I got an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

First disclaimer: if you're a dumbass like me and you read the synopsis and think this is a girl-group book: it isn't. It's two girls and two boys. Just in case you were looking for wlw rep and stumbled across this and thought this was it.

What would've made this book an automatic 5 stars for me is having a more character study perspective. These are four kids stuck in a dangerous school trip with a guide that one of them blames of killing her mother, and all of them have secrets. It's in the freaking title! But it all came and went in a scene and a half, and I really wish we had had more of that, because it was my favorite part of the book. Not that I didn't care, but I cared less about what happened to them in the rapids than about getting to really know them. They were all really interesting and potentially complex characters, but the bits and pieces we get about their stories weren't enough, and at the end it made it seem like they were all just a bunch of stereotypes and tropes and personalities tied together to make functional characters.
The rowing and climbing scenes could've done with either more or less descriptions, because it fell in the midle and it ended looking like a lot of technical words that I didn't know the meaning of, English being my second language (but good enough to have a bilingual-level understanding of it). I really didn't understand what was going on in the end, I just knew they were struggling. And the days when they were camping felt a bit repetitive, though it's understandable. I loved the campfire chats and the group-cuddling scene and I wish we'd gotten more of that, instead of cooking trouts and climbing cliffs. There also could've been more character study in those scenes so it's a win-win.

Now talking about the MC, she was a bit insufferable at times, but she was going through a grieving process so it's understandable. What I didn't get was the whole list-making thing she had going on? I felt like it was just there to make her look edgy. A situation like a boy talking to her or something would come up and she would make a list in her head of all the things she could say/do in response to it. Then she would say "my favorite options are 1 and 3, but I ended up going with a mix of 2 and 4". This happens around 5 times in the book, more or less. And I just never understood how that was supposed to be funny/sassy/edgy? The first time it was okay, I guess, but by the fourth time I was annoyed and just wanted her to be upfront with what she wantes to say/do and just SAY IT. It had nothing to do with how she behaved the rest of the book, and this isn't a multiple universes novel so it made no sense. Btw this wasn't related to her trauma at all either.
The instalove she had with another boy in the group was also just too much. They knew each other before (and the other two kids in the trip) because they went to the same school, but they thought the other was just a walking stereotype of a weird girl/football guy or whatever. They knew NOTHING about each other. And they flirted and fell in love and kissed in, what, two days? At this point I was taking deep breaths and mentalizing myself like "okay, this was written by a man, just hold on, don't go apeshit over this" but THEN........

There's a gay character. You can just TELL the author hasn't made contact with the LGBT+ community since he watched some TV show in like 2012 with a gay character. The poor boy has to explain the other kids that he didn't CHOOSE to be gay and that he can't just come out and. The four MCs were in risk of LITERALLY FREEZING TO DEATH, so they had to cuddle together, and the author made the gay boy APOLOGIZE TO THE STRAIGHT ONE because it was his turn to cuddle behind him or whatever. Listen. I know how small towns are because I happen to live in one. But no gen Z kid is so out of the loop in 2019. Maybe some son-of-conservatives, or some Christian family, sure, but your average teenager knows better than that. And even if they didn't, it's fiction, you can CHOOSE to have a more progressive, up-to-date depiction of a gay character, and you just didn't. It was irrespondible, to say the least, to handle the gay character so poorly.

Nash, the guide, also needs a bit of revision. We're told he was the MC dead mom's friend for decades, and that he was there when she tragically died. Keyword: told. He does go into a whole "I'm hiding my grief" rant near the end, I'll give you that, but we had so little material to believe that they were close, lifelong friends.
At one point, he tells the MC how her mom died and the MC is surprised, but we weren't told why it was a revelation. Did she not know how her own mom died? Did anyone lie to her? We are so entangled into her still-spiraling grief that we don't get the minimm information to know what is going on, why it affects the MC the way it does, why it's important.
Sadly the fact that she lost her mom in a river accident felt like an afterthought, like the author had three characters that he liked a lot but needed a fourth one because he didn't like the rest as POV characters so he threw in a dead mother. This needs to be more developed, with the respect it deserves.

What the Other Three Don't Know tells the tale of 4 high school students who are going rafting down the rapids over summer vacation as part of a class they are taking in the next school year. Each student has their own drama, which we learn for about as the book goes on. The students are not friends, so it has a "Breakfast Club" type feel to it because of how they don't get along in the beginning.

I have to say, this book did not do it for me. I was struggling to get through the first half and powered through the second half because I knew if I stopped I wouldn't pick it back up again. The writing was fine, I more had an issue with the characters. I didn't feel drawn to or connected with any of them, and their development didn't mean anything to me. There was a weird dynamic between the students, which was seen during dialogue they were having with each other.

There was some action to this ending, which almost made up for the rest of it. I would have liked to see the book almost extend, to get some of the information about what happened when they went back to school. Like the Breakfast Club, you don't get to see that piece of it.

If you are a fan of the Breakfast Club or morally ambiguous characters who don't get along super well, I would definitely give this a shot. Also, if you like outdoor adventure settings in books.

3.5/5

I have a soft spot for stories about opposite characters who finally set aside their differences to help each other and become friends. ‘What the Other Three Don’t Know’ is a great example of what I like in a ‘coming to terms’ YA story.

I was first afraid to be a bit bored by the set up in a forest/river for a camping trip but I surprisingly enjoyed it. The nature brought a strange set up - both calm and dangerous - and I quite loved that part. All the descriptions about the river, fishing, rafting puzzled me but it didn’t keep me to be intrigued into their journey.

I liked Indie a lot. She reminded me a lot of Marin, the main character of Nina LaCour’s ‘We Are Okay’. She was distant, sad, but strong and very brave. She was not afraid to take the lead of her own insecurity to help everyone. And I liked that about her. Wyatt was my second favorite character but Shelby and Skye were sufficiently layered to be just as good.

The writing was easy, and some sentences still resonate in me. I loved all the comparisons and the metaphors about how river can teach us so many things about life.

A very pleasant read.

Too slow. Thought about DNF multiple times..but i finished it. In the end it just wasn't for me.

*I received this arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A lovely heartwarming novel. It took me a bit of time to warm up to the charcters but I definitely did. I like how well we got to know each person, I'd recommend this novel!

The Quick Cut: Four teens who have nothing in common bond together on a school trip.

A Real Review:
Thank you to Shadow Mountain Publishing for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

How did you fare in high school? Did you feel alone in a crowd of people or was your experience more fulfilling? Everyone feels misunderstood at some point, but it's what we do with it that matters. For these four teens on a school river rafting trip, they find that their fellow classmates get one another better than anticipated.

Indie wants to do anything but go on this trip. As much as she is in journalism class, she really doesn't know her fellow classmates. So when she gets paired up with three classmates who have very little in common with her, the expectations are low. Will she find an unexpected bond or instead be disappointed once again?

I really wanted to like this book, but found myself disappointed by this author again. He managed to build an intriguing premise and start a story with a solid foundation. The start has me interested in where this would go.

The problem is that, yet again, the author struggles to create relatable characters that make you want to read more. It took very few pages before I started tuning out and growing disinterested in the material. Maybe it's just me, but these characters blended one into the next.

With forgettable leads, this book fails to leave an impression.

My rating: 1 out of 5

I really enjoyed this book. It is a story of 4 teens on a rafting adventure. All 4 teenagers have secrets the other 3 don't know. As their adventure takes a turn for the worse, the characters learn a lot about themselves and each other.

I really loved the blend of YA contemporary, survival, and heartwarming beats within this novel. I felt like, at first, I didn't enjoy the cast of characters but as their layers pealed back I found myself loving them more and more. Indie's journey of coming to terms with her mother's death felt natural and poignant. I really appreciated that each character had something unsuspected about them, showing that people can't be judged by appearances (which is exactly what Indie was doing). I enjoyed Indie's love of fly fishing, even if that was something I had no personal knowledge of. The descriptions of nature were beautiful but not overbearing and never felt like they slowed the story down. This was well paced with an element of danger at the end to bring the story to a new level. Highly recommend this one!

This book was good and descriptive. It had some good messages.

The characters were similar but different enough to butt heads. Some things just seemed a bit rushed like Skye's immediate flirting with Indie.

One thing is that there were a lot of things about rivers and rafting that I didn't understand all the time, so that slowed me down a bit.

I couldn't get past the first chapter. Too much repetition. A lot of sentences seemed as though the author was trying too hard. In one paragraph, the word 'like' was used twice as a starter.

This book was written in a way that was very difficult to really get into. I had to force myself just to finish it. It probably would have been better if it had more conversation and less... diary type writing? I felt like that took away from the story enough to make it hard to enjoy, anyway.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

What the Other Three Don’t Know by Spencer Hyde is a beautiful story of four very different teens on a rafting adventure. Through the course of their trip, they learn to work together, accept one another, and ultimately discover and accept who they are individually. I highly recommend this wonderful book.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion and review. Just could not get into this book. I felt like even though the characters were revealing themselves to us, I still didn't really know who they were. Yes, I know their faults and what they hid, but I didn't really know who they were before this rafting trip. I feel YA readers who are looking for something light might like it.

A pretty typical YA book about four very different teens thrown together for a week. Themes of acceptance and of being yourself rather than who others expect you to be. A quick read.

As a debut novel, the story feels a bit short and not as intricate as I hoped. This book is positioned to be in the same vein as 'One of Us Lying' and it has the components of an intense plot. The found-family trope is one of my favourite and I did love everyone getting to know one another--especially since they didn't know one another from the beginning. It would be a story that I wouldn't mind going back to and reading; I would love for it to be a bit longer and fleshed out.

I loved several things about this book. I loved the characters and how they rang true. I loved the growth that each of them showed, and their developing relationships. I loved the writing, and how it drew me into the story. I loved that this book was a little different.

So why isn't this 5 stars? Most of this book takes place during a white water rafting trip and there were several terms i didn't understand. There was one place that was so technical to me that I skimmed a few pages just to get the gist. I'm sure I missed out on some of the exciting drama.

Overall it was a very enjoyable read and I would love to read a sequel to see what happens to the characters next.

Thank you to the publisher and net galley for an ARC, which did not impact my review.

What the Other Three Don’t Know by Spencer Hyde is a poignant story of friendship, forgiveness, adventure, and self- acceptance. Four very different teens survive a wilderness rafting trip, learning the truth about each other and more importantly the truth about themselves. I loved the author’s use of the river, light and darkness, and fishing analogies. He is a gifted author who understands teens.

"A loner, a jock, an outsider, an Instagram influencer." The premise reminded me of a modern day Breakfast Club or the new Jumanji movie, and I was totally here for that.

For different reasons, Indie, Skye (with an e), Shelby and Wyatt all find themselves on the same class trip with a rather suspicious guide.

I really had to work hard to ignore the unrealistic nature of the extreme river rafting that these four high schoolers were expected to participate in.

I found the first third of the book a little difficult to get into due to the pace of the story. There seemed to be a lot of Indie's internal dialogue which slowed the book down, while some friendships felt like they were evolving too quickly - especially for a self-proclaimed loner, such as Indie.

There were also a LOT of river analogies. Sometimes less is more.

While the pacing made the story feel a little clumsy, I enjoyed the overall story and the idea of four different teenagers working together, building friendships and sharing their secrets.

This is a book I feel like I should have enjoyed. It's the kind of book I typically enjoy, after all. But I honestly came away from this feeling pretty cold. The plot set-up is super contrived, but that's fine; I've read that in other YA before. The problem is, the story felt really disjointed, and I never truly connected with any of the characters. They kind of just existed there, with their fairly middle-of-the-road secrets. Meh.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion and review. I loved the growth of these characters. Going through something as traumatic as this really changed each one of our characters. I loved the team work and the honesty that each one brought to this story. Indie is so strong and towards the end, I was really proud of her. Forgiveness can be a difficult thing, and she was able to forgive Nash for everything.