Reviews with content warning for Child death - The Hand on the Wall

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson

78 reviews

sourryebread's review against another edition

3.5

i feel that this series could’ve been condensed into two books but overall not bad! a good series to be curled up with.
but David, i dislike you so much (i don’t care that he got better or his family or whatever excuses people have, he is annoying)

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itsheyfay's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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blewballoon's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It's hard to talk about this one without spoiling anything, I tried to avoid even reading the synopsis of these books after I started the first one and I think that's the best way to go into it. I know this isn't the true end of the series, but this book is a good stopping point if you get this far and don't immediately want to continue (which is the case for me). Overall I did enjoy this mystery and the eclectic mix of characters involved. I enjoyed the chapters from the past and then seeing the information there reflected in the present. If you are looking for a YA mystery/thriller with a romance that only kind of gets in the way, I would recommend this. There are some slightly more graphic passages dealing with deaths, especially in the parts of the story that take place in the past, but it's usually from characters describing what they experienced and the reader is just filling in the blanks.

Spoiler

I did figure out who was responsible for the present day deaths, but only a little bit before the reveal. I had considered a variety of suspects and I was actually really glad it wasn't some of the people I thought it might be. I think the ending was satisfying, although I wish the guilty party hadn't gone out the way they did.

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ceeceereads's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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readwithsuzanna's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

4.0

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m4rtt4's review

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

You know a story is well created when you can stretch a single murder mystery into 3 books! Things wrapped up nicely in this finale, and even though I guessed the final plot twist quite early on, I wasn't disappointed or bored but rather excited to see my own predictions become true. This one wasn't as thrilling as the second one, The Vanishing Stair (my fave in the trilogy), and so it doesn't deserve that high of a rating because

Spoiler

the snowed-in part seemed to drag on for ever and ever and also there were too many scenes where they just read Edward King files with nothing exciting happening

but yeah, still a great book which I binge-read quite fast.

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