ARC Review: Six Little Secrets

Happy Wednesday, book nerds!!

So I’m not going to lie I didn’t get a ton of reading done yesterday, but I think my excuse is pretty solid. You see, I was fortunate enough to attend a QUEEN concert featuring Adam Lambert last night with my dad! I literally have no voice today because of all the screaming, singing along, and laughs throughout the evening. It was an incredible night and I’m so thankful I was able to watch such iconic musicians live and in person!

I didn’t get home until well after midnight so I’ve got some serious catching up to do for my Reading Rush goals this week! So I’m going to keep this intro short so I can speed through some chapters tonight before I crash. Below is another extremely backlisted arc that I recently crossed off my TBR. Luckily I did enjoy this one more than the last one. But I want to know what YOU think about it, so scroll down and check it out!

---

---

Goodreads/Amazon/Barnes & Noble

Six Little Secrets by Katlyn Duncan

Title & Author: Six Little Secrets by Katlyn Duncan 

Genre: YA Thriller

Release Date: November 24, 2017

Publisher: HQ Digital 

Series Details: Standalone novella

Page Count: 416 pages

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟 Stars

Thank you so much to HQ Digital for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Six seemingly random teens are gathered in their high school library for a Saturday detention. Mere minutes after being left alone with their task for the day an ominous voice comes over the speaker system to announce that their detention wasn’t as arbitrary as it seemed:

“The six of you were selected to be here today because you are all hiding something. A secret. One that eats you up inside each day. I’m here to set you free.” 

The teens (unsure of the validity of the statement) at first ignore the mystery message. But they soon discover their twisted taunter is not to be ignored. Each teen is presented with a time-sensitive task that should they fail to complete will result in their secret being divulged. Dun dun dun…

This mystery novella is getting lots of comparisons to One of Us is Lying in other reviews, which I get given The Breakfast Club crew and the detention setting. However, saying one is better than the other is difficult when you consider their lengths. As I stated previously, this is a novella as opposed to a full-length novel and thus the characterization and plot don’t have as much room to develop — leaving each work with their individual strengths. And while OoUiL obviously has the upper hand in terms of side plots and expansion on character stereotypes, I do believe Six Little Secrets is a better whodunit overall.

That’s probably why I was hooked into this novella pretty quickly. I not only wanted to know who was behind this revenge mission, but also why these particular students were involved. I enjoyed reading about the first task (which seemed reasonable) and discovering the teen’s secrets and punishment, but after task one things escalated a little too quickly. The tasks became extreme, uncomfortable, and (in my opinion…obviously) WAY too intense given the final reveal.

Which brings me to my main problem with this thriller: the ending; the kryptonite to many a well-built mystery. In this case, the ending just didn’t pack the same punch as the preceding segments. The explanation for how this odd group came together and the punishments they were served just didn’t sit right and left me with a “whomp whomp” feeling. I get that some of these characters deserved a “tough love” lesson, but others felt like they were punished for super trivial and circumstantial reasons.

At the end of the day, Six Little Secrets kept my interest and if you’re a fan of high-school based whodunits this may be the thriller for you.

---

WANT TO FOLLOW ME?

* TWITTER * GOODREADS * BOOKSTAGRAM *