Book Review: The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane by Julia Nobel

I won’t ask you to forgive my absence, even though it haunts me.

So! This isn’t a spooky or creepy read but it’s mysterious and we love mysteries in the good month of October.

I want to start this book review off by saying that parents who don’t listen to their kids are really annoying and i truly wanted to throttle nearly every parent in this book.

I’m lucky my mom always is and was so active in my life and listened to me and is so involved in my life and my choices because WHEW. Reading this and some of the parenting choices in this made me absolutely want to scream. Your child is a PERSON, respect them.

Ahem, so hi 🙂

Emmy’s dad disappeared when she was three years old and all traces of him, photographs, relics, memories, did as well. That is until a mysterious box with medallions and a note arrive. The note states:

These belonged to your father.

Emmy’s mother is a famous child psychologist and is busy with work and traveling and has decided to send Emmy to a prestigious boarding school far in England far from her home in Connecticut. She has difficulty adjusting at first due to the hard coursework, and mean girl roommate, oh and there’s also the strange Latin club which is a front for the school’s super secret society – The Order of the Black Lane. Emmy and her friends, Jack and Lola, begin to dive deeper into the school’s secrets and mysteries unaware that they aren’t the only ones seeking them as well.

First things first, yes. Yes, this does remind me of Harry Potter in so many ways. Now that we’ve got that out of the way let me continue my rant about the HORRID FUCKING PARENTING IN THIS FUCKING BOOK. So Emmy’s mom is a famous child psychologist. She wrote a book about it and is going around tour in America for it I guess. It begins with them going to a party and a bomb is dropped that Emmy is going to be sent to a boarding school in England. Like…she didn’t even tell her daughter this and expects her to be calm about it?? The best part is when Emmy gets to England. She loves soccer and is great at it. But oh no, her mom wants her to focus on studying because if Emmy’s grades get bad it POORLY REFLECTS ON HER BECAUSE SHE’S THE FAMOUS PSYCHOLOGIST. SHE ALSO FORGOT HER CHILD’S BIRTHDAY.

I. hate. her.

Also the fact that she never talks to Emmy about her dad but…

Okay, ranting over.

This was a nice book. I love books about boarding schools so I was all over it. Emmy is brave, smart, and punched a bitch in the eye. Proud of my girl. Lola and Jack were great as well. Jack’s older brothers are both in that stupid order and so is his dad so they hate him which…whatever and Lola’s mom is the headmistress which is pretty cool.

Unfortunately the plot was weak and the mystery just was not that mysterious, I found myself losing interest halfway through and could not really remember the point of the entire story. It did start to pick up again around the end but by then you already guessed who the bad guys were since it is glaringly obvious. The end felt pretty rushed as well but I do have to say that I am pretty excited to read the second book and see where we go from here.

Honestly, I’m not too interested in Secret Orders or medallions but I do want to know more about Emmy’s dad and see how these three friends grow up with one another because if there’s one thing that strengthens over time and causes growth within oneself its a healthy loving friendship.