Genre: Short story

Chapters: A completed eight-chapter book.

Recommended audience: Those who are 13 and up.

Description: Residing in eastern Florida, eighth-graders Daria, Liam, and Penelope have been friends since the first grade. But when a disastrous situation strikes one of them, the others try to find answers. When the two young detectives think they've made their claim, they don't know if they're willing to come forward. Or will they?

Oh man, I haven't reviewed another book since August of last year...but now, a brave soul dares to test his/her luck in my overlooked reviews. You know what wasn't overlooked, the book "They Can't Know" with currently 210 reads and 25 stars, way to go! Even with such impressive stats, I honestly felt this book deserved more attention, when I first read through it, I was satisfied from beginning to end. This author is really something when it comes to short stories, but hey, this is only the intro section, let's move on before I spoil my conclusion. Ready? Let's begin.

1. Writing Style✏

So while I carefully read the limited amount of text in each chapter, I realized something during the very beginning, the writing style is incredible! Who knew so much imagery and emotion could be expressed by a short line of dialogue? The text itself was also simple and I mean that in a good way as the author didn't spam large words throughout the story, but did use vocabulary most readers are familiar with. The flow of the speech was soft and mellow, staying nearly consistent throughout the entirety of the book. Don't believe me, fine, I'll type some examples of lines I found unique and appealing.

WARNING! WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! PROCEED THIS SECTION WITH CAUTION! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

"I was a confused sheep, being lead to the slaughter by my own father."
(Chapter 3)

"I could have sworn my stomach forced me to hurl when I laid eyes on a man's bleeding body."
(Chapter 4)

"My nose was stuffed, I felt chills making their way through my entire body, and my coughs could have made someone lose their hearing."
(Chapter 5)

"I wanted to believe what I didn't know was true."
(Chapter 6)

"Well, turns out I got my information."

"Turns out my gut instinct was right."

"And my gut told me that nothing was certain."
(Chapter 7)

I don't know about you, but that seems like something that reveals how much thought was put into the text, no doubt about that.

2. Plot📖 (SPOILERS INCOMING!)

So from what I observed, the plot revolves around the past events of an eighth-grader, named Daria, who is forced to commit a horrible act by her father for an incident that happened years ago, leaving her friends, Penelope and Liam to investigate her hidden history. Honestly, though the plot is a bit cliché, but the way the author presents the plot is unbelievably original. If you notice in the title of each chapter, you'll see a character's name which will be the perspective of that chapter.

Ex: Chapter One: Daria
The chapter is told from Daria's POV. (point of view)

The plot really interested me as I advanced through, each chapter just connects so well with the previous installments and that's important. In fact, I adored the organization of the plot and the plot itself so much that at the end of the story, I was saddened to know this fantastic tale...had to die young. Speaking of the ending, I cannot express how the last few lines completely represent the title. You'll know what I mean once you finish it. Some downsides I noticed was that the plot itself didn't fully reach an exact conclusion, though that was intentional, I would've loved to see the plot expand a tiny bit more. Another downside was rather the ending itself. I know I just praised the ending for how it connects with the theme of the story, but I honestly expected a darker twist. Maybe Penelope and Liam could've found out and Daria's dad figures out, thus forcing her to make sure her friends say silent for eternity. But this isn't a horror story, I just expected an ending like the one I provided because it does fit with Daria's actions against the teacher.

3. Characters 🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️

I won't hold back on what I'm to say, the characters themselves didn't really have anything distinct about themselves besides the dad becoming psychotic. Though Daria didn't present much of a personality for herself, she is shown to be subjective to her father's commands and tends to be fearful, though who wouldn't be? Penelope and Liam didn't express much either, though he was shown to be avoidant of serious matters and responds inappropriately to such matters, however, he did ditch this in the following chapter after chapter three, which I found enjoyable.

Though the characters, besides the father, didn't bring much to the table, the character DEVELOPMENT was the full course meal that satisfied my hunger. The sudden changes in Daria, her father, and Liam were completely backed up by evidence from the previous chapters. These changes kept me engaged in interested and as my eyes scanned the entire page from top to bottom, I began to predict the events myself, driving me to continue reading to check my predictions. Readers should always try to get themselves engaged in the story, or any story for that manner, to feel as if they are a part of the events themselves. Trust me, it is an absolutely joyous feeling and I receive not nearly as much feeling from books other than this.

4. Environmental and Character Descriptions🏞👁

If any of you have ever read my book, then you would know that I include large amounts of imagery and use specific descriptions when introducing a character or a new area. To me, this is a very important part of certain types of stories, mainly fantasy. You want to give your reader a clear picture of the character in the book sees so you can picture an image. While there wasn't much detail describing the design and cosmetic look of the main characters, the instances of imagery did allow me to create a clear visual in my head. Descriptions were short and sweet, nothing too difficult for the reader to comprehend. Such examples include...

"He looked up from his phone, raised his dark brown eyebrows and mentioned for me to sit with him."
(Chapter 1)

"My father's hazel eyes met mine."
(Chapter 3)

"My mother's huge eyes beamed."
(Chapter 5)

"I ran to Daria's backyard as swiftly as a deer and hid behind a lush, green bush."
(Chapter 7)

There is an abundance of such descriptions in the full story which I believe you will enjoy. As I said, short and sweet. However, that can also be an issue when more advanced readers come across the story. They may expect to see more specific descriptions that allow for a more accurate image. I'm not saying your descriptions should be much lengthier, but keep in mind that all readers have different interests.

5. Originality💡

The idea of the main characters searching for clues to another character's history or background has already been done, like...multiple times. Despite that, the way you presented this was more unique than the standard teen or adult being the main character. What really separates this book from other mystery novels is the characters and conclusions. Plus, mystery novels tend to be predictable in terms of the plot and how it progresses. Your story was not the case as the events are laid out in a way the reader cannot predict EXACTLY what occurs in the following chapter. The ending was very original, though there have been some films that utilized an identical idea, but this isn't a film review, it's a book review. It was incredibly enjoyable to be thrilled with suspense as I read through the chapters.

6. Overall Tone🎭

This book kept me on my toes throughout the entire eight chapters. The tone of the story changes from a neutral feeling to a more sinister, worrisome, and uncertain tone with the unpredictable characters adding onto that effect. The drama and suspense really intensify after the first chapter, it almost felt an addiction reading this story. But...the tone remained sinister, worrisome, and uncertain throughout the book, which was done to fit with the message, though variety lacks within. What I mean is the overall emotion brought by the story hadn't really changed in previous chapters, not only that but I did feel that the characters didn't exactly express their emotions in the way another human would.

For example, when Liam discovers the bleeding body, he does relay that he felt his stomach forcing him to puke but I did feel an additional sentence could've been added to give more feeling. Something along the lines of "The fact that something so sudden and unexpected stunned me." Despite what I said about the lack of variety concerning the tone, a large number of tone changes could make a story puzzling for readers to understand, the main tone should be clear which this story does an excellent job at.

All right, time to see where this book stands in the rankings. Without further ado, let's get to the final score!

Rating Score: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Five stars baby! Congratulations! You guys don't understand how difficult it was to score this book. I wanted to give this entry half of a golden crown, I mean it, but the issues I listed above did prevent that. Speaking of issues, let's get into the errors.

This is hilarious, while reading the book, you will find a user by the name of YeetleBettle who constantly remarks of the author's grammar and other mistakes he/she believes are incorrect. That doesn't mean I won't give a proper error list. Here is the only error I found that YeetleBeetle hadn't found.

Original: "What are you doing?" he demanded me tell him, even though it was obvious."

Correction: "What are you doing?" he demanded me TO tell him, even though it was obvious."

That error is most likely corrected, but I'm not certain as when I reviewed the story again for this review on the app, the error had not been corrected. When I used the internet version, the error was corrected. Anyway, this book has many strengths that protect it against its minor flaws. I truly enjoyed it, the author was able to bend my mind as I connected myself with the text, this is truly what a short story should look like. Thank you all for your time and be sure to support the author and his other works!