Thank you, NetGalley and William Morrow for this ARC.
I really enjoyed this debut novel, which was based on a YA dark academia story that follows for scholarship students who become involved in a terrible secret that binds them all together. The character development in this book is wonderful. I really enjoyed the plot. I love the atmospheric tension in the book. I really enjoy books with the academia Static and this totally did not disappoint. I enjoyed the trauma, the bullying, the revenge, and the representation of mental illness throughout this book. I love the good versus evil vibe in this book as well and I really did enjoy the overall book. The only thing I didn’t really enjoy was the lack of parent, involvement and care For each of the students I think they needed to be more involved ! I would highly recommend this book !

I love dark academia but this one just didn't work for me. Too slow and th premise was a bit extreme for my taste.

Ellie Keel's novel "The Four" is a captivating and beautifully woven tale that masterfully blends emotion, intrigue, and character depth.

Keel's storytelling shines through her vivid and evocative prose, drawing readers into the intricate lives of the four main characters as they make their way in this world of academic privilege. Each character's journey is thoughtfully explored, offering a rich tapestry of interconnected stories highlighting love, loss, and redemption themes.

The plot unfolds with just the right balance of suspense and heart, making it a compelling read from start to finish. "The Four" is a literary gem that leaves a lasting impression, sure to resonate with readers long after the final page.

Young adult tale about four scholarship students at a boarding school...what could go wrong. Quick read, with great characters. Maybe a future series?

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Ellie Keel’s debut novel, The Four, is a haunting and intense exploration of adolescence, power, and the dark secrets that bind us. Set in the late 1990s at the prestigious High Realms boarding school, this dark academia thriller delves into the lives of four scholarship students who find themselves entangled in a web of privilege, fear, and loyalty.

The story centers around four outcasts at High Realms, a school dominated by a toxic hierarchy. These students, bound by their outsider status, uncover a chilling secret that threatens their very existence. Keel masterfully builds suspense, weaving a gripping and tragic narrative.

Keel’s characters are richly drawn and deeply complex. Each of the four protagonists is given a distinct voice and backstory, making their struggles and triumphs feel personal and poignant. The dynamics between them are fraught with tension, yet their bond is unbreakable.

The Four tackles themes of power, privilege, and the often brutal nature of adolescence. Keel’s writing is sharp and evocative, capturing the claustrophobic atmosphere of the boarding school and the emotional turmoil of her characters.

Ellie Keel’s The Four is a compelling and thought-provoking read that will stay with you.

It’s a powerful debut that showcases Keel’s talent for crafting a suspenseful and emotionally resonant stories.

While a captivating debut, The Four struggles to balance its 'fun' factor with a deeper exploration of themes, leaving me wanting a little more substance. Marketed as the millennial "Secret History," the novel falls short of that comparison for me. The plot is undeniably engaging. The early mention of an accident by narrator Rose fuels the suspense, leaving the reader eager to understand the event and its cause. Ellie Keel is great at building tension as Rose and her fellow scholarship students navigate the treacherous waters of High Realms.

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.

A prestigious boarding school, populated by wealthy students who have grown up together, awards four scholarships to Marta, Lloyd, Sami and Rose. They are branded as misfits and become the targets of bullying and harassment. Marta, in particular, is singled out by Genevieve. When she is involved in an accident Marta is blamed but she has the support of the group. This was described as a dark academic thriller and what these students go through is disturbing. The story develops slowly but Ellie Keel keeps your attention as the tension increases. While it was well written, I had trouble connecting with her characters, making this a three star read for me. I would like to thank NetGalley and William Morrow Publishers for providing this book.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for providing an advanced e-copy to review.

I was able to get a copy of the audiobook and that was the format I read this in. The narrator is great, by the way!

This was a very long, very atmospheric book, reminiscent of A Secret History but with much younger characters. An all vibes, minimal plot kind of book, perfect for fall, if you’re into that sort of thing.

I do think The Four has an audience of dedicated dark academia fans who will love this! I also think that I am not that audience. To me, this felt very derivative of that genre without adding anything new. But sometimes we want that in a book, so I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing.

I tried to read this ages ago but I put it down due to a math error on the first page (It’s impossible for five stories to be hundreds of feet! Can you name a single building with 40foot ceilings?) and struggled to pick it up again for months, fearing that that mistake indicated a poorly edited, rushed book. Luckily, that didn’t seem the case, but I hope that that issue is fixed in future reprints.

A little dark academia with a hint of Pretty Little Liars. This was a really fun book to kick off the fall, It took a while for me to get the characters and the lay of the story straight, but once it got rolling, I couldn’t stop reading!

Ellie Keel, you had me at dark academia .

I, like most, thriller lovers, are always craving the next "thrill" . We chase this high until once achieved, we begin the cycle again.

The Four, exceeded all expectations and will leave you chasing that high for quite some time.

This is a book that is sure to give you a hangover, you will not stop thinking about this one long after concluding.

Don't believe me, check out this teaser :

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. And, according to everyone else, we were dangerous.

It would have made our lives a lot easier if Marta had simply pushed our prefect 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.

I had a hard time getting into this book. The bullying, the intentional trauma, and the adults looking the other way, all made this story hard to enjoy. The characters were just stereotypes and I couldn't feel any connection or care for them. It was not a book for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advanced copy. The opinions are my own.

I had a hard time reading this book. It often felt like the character's trauma wasn't being dealt with seriously, and mostly was a device for shock value. One of the most successful parts of the book was when there was a discussion about how individuals with high IQ can make illogical decisions due to being hyper-aware of their intellectual superiority. The main characters of this story were top of their class at an already prestigious institution, often outsmarting their own teachers. When they got in over their heads, they solely sought out help from other smart adolescents, rather than the adults who could have helped them make sound decisions. I wish that aspect was explored more. This book is dark academia with an emphasis on DARK. It isn't as successful as the books it is being compared to, which left me feeling unsettled after its conclusion, without as much to ponder about human nature or insular communities.

The Four offers an intriguing premise and a well-paced narrative, but it didn't fully hit the mark for me. While the character development was solid, I found that some of the relationships lacked depth, which made it harder to feel truly invested in their outcomes. The writing itself is engaging, but there were moments where the plot felt a bit predictable or stretched, which dampened the overall tension. That being said, the book still held my attention, and fans of slow-burn literary fiction might find it more rewarding. It's a decent read, but not one that left a lasting impact.

Dark academia is my vibe!! I was really excited to read this one, however the characters were confusing to me for the majority of the book. The choices that were made were not rational and lacked plausibility. I liked the setting and plot, but most of the characters dampened my love for the book.

This was a dark academia with a lot of hard topics that some may want to research before reading, including bullying, rape, and incest, just to name a few. It was hard to read while also being hard to put down at the same time. Some characters were just atrocious while others were tragic. I felt like it could have maybe been a little bit shorter, but it was written well, in an articulate and engaging way. This was hard to rate, and while I enjoyed it, this may not be for everyone. Three stars.

Thank you, Netgalley and William Morrow, for this ARC.

As psychological thrillers go, this is about as compelling as it gets. And it’s also an excellent friendship story.

As good as the pacing is and how smartly observed the content is, there’s a lot of “ick” to this that definitely affected my enjoyment of the story for the worse. Otherwise, this is probably a five star read for me.

I loved the prep school setting of this novel, and it’s better rendered in that regard than most. The intricate web of loyalties and politics is also exceptionally well done. The atmosphere is terrific, rooted in a strong sense of place and an almost oppressive feeling as the plot unfolds and the protagonist’s situation becomes more and more dire, and that of her best friend even more so.

To that end, as previously mentioned, the flaw in this is the ickiness of all the rape-driven content, particularly awful in the central plot point that hinges on a major character being the victim of rape and incest. This needs a lot of trigger warnings, and I also think this stuff didn’t need to be here.

There are a million reasons that could have placed Marta in the impossible situation she’s in, and many of them don’t force the reader to deal with on-page rape and pedophilia. Her home life could have been intolerable in a way that drove the plot in the same manner without this. I’ll never understand the appeal of this kind of thing in literature, and it always changes my opinion of the book for the worse.

And it’s too bad, because even in spite of that this is a very good story, and it has so much to recommend it, from the pacing to the setting to the intensely observant psychology of the characters’ actions. I’m recommending this despite my displeasure with the unnecessary rape-centric plot lines, but please take this into consideration when deciding whether to read.

I tried to get into this one and just couldn't. The characters were so mean! The bullying was out of control and I feel like it was completely ignored by the adults. Ultimately, I bailed and DNF this one.

"The Four" by Ellie Keel left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the dark academia atmosphere was definitely immersive, and the queer representation was refreshing, particularly with Rose's character feeling authentic amidst all the chaos. But the plot really pushed the boundaries of believability. While the premise of four scholarship students navigating a toxic boarding school environment was intriguing, the characters' decisions often felt irrational and overly dramatic, making it hard to take the story seriously. At times, it read more like a YA novel, which might have worked better for the outlandish twists and turns. Overall, it’s an ambitious debut with great potential, but the execution didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

The Four by Ellie Keel presents an engaging and enjoyable dark academia narrative. I found myself thoroughly absorbed in this astute tale, which was masterfully crafted and infused with moments of intense suspense. It offers a captivating and intriguing mystery, complemented by an excellent setting and well-developed characters. I extend my gratitude to NetGalley and William Morrow for their generosity in providing me with a copy of this eARC.