User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Wow! This is whirlwind, action packed, exciting scavenger hunt which hooks you up from the beginning and you cannot stop reading because you’d already been dragged into mysterious teenage cat-mouse game!
Seven dirty secrets connected with seven teenage friends who took a rafting trip and something truly went wrong at their vacation.
One caused the fall.
One did nothing.
One saw it all.
One didn’t care.
One used their head.
One played the hero.
One was left dead.
I cannot tell you which line refers to which character. But we know for sure who is left dead is Declan: our MC Cleo’s abusive boyfriend!
Most of the group members think he’s deserved what happened to him. After almost one year of his death, somebody starts a dangerous game by leaving a green ribboned box at the bathroom when Cleo’s taking shower.
At first she thinks that’s a birthday prank played by her bestie Hope. Nobody is at the house except of her. Her parents are at work trip! Her brother is at college. The spare key hasn’t been used. There’s a trace of force entry and Hope tells her she’s nothing to do with the box!
You keep asking what’s in the box as like Brad Pitt’s character did at the last scene of Se7en! Thankfully it’s not Gwyneth Paltrow’s posh head! It’s a paper with first clues starting the action scavenger hunt!
Cleo has a secret: she had a toxic relationship with Declan who caused fourteen stitches on her head! So at their worst argument at their rafting trip ends his fall into the river. His body is never found and Cleo deals with her guilt feelings because she didn’t do anything to save him even though she cannot swim and she cannot jump to the water to save him by herself!
Now she started a new relationship with a nice guy who takes care of his grandma. She accepted to Michigan Stare College to study forensic science. So she can leave her hometown, leaving her haunted past behind starting over but somebody knows why she didn’t save her boyfriend and this scavenger hunt turns into a very dangerous game for avenging Declan’s death!
Who is behind this scheme? Her bestie Hope?her estranged brother Connor? One of their three friends: Jack, Valerie or Declan’s bestie Aiden?
It was definitely exciting, one sit read I couldn’t put it down!
But the culprit was soooo foreseeable from the first chapter. There was no surprise for me! But I’d liked the clues, development of scavenger ideas, secrets built around the friends and vicious game style culprit designed. Also the conclusion was satisfying.
I lower some points because of less surprise element but I’m still rounding up 3.5 stars to 4 intriguing, capturing, heart pounding, mind games stars!
Special thanks to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS FIRE for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.
Rating: really liked it
Decent YA mystery, very engaging.
This is the third book I've read by this author and her plots are gripping and so full of action and adventure. This one centers around a creepy scavenger hunt, which captured my attention from the beginning and propelled the plot forward until the end. Overall it's not too difficult to figure out the identity of the person behind the hunt, but the reasons why don't become clear until the end.
Exactly one year ago, Cleo and her group of friends went on a rafting trip and one of them ended up dead. She feels an extreme amount of guilt surrounding the incident, and has worked to move forward toward her dream goal of attending college to get a degree in forensics. She and her best friend Hope are huge mystery and escape room buffs. When a mysterious package appears on the day of her 18th birthday, she assumes that it is Hope playing a prank or giving her a gift, yet Hope claims to know nothing and the box contains a clue to a scavenger hunt, one that will have dire consequences for Cleo if she fails to participate. Who set this up and why?
Although this is a fast-paced thriller on the surface, there are also some deeper themes about domestic violence and how insidious it is in the lives of everyone it touches, not just the person suffering from the abuse. I viscerally felt each of the incidents as they were described, and they felt extremely realistic, especially with regards to the denial, how victims find it difficult to break away from their abusers, and how friends and family members often struggle to know how to intervene. This element elevated the book for me.
As with many YA books, the characters' actions do border on the reckless and, at times, stupid. There are some choices they make that no sane person would (especially at the end), and the perceived power that this villain had seemed to trump common sense throughout. However, if you are looking for an engaging YA thriller, Richards is the author to choose.
I listened to part of this as an audiobook, which kept me thoroughly enthralled. Natasha Soudek does an excellent job giving voice to Cleo complete with her guilt and growing fear as the hunt progresses.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
Rating: really liked it
**2.5-stars rounded up**One caused the fall. One did nothing.
One saw it all. One didn’t care.
One used their head. One played the hero.
One was left for dead.
Reading the above in the synopsis for
Seven Dirty Secrets, I knew I had to get my hands on it.
I see something like that and automatically want to know all the scandalous details. In short, if someone has a secret, I want to know all about it.
Natalie D. Richards kicks this one off immediately. In the very first chapter you a diving into the drama. I really appreciated that.
We follow 18-year old, Cleo, who on her birthday receives a hella creepy invitation to participate in a scavenger hunt.
At first, although the initial placing of the first clue was scary for her, Cleo believes that perhaps her best friend, Hope, or her brother, Conner, are behind it.
However, when they both vehemently deny having anything to do with the hunt, she is forced to consider other culprits.
Cleo's given a weekend to solve all the clues, or a deep dark secret of hers will be revealed. A secret that involves the drowning death of her boyfriend, Declan, the previous year on a rafting trip.
Cleo puts her head down and digs in, determined to solve this mystery, before it is too late for her and the rest of her friend group.
As mentioned above, Richards wastes no time getting into the nitty-gritty of this story. Cleo discovers the first clue within moments of the story beginning.
After that, it is non-stop action until the bitter end.
While the synopsis of this seems absolutely up my alley, I can't say I thoroughly enjoyed this reading experience.
I listened to the audiobook on a road trip over Thanksgiving holiday and had to push myself to get through it. The narrator just did not work for me. Frankly, it was painful.
It felt so forced, with zero expression. The voices for the male characters, wow. I would have preferred she read their dialogue in her regular voice than the ones she was putting on.
Further, anytime there was any excitement in the narrative, where someone would be shouting, or freaking out, it felt like she was reading it out loud in her apartment and didn't want her neighbors to hear what she was doing.
With this being said, I can't really blame the narrative style completely. There were parts of this story that I found repetitive and I didn't care for any of the characters.
While I don't need to like characters in order to enjoy a story, I at least need to be invested in their outcome. I just don't feel like I ever relaxed enough into this one in order to feel that for them. I think I was too distracted by everything else going on.
This is a solid premise and Richards does a great job of keeping the pace steady throughout. I wish I could have connected with it more, but just because I didn't, doesn't mean you won't.
If this synopsis sounds intriguing to you, absolutely give it a shot. A hard copy could end up being one of your favorite books of the year!
Thank you so much to the publisher, Dreamscape Media, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I appreciate the opportunity to provide my honest opinions.
Even though this one didn't hit like I wanted it to, I will absolutely continue to pick up Richards future work.
Rating: really liked it
Cleo and Connor’s parents are unapologetically absent. Sure, when the siblings were very young, their mom stayed home with them while their dad went where the work was. As soon as they were supposedly self-sufficient though, mom joined dad.
Even as a child, Connor took his role of big brother very seriously. Cleo absolutely adores him. She doesn’t mind if his friend, Declan, stays with them. She never expected to fall for her brother’s odd, off-putting pal. When her feeling began to change, she didn’t worry. Declan wouldn’t be interested in her.
Not entirely true.
Cleo finds herself in an abusive relationship and she sincerely believes that she’s keeping the slapping and shoving a secret. Definitely from Connor. She’s too embarrassed to approach her hero. Even her best friend and partner in crime-solving-obsession, Hope, can’t know how Declan hurts her. Well, until Cleo has no choice. Somebody had to drive her to the emergency room.
So, when Cleo, Connor and their friends start packing up a van for a white-water rafting trip in West Virginia, five of the six are floored to see Declan join them. None of them could believe that Cleo would invite him. Already, she regretted it. A sullen seven set out. A shocked six came home.
One full year later and someone who seems to know what really went down in wild, wonderful WV, brings this whole, horrible trip back with a nasty vengeance. What he (or she) knows is easily enough to ruin Cleo’s chance for college and it could kick the corporate ladder Connor is climbing right out from under him.
Clues are revealed to Cleo and Hope through blackmail-disguised-as-a-scavenger-hunt. As the duo gets closer to the truth, Cleo decides she’ll gladly forgo her forensics scholarship if only she can save her brother’s future.
Natalie D. Richards’ Seven Dirty Secrets is a simply stellar Young Adult mystery/suspense story. The narrative moves quickly, revealing a little bit about each character along the way, until the reader is ready to accuse everyone on the rafting trip. Please, forgive the repetition: I’m so stoked to share this with “my” students!
This review was written by jv poore for Buried Under Books, with an enormous “Thank you!” for the Advance Review Copy to donate to my favorite classroom library.
Rating: really liked it
One caused the fall.
One did nothing.
One saw it all.
One didn’t care.
One used their head.
One played the hero.
One was left dead
Cleo receives a mysterious gift on her eighteenth birthday, inviting her to take part in a scavenger hunt. She is certain that someone close to her is behind it. Perhaps her best friend Hope or her brother, Connor are behind it. But no one steps forward and admits they are behind it. Armed with curiosity, Cleo and Hope set about finding clues - clue which all seem to lead to her boyfriend who drowned on a rafting trip a year prior.
This was an enjoyable YA mystery, but I have to say the narrator of the audio version did not impress me at all. If she was going for morose, no emotion, flat and bored sounding then she nailed it. Hats off to her for such a boring delivery. I know Cleo went through a lot but a little emotion, a little inflection would have helped.
But the story itself, was solid. I enjoyed the search for clue although, I kept thinking "how have you not figured this out already" plus some of their friends must have need a ladder to get on their high horses then at the end have a complete well.... maybe turn around. A little too convenient for me, but I still enjoyed it even with the horrifically boring delivery of the narrator. One thing the author did was tackle some difficult subject matter and showed how secrets and guilt can affect a person.
Most are enjoying this more than I did. I do wonder if I had read this rather than listened to the book if I would have enjoyed it more.
Overall enjoyable but read the book skip the audio.
Thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com
Rating: really liked it
This was a pretty average YA mystery with a really dense main character. 'I feel so scared and nervous doing this scavenger hunt but I'll keep doing it because maybe I'll win and everything will be alright after all it's a game isn't it?' No lady, it is not. There are menacing messages and you are being stalked at every turn and clearly someone knows what you did last summer...wait...wrong book but pretty much the same idea. It ended exactly as I predicted it would. This would be good for teenagers looking to read their first mystery however, it does come with some significant content warnings for domestic violence.
Rating: really liked it
This is a compelling and well-crafted mystery.
Cleo is a high school student who’s about to graduate and has grand plans of going to college for forensic science. I did my undergraduate degree in forensics, and I couldn’t help but relate to her. The authenticity of her personality and her chosen career path rang true throughout the narrative, from the way that she occasionally chastised herself for not being observant enough in her personal life, to when she off-handly referenced Locard’s principle, which is the basic tenet on which all forensic science is based.
At first, Cleo is intrigued about having a scavenger hunt for her birthday, despite the creepy way that it starts. But her excitement is quickly dampened when it becomes clear that it has something to do with her abusive boyfriend’s suspicious death almost exactly a year earlier. Clearly someone wants her to pay for what happened – but who?
This novel is rocket-fast paced, and every single one of the clues is both ominous and intriguing. The chapters are short, making it easy to fall into the “just one more chapter!” trap that good thrillers lay out for unsuspecting readers like myself.
The book opens with a poem, which is included in the synopsis (scroll up!) and I bookmarked it and kept referring to it throughout the novel. It reminds me of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. I kept trying to figure out which of the friends was who in the poem, and who could possibly be orchestrating this elaborate blackmail scheme.
A couple of the twists were quite obvious, but the final twist was very satisfying, both in the explanation of who did it and in its execution. At one point or another, I basically suspected every single person of being the perpetrator of this malicious scavenger hunt. I was swinging back and forth with my suspicions, and I felt more paranoid than Cleo herself while trying to predict how the book would end.
All in all, this is an incredibly entertaining read.
I recommend this book for those who want to read a classic whodunnit masked as a deadly scavenger hunt with lots of tension and a few heartfelt moments.
*Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ebook to review*
This review appeared first on https://powerlibrarian.wordpress.com/
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Rating: really liked it
This was an interesting young adult thriller. I thought the writing was a little flat and I found the narrator flat (some voices more than others). I did really like the premise of a scavenger hunt leading the protagonist down memory lane. On Cleo’s 18th birthday she finds a creepy present in the bathroom that was placed while she was in the shower. It leads her on a scavenger hunt and as she goes through it she realizes it is about the rafting trip she and friends took the year before. But on that rafting trip her boyfriend fell into the river and has been presumed dead. The book covers some pretty heavy topics most particularly and graphically domestic violence. I thought that the big reveal at the end was pretty predictable and it was definitely a book where I was cursing at the characters asking how they hadn’t figured it out yet. I did love Cleo’s best friend Hope. Everyone deserves a best friend like Hope. Overall I give it 3.5 stars which have been rounded up because they refuse to provide half star options.
Rating: really liked it
I always thought I was the one who kept secrets. Looks like I was wrong.Seven Dirty Secrets is a YA thriller that starts with a creepy gift and ends with a handful of secrets revealed. We follow Cleo on her 18th birthday as she’s sent on a scavenger hunt by an unknown party. While Cleo is big on scavenger hunts and mysteries, this hunt starts to feel more and more like she’s being hunted as clues are revealed. All of the clues seem to lead her to places that were important to her and her ex-boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend that died last year on her birthday trip that they took with 5 other people.
Anyway. I don’t want to spill any beans, so what I will say is that I enjoyed this read. It covers some heavy themes and honestly had some moments that were very impactful that were outside of the mystery plot. I think what I enjoyed most about this story is that we know a big chunk of the what happened and why things are going on, but we don’t know the end game for the antagonist in this read so it’s what keeps it thrilling. Also the fact that more details are added to the story as we go and it’s just exciting, like truly solving a mystery that you thought you had the answers to already.
To the point, I highly recommend this book if you want a YA thriller/mystery that has that perfect mix of suspense and actual teen angst. It’s incredibly well written and honestly just a good read!
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Rating: really liked it
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
OMG I read this in a bit over a day
⭒❃.✮:▹ Synopsis ◃:✮.❃⭒
I know seven secrets:
One caused the fall. One did nothing. One saw it all.
One didn’t care. One used their head. One played the hero.
One was left for dead.
On her eighteenth birthday, Cleo receives a mysterious invitation to a scavenger hunt. She's sure her best friend or her brother Conner is behind it but neither of them confesses. As Hope and Cleo embark on the hunt, all the clues start to seem to relate to Cleo's dead abusive boyfriend Declan who drowned in a group rafting trip exactly a year before. A bracelet she bought him. A song he loved. A photo of the rafting group, taken just before Declan drowned.
"Declan was good with apologies. He was even better at doing things that required them.
Someone knows what happened to Declan and they won't stop at anything to make Cleo pay.
⭒❃.✮:▹Plot◃:✮.❃⭒
The plot of this book follows Cleo and Hope running around the city and finding clues while at the same time being threatened by this mysterious stranger to reveal the things they know about Cleo.
I really enjoyed the plot of this book, it kept me on my toes at all times and I was constantly theorizing about EVERYTHING. I trusted no one and I had an idea about who actually did it the whole time. Let's just say.... I was 60% wrong (view spoiler)[ I didn't guess Bennet because I was like "there is NO way the author's gonna do that but she really did that?? But I did completely guess that Declan had a brother (GIVE ME MY MEDAL NOWW!!!) (hide spoiler)]
The ending didn't shock me *stares at other crazy books I've read*, I know I know very sadd but I didn't also guess who did it. I think I COULD have done it with the few clues (there aren't a lot plus I was like "there's no way the author's gonna do THAT) It's not the most unpredictable crazy mystery but still pretty fun and solid. Although I would have liked one more chapter at the end to provide a little more closure
☾☽ Cleo
"Am I still me, or am I just the sum of my worst sins?"
I liked our main character a lot, she didn't waste extra time questioning everything and being stupid. She was intelligent, headstrong, and was ready to face the music of her actions anytime. I came to really admire her because of one thing she did towards the end.
But since this isn't character-driven, she didn't feel real or fleshed out.
☾☽ Hope
Hope is the best friend we all NEED in our lives. I love Hope (I love her, not her name). She was equally intelligent, funny, and relatable. If I were in this book I can totally imagine myself being her (but less intelligent ☹️☹️) #plsdonateintelligencetome
⭒❃.✮:▹Writing◃:✮.❃⭒
The writing is the problem I have with most mysteries, it's flat. I know the writing style isn't the most important in a mystery book but I WANT IT. It's told from the first-person POV of Cleo and even though I did like her, It would have been better at a third POV (my preference) I haven't seen many mysteries and thrillers from the third POV (Truly Devious) is one.
It's not very prosy of stylish, it just describes everything in a very simple way, I wish it was more flowery but I'm still ok with what I got.
⭒❃.✮:▹Conclusion ◃:✮.❃⭒
✔️Plot - It kept me on my toes and I doubted everyone
✔️The plot twist - Not absolutely unpredictable, there were SOME clues but I still liked the reveal
🆗Characters- The characters were underdeveloped and I didn't connect to them much but in a fast-paced mystery standalone, I get why it is the way it is.
🆗Writing- It's very flat but again, I'm fine with it since this is a mystery
Rating: really liked it
Thank you so much to Sourcebooks Fire and Natalie D. Richards for this look that came out November 2. I know seven secrets…
One caused the fall
One did nothing
One saw it all
One didn’t care
One used their head
One played the hero
One was left for dead
Seven Dirty secrets is about Cleo, a girl who receives a mysterious package on her 18th birthday, around the one year anniversary of her boyfriend’s death. She thinks maybe the package is from her brother Connor or her best friend Hope, but they have nothing to do with it. As Cleo and Hope start to follow the riddles to find more mysterious packages, Cleo realizes that this scavenger hunt all surrounds her dead boyfriend Declan. As the clock ticks down, Cleo realizes someone knows what really happened to Declan and is threatening to tell.
Thoughts: I thought this premise was amazing. I love a good mystery and the scavenger hunt was such a fun twist. While the story is fairly predictable, it is your typical YA book. There is teen romance, a light mystery, and some good drama. It was easy to see where this story was going, but it was still fun to hunt with Cleo. I really liked Hope as a character even though I didn’t particularly enjoy Cleo. It was fun to have the protagonist team up with her friend and her brother, as this was a different type of connection. It was a quick fun read and I enjoyed it! 3.5 stars!
Rating: really liked it
I don't often write reviews, but this book deserves one.
While the blurb on the back of the book was promising, unfortunately, after finishing, I struggle to locate even ONE positive attribute of this novel.
Okay, maybe here's one: The concept was cool. A scavenger hunt with clues surrounding an ex-boyfriend's sketchy death? Sign me up!
It was... poorly executed, however. Here's a more detailed explanation of everything I thought was wrong or lacking with this book:
1. The characterization doesn't make sense– I felt like the characters weren't developed at all and a lot of their characteristics came off poorly done, or just thrown in there and consequently, they didn't make sense for the plot. For example, main character, Cleo, is an aspiring forensic scientist yet she doesn't catch on that the scavenger hunt is a form of blackmail/stalking for FIVE whole chapters. Any other teen aspiring to be a forensic scientist surely would've put two and two together so much sooner. She was also so freakishly calm about it, too? It just didn't make sense or drive the mystery. She was very much in danger, but it felt like the stakes were too low given her level of calmness. She casually saw a man in a hoodie and it didn't occur to her that it was the one running the scavenger hunt until WAYYYY too far into the book. Additionally, Cleo being lower-class just seemed like it was thrown in there for the sake of it being there. It didn't add to her character or the plot in any way.
2. The plot was built poorly and written weirdly– The WHOLE plot is centered on what happened on a camping trip to West Virginia where Cleo's ex-boyfriend "mysteriously" died. Yet, we don't see ANY of what happened during the trip in any kind of interesting way. There were a FEW flashbacks, but it felt very dull and confusing to understand the trip or even what happened. It would've worked better if the trip were laid out more, if we had whole chapters of flashback to give the trip as a whole, as well as the characters involved, more development. The dullness of it made it hard to get into the book and enjoy or care for the characters and plot. Also, the scavenger hunt goes on for wayyyyy too long. The book is around 313 pages and it spans basically the entirety of it. I felt like there were too many clues and it could've been shortened and built more meaningfully or enticingly.
3. The blurb made it out to be like it was centered on a super tight-knit friend group... but it kinda wasn't?– From the blurb, I expected a novel that was centered around the 7 friends. I know Cleo was the main character but the other friends just seemed irrelevant, some characters so much so that I had to remind myself who they were and why they were even there (ahem, Jack).
4. The plot didn't make sense at times– The details of Declan's death are SO murky that it makes it difficult to understand what/if anything wrong even happened? They beat around the bush way too much. But instead (view spoiler)
[Cleo pushing him in was so clearly a case of self-defense, so I didn't understand WHY she, and everyone else, was so concerned with being "exposed". Additionally the video of Connor covering the footprints was SO stupid? Who cares that he covered footprints?I understand footprints can be used as evidence and stuff but considering they DID talk to police I don't get how it would have made any difference. (hide spoiler)]. I also don't understand how they didn't have a criminal investigation in the first place in some way? I felt like it was left intentionally unclear to heighten the stakes, but it just felt like there were parts being left out. The mystery surrounding whether Declan is alive or dead was also so stupid. (view spoiler)
[Also I am SO not willing to believe that the entire time she was dating Bennett she didn't notice he was like Declan in some way??? She said she met Bennett's grandma like how did it NOT come up that he was Declan's brother? It was just unrealistic and ridiculous. Which again, just goes along with how poorly constructed these characters and their world is. I also felt we didn't get enough background as to the intention behind Bennett doing it? He tries to spin it as he'd do anything for his brother and it turns into a commentary on Cleo's relationship with Connor, which didn't feel like a huge plot point or characteristic throughout the entirety of the book? (hide spoiler)].
5. The relationship between Cleo and Declan is SO poorly written— It's sad because it is an abusive relationship, but it's such a shitty and poorly written portrayal of one. We ONLY are given flashbacks of the physical abuse and the clues of their dates, but we never see other aspects of the relationship. Obviously, Declan was a piece of shit, but since this is driven SO much, it's only understandable that what happened to him... happened. Their relationship felt flat and not-complex, completely one-sided. In other books I've read that featured an abusive relationship, there at least were two sides: the violent side, and the "nice" side, which was realistic and made it more compelling as to why the survivor didn't leave the relationship because she was still in LOVE with one side of them. In Cleo's case, she did a lot of "telling" she was in love with Declan, but there was absolutely nothing to show that she was.
6. Repetition and editing mistakes OH MY!–The clues are repeated SO MANY TIMES. And since they're in a bold font and weirdly spaced it really felt like it was just done that way to take up more space. In one instance (the Book Loft clue) she repeated the clue THREE SEPARATE TIMES.
Additionally, there are SO many editing mistakes left in there? At first it was just me spotting a few instances of incorrect spacing, but then on page 305 at the bottom of the page there is A WHOLE editor comment just casually left in? It stands out so much as it breaks away from the story to question Cleo's concern for Connor. I know mistakes happen but I just can't believe it was left in there.
IN CONCLUSION: I almost wish I didn't finish the book. It just dragged on unnecessarily long. If you're looking for a good, fast-paced YA novel, steer clear!
Rating: really liked it
"I know seven secrets:
One caused the fall. One did nothing. One saw it all.
One didn’t care. One used their head. One played the hero.
One was left for dead."
How does this make you feel when you read that? I know I had instant chills.
I HAD TO GET MY HANDS ON A COPY!!!
Seven Dirty Secrets, is intense to say the least. I picked this book up around 10pm last night and I was just looking to read a few chapters until my eyes got heavy. My mistake. I ended up concluding the book around 230am. My work day will suffer but it is definitely justified!
I absolutely loved Seven Dirty Secrets! The narration was done with perfection. The character development made you feel like you knew the characters personally. The story line was exquisite and the plot twist???? OH YEAH! Did not see that coming !
Seven Dirty Secrets will top the charts this year in both a YA genre and Thriller genre . If you have not already pre-ordered this book, you need to do so now! You will not be disappointed !
Rating: really liked it
Dnf 54% - really dragging out
Rating: really liked it
I wish I enjoyed this more but a lot of this felt flat and was boring making it hard to be invested in the story.
