Cassandra Bell has been invited to study at the Darke Academy, an elite boarding school that shifts base every term. Initially she can’t believe her luck, but as time passes she realizes that the school is built on a foundation of deceit and danger. In the past, students have met with unfortunate “accidental” deaths and there is something extremely odd about the school’s chosen group, the Few. Cassie has never been one to play safe, not if it means being left in the dark about what’s happening around her. And so, she walks down a path from which there’s no return.
I gladly admit to loving Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. It was one of the first vampire fiction books that I’d read, which made me realize just how much I love paranormal and supernatural genres. I would still re-read it, despite all the hate that it has surprisingly garnered. Secret Lives being the first book in the Darke Academy trilogy has a very promising storyline. Boarding school on wheels + vampires = YES PLEASE! But it just didn’t work for me. Sure, the setting and the author’s writing style is enough to make you want to teleport to the Darke Academy. But there was quite a bit about the book that I couldn’t digest. Gabriella Poole’s writing is very colloquial, not wordy and moderately descriptive. Some of the plot points are in deed commendable and unique. Who’d EVER think of a boarding school that moves to a different city every term? It’s brilliant! Who’d think of vampires and not associate them with blood lust? The author of this book, that’s who.
Moving onto characters, themes and some half-baked cliches. Cassie is your average studious girl, who has been in foster care for very long. I found her personality to be confusing at times; her thoughts and actions were just all over the place throughout the novel. Isabella is the one character that I really liked in this book. She has her heart on her sleeve, is fiercely protective of Cassie and Jake and exhibits very real emotions and opinions. Usually in media representations of vampires, the vampire characters are ostracized in society. But it’s interesting to notice that here, they are placed on a pedestal. So much so that the Few are considered above authority at the academy. The use of cliches overwhelms this novel. The vampire male lead is mysterious and brooding, the rich people are shown to be brats, there’s a lot of jealousy at play in between the female characters because of certain attractive men etc. On the whole, it was an okay book. Parts of it were truly fun and others could have been better. Read it and see for yourself, if you’d like.
Ratings – 2.5 out of 5 stars
What do you get out of it? A new perspective on vampires. Also, you begin to wish that you’d studied in a magnificent boarding school.
The Life Stories 