Review: Secret Society

Title: Secret Society
Author: Tom Dolby
Pages:343
Rating: 3.5/5


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 (Author Website).

I didn't love this book like I thought I was going to. Instead, I found it to be just ok. While the writing itself was strong, I found the plot to be weak. I didn't feel like the story really got started until the last fifty or so pages. I'm not saying I felt like I wasted my time reading this - I just wish it had moved at a little faster pace. I'm hoping that Dolby can keep up the momentum he created at the end of Secret Society in the sequel. If he does, it could really be an amazing read.

Also, this book is not for those readers you want everything to be answered and wrapped up in a neat little bow, because let me tell you, after finishing this, I have more questions than I did when I started. There are just so many inner workings of the secret society that we have yet to find out about.

I did enjoy the characters, especially the main couple Phoebe and Nick and I'm interested to see where Dolby takes that relationship in coming books. I'm not sure when the next book in the series is coming out, but I heard rumor on his website around the winter of 2011. That's an awfully long time to go in between books, and I'm wondering if I will even remember what happened in this one when the time comes!