed feelings about this. It’s PERFECT for dark academia fans on the side of a more sophisticated story like Secret History. But somehow it was a much easier read. Think Secret History x The Inheritance Games.

I had no expectations going into this aside from dark academia set in a prestigious boarding school in the 90s. Therefore, when reading I wasn’t sure where the plot was going. It took SO many turns in ways I didn’t expect, some shocking and some just ???

The writing was wonderful and the story was interesting. Great debut novel

[Minx Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a depressing bore of a book. Soz but how i feel.

[BlaireReadsTheThings · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for the audio version of this title.

Rose, Lloyd, Sami, and Marta are scholarship students at High Realms. This is a place filled with rich and elite students...and they don't fit in. Especially Marta.

I will just start out saying that the idea here was good. However, it was about 150 pages too long. It went on and on and on. I was ready to burn the place down myself. The initial idea of hiding someone for "their own good" was interesting, but it went way too far. No person would have allowed the awful things to happen to someone that they cared about to happen. All of these people are disgusting and deserve no pity. I could not connect with the characters because they were literally allowing a "friend" to be tortured while they were off "getting their swerve on" with whoever. I hate them all.

[Lydia · Rating 1 out of 5]

respectfully, no <3

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book just wasn’t for me. I have seen it everywhere and was really excited to read it, especially with the sinister blurb. However, this is just the beginning and Keel presents a dark and twisted academic story where none of the characters are particularly likeable. Despite them showing some sort of redemption in the Epilogue, I found I was mostly frustrated by character actions and reactions.

Personally, I don’t think the blurb quite portrays the story. The first 20% felt really exciting and setting the foundations for this tense novel. Yet, after a key event, I thought the pace dropped off, the plot stagnated and not much happens. I wasn’t expecting the overall plot direction and this was why I felt the general story did not meet what I was hoping for from this read. Instead, it felt trapped in a cycle of the main characters trying to evade suspicions, whilst keeping their head above water amongst the sharks and bullies that attend High Realms.

This was not aided by the very long chapters. Keel’s style of writing is quite interesting but I thought it needed to match a high-octane style of plot. Quite often I had to leave mid-chapter and this definitely lessened the impact of the story. I frequently felt bored by the tedium of the narrative, especially as it felt that not much was happening with the central four characters.

In my opinion, some of the minor characters were more interesting and I would have preferred Keel to have developed them further. However, the behaviour of these sixth form students was appalling and I could not understand how none of the members of staff were willing to get involved and punish their actions. If this was “real life”, these people would not stand a chance of getting away with it. I found this part more of a turn-off with this book because I disliked how Keel presented a school body that seems to run itself on acceptable bullying towards outsiders.

Overall, this book started with promise but did not continue. I don’t think the blurb was really an accurate portrayal of the story and I think Keel pushes the dark, academic setting too far with predictable stereotypes. Combined with the lengthy chapters and not much happening, this was more of a struggle that I was glad to finish.

With thanks to HQ Digital and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Sheila · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a free copy of, The Four, by Ellie Keel, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The four are actually four scholarship recipients at High Realms, they are: Rose, Marta, Sami, and Lloyd, class of 1999. Tragedy happens and one of them does not make it. I found this book to be dark and depressing, I did not like any of the characters at all, or care for the language.

[Genevieve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot explain just how much I loved this book!

I loved the writing and the typical dark academia characters who you can't decide if you love, hate, or want to throw something at because they're making stupid choices. The tension kept building as the mental states of the characters deteriorated and they were pushed to further cover up what they'd done, with the story continually playing with my emotions and crushing my hopes.

The Four is a dark, enthralling, and emotionally devastating new entry in the dark academia genre which delves into the powerful and twisted bonds of friendship and just how far a person can be willing to go for loyalty.

Our story follows four scholarship students, Rose (our POV MC), Lloyd, Sami, and Marta, at a private boarding school, High Realms. Here, they are bullied and abused by their fellow students, which drives them to form close friendships between the four of them. That is until the situation takes a dark turn, putting the bonds between the four friends to the test. The story explores the lengths a person will go for their friends and reaching the point of no return, filled with heartbreak, found family, and slow burn sapphic romance.

If you like the queer romance, tension, and complex friendships of If We Were Villains, and like dark academia vibes but aren't looking for a deep dive into an academic subject (like you get with Shakespeare in If Were Villains or translation magic in Babel), then you will love this!

Thank you so much to HarperCollins for sending me this book!!

TW: grief, parental death, sibling death, self-harm, suicide, sexual assault, rape

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Four had me conflicted. I really enjoyed how it was written, I think it's really smart and absorbing. Ellie Keel created deeply atmospheric and absorbing story. But, I found it too brutal, too extended to hold my attention, I didn't think we needed some of the added plot twists.
Overall, a good solid debut but not quite right for me.

[Jordan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wish that I could unread this.

And content warnings because the author doesn’t give them: rape, sexual assault, self-harm, suicide/suicidal ideation, abuse, bullying, and you could probably put disordered eating under here too...in a book about 17 year olds

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This put the Capital D in Dark Academia. It was not a pleasant story and it felt like I was watching a car accident and couldn’t look away. I didnt find the four main characters particularly compelling and wasn’t quite convinced by their strong friendship, considering they were supposed to have only just met. But it was a compelling read. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

[Genevieve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you HarperCollins for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m in between 2 and 3 because in the end, the book just annoyed me.

While I believe that the writing is good, the story was just so convoluted and confusing at times. It didn’t really seem like it had anywhere to go and a lot of events felt so outlandish that it broke me away from the story even more. I understand that it’s dark academia but I feel like it was trying to pose as dark academia rather than being dark academia. The bullying and the way everyone was treated just felt as if there was so reason behind it other than being cruel for the fun of it.

The characters weren’t likeable at all (and I have learnt that that is a trait of dark academia) but what I mean to say is that they were both bland and complex. Their actions were confusing but their actual personalities felt one dimensional. The friendship between the four of them just didn’t feel real other than us being told that they were loyal to a fault to each other.

The relationships were sporadic and had no basis. Like Sylvia??? Really?? That had no hints beforehand whatsoever. It was so bizarre. and at the end when the two boys were like- Sylvia wants to marry you, why are you still broken up? And Rose is like okay I’ll get back with her.

PLUS MARTA DYING? After all that effort and trauma, it was just a let down. But I suppose one could argue that it shows the decline of her mental health to that extent.

I suppose in a sense, this book wasn’t for me because I was just uncomfortable and disgusted by the actions of some students and couldn’t get my head around it.

[Mandy White (mandylovestoread) · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75
harrowing and desperate. a new addition the awful private school kid genre that is not for the faint of heart. not a feel good book. not pretentious kids in the vibey way but in the ‘they would call me a slur in real life’ way.
it wasn’t a book i necessarily wanted to pick up but i did like it everytime i did. i thought the execution was well done.

thank u @librofm for the ALC

[Monte Price]

I saw a person writing their dissertation on Dark Academia mention this as an honorable mention at and I already think Dark Academia gets bandied about a lot... but if this is that then my hatred of that niche really knows no bounds

Easily a contender for the worst book I'll read this year. What is meant to be a story about four scholarship students at an elite boarding school and the maybe murder that one of them maybe commits quickly devolves into one of the scholarship students having nothing to do with the rest of the group and it being a pretty dull sapphic romance? According to the author talk at the end of the audiobook it's also meant to be a story about hiding someone in plain sight, and that at least was successful. In that a person is hidden in plain sight for a lot of the book.

I added this in an update while I was reading, but if you are to pick this up please know the staggering amount of sexual violence in the second half of the book. It's not graphically depicted necessarily, but it becomes a lot of the conversation and it's something that a lot of the characters have to grapple with. This felt like it was just to keep the reader invested. While Keel is a solid writer, I don't think they're the worlds best storyteller and so the mentions of sexual assault felt like ways attempted to grab the readers attention again. Particularly the first time it lands in the book. The subsequent conversations didn't feel as questionably included.

Overall I really didn't enjoy a lot about this book. The final third does catch the reader up with the present since most of the story is told from a character looking back at his time in their life. The catch up part might have been my favorite, aside from how quickly it had to move through things instead of being allowed to be a little longer. There were glimmers of solid ideas in this, but on the whole I think you could save your time and read something else.

[Cassie Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book so gripping, I couldn’t wait to find out what happened in each chapter. However, I feel like there were a few loose ends that weren’t tied up and the ending a bit anti-climactic.

[Lola · Rating 4 out of 5]

i always take my time with books lately and perhaps it's what makes me go through the whole spectrum of emotion that a human can possess. mayhaps it's what makes me want to savour it bits by bits. this is what happened with "the four" or as best i can explain it. this novel was a ride in the very sense of the word, it did not leave me but at the same time i felt like taking a breather from it despite the fact of how fast paced it seemed to be and how the writing was beautifully flowing. i really appreciated the way ellie keel wrote this story, rose's a sharp but delicate narrator and it felt like reading her diary most of the times but also as if the tragedy that struck didn't really happen and she was simply just telling a tale without the happy ending part. i would have adored to have all the four points of view and even sylvia and max's would have been interesting to delve into but at the same time i think rose's voice was what was needed most and you could feel how much tenderness she put into it even telling the bad parts the absolute heartbreaking and devastating experiences that echoed so vividly with her narration, her starting to understand how marta's life was almost destined to be doomed no matter the cost, the prize was still paid as if it wasn't not avoidable in any way. i read someone say that the characters we ecountered in this novel sort of insert inside of you and you find yourself longing for them inexplicably to the point you are still asking for more from them and almost begging them to be real so that you can dig in every part of their enigmatic souls, keel's characters still hide layers to them and it's like they still are holding onto more secrets that remain unrevealed. i don't believe i could ever know them well, they still feel like some distant friends or neither, just acquaintances you happen to run into in different occasions but that you somehow know they carry something too heavy to bear. i never knew them completely whole but they existed in my mind for a while and i couldn't ignore them all too soon. the final act was no surprise and yet i did find myself feeling sad to know it confirmed i liked a lot more than i can say about this book it moved me, it made me crave a bond i found fierce and it was all the love one person's ached to live, all the tenderness, all the care in the world someone might give, all the kindness and loyalty one might ever desire. rose lloyd sami and marta were a found family waiting to happen but also so much more, i never knew how ferocious in the best way people could be when they believe it matters and maybe that's why i selfishly wanted each of them to have their own chapters and to be inside their minds and complexities. their friendship is the heart of this story and romantic love can't even compared to it, not even close. the romances blossoming were a breath of fresh air in here although i found them a bit rushed but as i said they're not what it's in the center which is way it did not made me mad or feel like i was all that too disappointed. another thing i did not appreciate was how max's character tended to disappear from the narrative too often than not, i feel like he is still an interesting character but it did not had a chance to be explored enough and i had that feeling with genevieve's as well and i simply i would have liked to see more of them and them to have more consistent dialogues, sylvia's arc i really liked and i totally did not see her change of thought coming but i was pleasantly surprised and i warmed up to her just like rose did. even the things i was not a fan of didn't take away from everything else so that's why this review is for the most part positive, it just comes to personal preference. it feels like so much more can be analysed from start to finish but no essay is to be written here so if you want an immersive and atmospheric read for the fall you can pick up "the four" and you're likely to get engrossed in it and think about these pupils at high realms. also i highly hope this gets the chance to be turned into a series in the near future because it has all the elements people rave about and it could be a total hit in my humble opinion. (hbo watch out)

[Bill Kupersmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those of us for whom Donna Tartt’s The Secret History is the perfect novel are engaged in an eternal quest to find a worthy companion, so when I found The Four on a shelf in Foyle’s, I snapped it up. Writers of school stories have the great pleasure of giving the products of our imaginations a local habitation and a name. High Realms, the name of this school, struck me as a trifle too obviously allegorical to be entirely credible, but the frontispiece illustration certainly features architecture to die for - sometimes almost literally - with the clock tower in the centre background brooding over the rest of the Estate (as they term the campus). We also invent our school’s tradition and practice, and once again we have the familiar English Public School cliché of school as miniature fascist state: here the prefects are called the Senior Patrol, the head boy and girl the Captain General and Vice-Captain General, and the housemaster is a former army major. It is also a very horsey establishment with stable chores required of the students. I also quite liked that our narrator, Rose, is a hockey player, which only partially compensates for her low social status as the daughter of a Hackney cabdriver, though no one seems to pick up on the obvious pun. She is a fifth-former, a Millennial Scholar (the book begins in 1999 though that great non-event the Year 2K Bug doesn’t figure in story). Along with her roommate Marta and two boys, Lloyd and Sami, she is expected to class the school up academically by getting excellent exam results and a place in Oxford or Cambridge. As in most contemporary school stories, they encounter lots of drugs, social snobbery, sexual abuse, and bullying. On top of that, Marta is a self-harmer. Then she puts Genevieve, one of the school elite, into the ICU by knocking her down a flight of stairs so steep they’re called the Eiger, and goes into hiding at the school, being looked after by her three fellow Millennials. Readers of The Secret History will probably be reminded of Richard’s attempt to survive winter break in a roofless barn in Vermont.

Though I found the book unputdownably grabby, I cared for neither the characters nor the plot. Even before going into hiding, Marta has that totally needy personality that initially arouses our instinct to care and protect and finally becomes an exasperating nuisance. Rose struggles with her own sexual identity, which is more interesting to her than to the reader. I’d rather she were more forthcoming about her hockey technique – like could she execute a reverse stick backhand or a drag flic? Normally I despise the sort of plot where unsophisticated reviewers comment, ‘Wow, I didn’t see that one coming!’ Here I could imagine but two obvious endings, and sure enough, we get one of them. I also feared whether Rose’s loyalty to Marta might turn out worse for Marta than betrayal would be, but shall leave it to readers to find that out for themselves.

Shall I recommend The Four? If you’re the sort of reader who thinks High Realms parents should pay VAT on their school fees, you’ll enjoy despising characters who live down to your expectations. If like me you like school stories verging on high fantasy but not going over the boundaries of realistic fiction and young characters discovering themselves and their values at the edge of adulthood (especially if they play hockey), you may find The Four an engaging read, though without the spiritual and moral challenges of The Secret History or The Likeness.

[Natasha Leighton · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
An atmospheric and intensely foreboding, dark academia that follows four scholarship students and their often brutal experiences at a prestigious boarding school at the turn of the millennium (‘99-00.)

I did enjoy this as the writing was soo compulsive, with its vividly descriptive (slow burn) exploration of the each of the characters’ experiences at High Realms and the systemic failures of the UK’s private education system. But, it was quite tough to get through emotionally, as soo many of the themes and events centre around pretty dark/ bleak topics. As such I’d definitely recommend checking out the TWs first, as I did find quite a few scenes pretty harrowing.

I wasn’t nearly as diligent and found myself struggling to continue (particularly in the second half), mostly as I was a sobbing (and slightly traumatised) mess by then.

That being said, the depth and emotions Ellie Keel infuses into her characters (Rose, Marta, Lloyd and Sami) was phenomenal and really helped to pull me through, as I was soo invested in seeing how things would pan out for them.

If you loved The Secret History or If We Were Villains then I definitely recommend checking this out!

Also a huge thank you to Harper Collins UK for my giveaway win of the proof.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cuatro alumnos llegan nuevos y becados a primero de bachillerato al prestigioso internado Realms. Todos son brillantes al igual que sus futuros y han podido acceder a este internado de élite gracias a sus notas. Si consiguen acabar el curso podrán ir a la universidad de sus sueños, pero tienen que lograr acabar el curso en un mundo que no se rige por las normas convencionales, sino unas propias, donde imperan las intrigas y las traiciones y una moral muy gris.
Rose es nuestra protagonista que junto con Marta, Sami y Lloyd conformarán el grupo de los cuatro. En ningún momento ellos llaman así a su grupo, pero se refieren a si mismos más de una vez como los cuatros, ya que no consiguen encajar en el internado debido a sus orígenes. La mayoría de los estudiantes se conocen desde siempre, llevan años en el internado y además comparten estatus social y económico. Que no significa que no les tuviesen envidia los demás por ser inteligentes o guapos.
El libro es una mezcla de thriller y dark academia, supongo, tiene sus momentos. No os esperéis un El secreto de Donna Tartt, ni Todos somos villanos de M. L. Rio. Comparte características como: ambiente de prestigio y estudiantil (aunque para mí, que este se desarrolle con personajes de instituto me resultó tedioso y a veces nada creíble, prefiero algo más especializado con mayor profundidad, porque aquí el ambiente académico lo presupones), muchos personajes todos con una moral muy gris, la protagonista con buenas intenciones e intentando encajar (de los personajes más "inocentes"), ese tipo de narración desde el presente sobre un pasado en perspectiva, en el que te anticipa varias veces que se equivocaron o si hubieran tomado otra decisión todo sería diferente. Ese tipo de características dark academia. Pero aun así, para mí no ha sido un dark academia como tal y no ha sido de lo mejor que he leído, bien porque creo que necesitaba más desarrollo algunas partes, darle más vueltas a ciertos temas, por repeticiones innecesarias, por ocultar información para mantener el misterio, o el hecho de que no consiguiera empatizar para nada con la mayoría de los personajes, sobre todo con Marta que se supone que es el origen de todo el conflicto. Y la doctora Reza... no sé ni que pensar. Ni tampoco de como hablan algunos personajes a otros, no me resulta verosímil que unos adolescentes insulten a adultos que están por encima de ellos en poder y escala social en el internado y los adultos ni reaccionen.
Los personajes no me han gustado, había momentos en los que casi y pensaba, esto arranca, esto mejora, pero no, se quedaba en el casi. Los personajes me parecen estereotipos copias de otros dark academia, pero sin desarrollar y algunas cosas metidas con calzador.
Respecto a las situaciones lo mismo, parecía que arrancaba, que creaba tensión pero se desinflaba rápido y todo quedaba en nada. Creo sinceramente que con un par de vueltas más al libro, la autora hubiera conseguido un resultado mucho más favorable. La parte thriller e investigación policial, pésimas... Y tanta violencia y abusos, no me encajaron y me resultaron innecesario.
No tiene un ritmo que enganche, por culpa de las repeticiones, al menos no está mal escrito, que ya es algo.
Mi opinión en general respecto al libro, es que tenía una buena idea, pero que necesitaba mucho más pulido, con unos personajes que a veces parecían que tenían personalidad, pero en general eran tópicos sin desarrollos, algunos no sé ni para que se presentaron, como el caso de Genevieve.... Y sobre todo ha sido un libro mal desarrollado, con mala ejecución con muchas ideas que se ha quedado en nada y me ha dejado fría. Era como si se quedaran cabos sueltos a cada momento y ha nadie le importara, mucho menos a la protagonista que admite muchas veces que no se entera de nada y no va a preguntar, que ya se lo dirán...
No lo recomiendo obviamente, ni creo que deba considerarse un dark academia, creo que es un subgénero del que están abusando mucho últimamente para vender y están desdibujando sus límites.

[Jackiesreadingcorner · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a debut novel this, I was hooked from the first page and couldn’t put the book down except for when I needed some sleep, even then I got up again to read a bit more. If you are into Dark Academia this is one for you. A story of friendship and how far you would go for a friend. Set in an exclusive boarding school known as High Realms in Devon. The Four are, Rose, Marta, Lloyd, and Sami. They have all four been awarded scholarships to attend the school. All four are excited at this opportunity they have been given, because if they get the grades here they could go to any of the top universities in the country. But all is not as great as they had hoped, they are faced with hostility, contempt and more by some of the fee paying pupils. Who feel that they shouldn’t be at the school. But the four manage to bond and be there for each other, no matter what. They are all highly intelligent Marta probably being the brightest, but this is the first time she has attended a school, having been home taught previously.

What happens at High Realms will define the rest of their lives, losing the innocence they arrived with, Marta is especially vulnerable and most of her problems of hatred and cruelty come from Genevieve mostly.

The more you read the darker the story becomes, some of the things these four have to face should not be faced by anyone. The tension continues to build as you turn each page wondering what is going to happen next, how much more can the four take. I felt myself feeling so sorry for the four, it seems there was no one they could trust no one but each other to confide in. They were on their own.

What becomes truly hard is when a popular girl has an accident and Marta gets the blame, but Marta runs and hides afraid she will be banished from the school, which would also mean she would have to go home to her father which is the last thing she wants. She loves the school and her friends. In order to protect Marta the other three find somewhere for her to hide, this leads to a lot of difficult decisions. The tension is built even more as the mental health of the characters begins to be affected.

The characters explore their sexuality, the story is an emotional rollercoaster, as they go from one dilemma to another, each part getting darker and the tension being ramped at each event that happens, just when you think things can’t get any worse something else happens. The pace is fast, the story is told by Rose initially I did wonder how reliable she was as a narrator, but as she told the story it became fairly clear she was telling things as they happened through her eyes, obviously with no other versions the reader has to take her version as gospel. I felt out of the characters Rose was the best to be narrating, she told the story with tenderness, even the heartbreaking and devastating to read parts, that really hit you hard.

Even as the characters divulge something, you feel like they have more to tell that they are still holding back in some way. Some of their decision making may not have been the best but these are still young adults. Making the decisions they believed to be right, although there were times I was willing them to do something different. But despite the occasional disagreements between them these four remained friends, all they really wanted at times was to be loved. Each of them had their own stories.

This is a brilliant immersive, dark atmospheric read, gripping, and engrossing throughout a definite ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read and a terrific debut. I look forward to see what Ellie Keel writes next.

[itsallaboutbooksandmacarons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Embarking on an exploration of academia's shadowy depths, this audiobook takes you on a captivating journey through the corridors of the mind. With each chapter, you're transported to ivy-clad universities, where the pursuit of knowledge intertwines with themes of secrecy, obsession, and intellectual fervor.

Through meticulous research and eloquent narration, the origins and evolution of this mysterious realm unfold, from ancient origins to its presence in modern literature and cinema. Meet a captivating cast of characters—troubled scholars, enigmatic mentors, and tormented artists—whose stories intertwine with academia's darker side.

But this audiobook is more than just a tale. It prompts introspection, challenging listeners to contemplate the nature of knowledge, the allure of forbidden pursuits, and the fine line between genius and madness.

Whether you're a seasoned academic or a curious listener, this immersive experience offers an intriguing glimpse into the depths of the human soul. So, plug in your headphones and prepare to be spellbound by its haunting beauty and intellectual depth.