ARC Review--First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirowy

It started for pranks, fun, and forever memories.

A secret society – for the four of us. 

The rules: Never lie. Never tell. Love each other.

We made the pledge and danced under the blood moon on the meteorite in the orchard. In the spot we found the dead girl five years earlier. And discovered the ancient drawings way before that. 

Nothing could break the four of us apart – I thought.
But then, others wanted in. Our seaside town had secrets. History.
We wanted revenge.

We broke the rules. We lied. We told. We loved each other too much, not enough, and in ways we weren’t supposed to.
Our invention ratcheted out of control.

What started as a secret society, ended as justice. Revenge. Death. Rebellion.

I received this ARC from the publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for a voluntary and honest review. I was in no way compensated for this review.


I remember being intrigued with Alexandra Sirowy's debut The Creeping! I still need to read release from last year, but when I saw First We Were IV up on Netgalley I decided to throw my name in for a review copy! It was definitely an interesting kind of read and had me intrigued for a time, but I also couldn't help but feel like it started to move at a terribly slower pace than I expected. And then the ending just left me feeling a lost. It just wasn't the feel good ending you would hope for a standalone. It ends with resolution, one that is filled with shock and surprise, but still, there's a kind of loneliness to it as well.

Izzie, Graham, Viv, and Harry have all been best friends ever since Harry moved to their little town when they were twelve. Izzie is feeling a sense of dread as their senior year comes upon them. She knows that soon they will all drift apart as they go to college and she wants there to be something that binds them together. Bring them closer together. She starts their secret society group and they decide that they would right the wrongs they feel need written.

It starts off as harmless pranks, but then they decide to take things up a notch. They remember the time when they were twelve and they found the body of a dead girl in their secret spot. The police never really investigated the death to the full matter of the law and suddenly, Izzie decides she wants there to be justice for the lost girl she dubbed Goldilocks because of her blond, golden hair. Their pranks take a darker turn as they try to go at the people they feel are responsible for the lack of justice.

The beginning of this one was a bit hard to get into, for we start in the past and deal with a few chapters of these flashbacks that helped to shape the circle of friends we are about to meet and also to show us the tragic event that in a sense brought their circle of friends together. Really it was the added addition of Harry who was the newest kid in town at the time.

I think what also started to set things off for me was the involvement of animal abuse. I don't like when that happens in books and in this one, we had three instances, at least that I can remember off the top of my head. There may have been mentioning of one more instant but I can't say for sure. I mean, only one kind of went into detail but the rest were kind of glossed over but we still witness the aftermath. It's nothing against the author really, I just wished she could've left it out, but I can see how it fit into the story.

There's also a bit of a complicated love situation going on. Four friends; two girls, two boys. It's not as twisted as you might think, but it does get a little love triangle-y. But the romance was more just a side occurrence. It didn't overtake the story which was kinda nice, but it also wasn't all that swoony. I didn't really feel like I was meant to care about the romance. The friendships were a far grater bond and I liked that, but then obviously things evolve into chaos.

This was a sort of intense read but at times I couldn't help but want it to be over. I felt like the group's true mission was starting to be lost and just wanting to cause chaos and shock. Their group becomes a phenomenon of sorts and some copycats come out of the woodwork and that brings about a new set of chaos.

At it's heart, this is a book about friendship, for all Izzie wants is to be able to be closer to her friends in their last year of high school. But naturally, things get taken a little too far. While First We Were IV isn't one to make my favorites list I will still eagerly look for new books from Alexandra because her books still have that sense of creepiness to them that I always find entertaining!


Overall Rating 3/5 stars


First We Were IV releases July 25, 2017