Secret Society by Tom Dolby

Main Characters: Phoebe, Lauren, Nick, Patch

Summary:

An eccentric new girl. A brooding socialite. The scion of one of New York’s wealthiest families. A promising filmmaker. As students at the exclusive Chadwick School, Phoebe, Lauren, Nick, and Patch already live in a world most teenagers only dream about.

They didn’t ask to be Society members. But when three of them receive a mysterious text message promising success and fame beyond belief, they say yes to everything. Even to the harrowing initiation ceremony in a gritty warehouse downtown, and to the ankh-shaped tattoo they’re forced to get on the nape of their necks. Once they’re part of the Society, things begin falling into place for them. Week after week, their ambitions are fulfilled. It’s all perfect—until a body is found in Central Park with no distinguishing marks except for an ankh-shaped tattoo.

Anna’s Thoughts:

Where to start, where to start… hmm. Well first off, I was hyped for Secret Society, it sound original, fun and I loved the ankh tattoo idea since I’ve wanted one for… ever. Then I read it.

The thing about Secret Society is that it’s actually pretty good, it’s just that even with everything going on nothing really happens. The kids get dragged into the Society, that they’ve all heard rumors about their entire lives, except for Phoebe who is the new girl. They know that by being in this Society other people have excelled, have been given their hopes and dreams and every desire, but when it comes down to it all it seemed like to me were empty promises and wishful thinking. They’re promised to have connections, but those connections fall through – they’re promised to have their hearts desire, but then whatever it is they want doesn’t work out. Now, I can see if maybe this happened for you know, one out of every 10 members, but it happens to ALL of the characters – why would anyone be interested in such a thing?

A lot of the book is centered around silly things though – sleeping, eating, conversations that mean nothing – instead of what should have mattered more, like say… the Society. Since this IS what the book is supposed to be about. The first half of the book was interesting, but hard to get through. Nothing exciting happened other than the original initiation, and that was still for the most part boring and confusing. Then the middle was just… fluff, it makes me wonder where the other books will lead, and I have a feeling it might be round and round and round. There are some books that seem to be introductory only, and to be there just to lead up to the plot in the second book – like the author wrote book #2 first, and had to quickly fill in the reader about the characters and wrote the first book to do so, and that’s what Secret Society felt like to me. Other than the last 50 or so pages, which have some really interesting revelations the first part of the book seems to be slightly pointless, since everything the kids are given are then taken away in such a short time period. Things barely have a chance to go well before they’re going completely and utterly wrong, and I can’t for the life of me figure out what the hype could be for something like that.

I think the most interesting aspect, plot or character, in Secret Society was probably Patch. His sneaky and infiltrating ways makes the book grab you at all the right parts. Patch helps stitch together all of the parts in the book, where the other plot points and characters are the arms and the leg, Patch and his discoveries are the body and the head of the book. Without him the rest would be pretty much useless.

Still over all I felt like there wasn’t enough substance in Secret Society, I kept waiting and waiting for their to be some awesome twist, but even when the twist came it was only mildly unexpected. So in general, it was an okay book, and I will probably read the sequel, but if it doesn’t get better from there, then I probably won’t continue reading the series.