Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson

4 reviews

gaymoonreader's review against another edition

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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? Yes

3.5

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sea_sea's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Amazing mystery with many interesting twists! :D 
The sapphic rep was so cute T//T 

I just kinda wish Rikki and Marlowe would have ended up together ;_;
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bella_cavicchi's review against another edition

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

3.5

I can always count on Maureen Johnson to deliver a solid YA mystery. The pacing is a bit wonky, but there were several twists at the end that I didn't see coming and that is a win!
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vicwaltz's review against another edition

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dark 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? Yes

3.5

** thnx to netgalley for providing an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review**

3.5 Stars

This one is an interesting one. I really, really like Johnson's Truly Devious books and this has a lot of the same elements - parallel stories of past and present mysteries, but the two don't intertwine as neatly as the parallel plots in TD do. 

Death at Morning House follows Marlowe as she integrates herself into an existing friend group for the summer (after blowing up her own life). Since it's the same genre, and the same approach and the same vibe of brat pack investigates mystery, it's impossible not to compare this to Truly Devious but Marlowe is <i>not</i> Stevie Bell, which makes the mystery a little less fun to read. She's not super interested in the past mystery about the Ralston family deaths and her interest in the drama surrounding her new friends(?) is self-interest motivated rather than "omg mystery" motivated. These are both normal and relatable - Marlowe is very much a believable teen - but it is a bit different to read a mystery from the POV of a character who isn't obsessed with solving the mystery (very different from Stevie).

The characters have Johnson’s typical style - fun and quirky and very teen. I wish she’d spent a bit more time showing their relationships instead of having various characters tell Marlowe about who loves who and why, but it works given the context of the story.

The mysteries are both pretty straightforward. None of the twists are super twisty (though I also read too many thrillers so they might be more twisty if you’re not always looking for the answer), but they’re still satisfying.

My one big thought is that I think Johnson is trying to comment on eugenics with her past story which is a fascinating choice but she dances around saying the big things. I know it’s YA and not a thinkpiece, but there was definitely room for the modern teens to talk about it. I think Johnson was trying to imply things but I don’t know that she successfully drove the message home. I kept waiting for the big “well yeah, that’s what happens when you’re ___” line, but it never came.

Cw: death, teen death (past), eugenics & racial purity discussions, wild dieting


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