Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Truly Devious

Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

14 reviews

booklover26's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I liked this book overall, but the first half was slow. The present was boring, while the past was interesting.

But after Hayes died, things started to ramp up and get interesting.

I read the majority of the second half in one day.

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mia_reads_books1119's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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rylin_marie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

oh. my. goodness.

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david_slack110507's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I will admit that I would have most likely gotten this finished a lot earlier if I hadn't gotten distracted with other books and other things happening in life as I left the book with about 40ish pages left for a while whilst finishing other books and doing other things in life.

The biggest strength of the book is that it is fast-paced, I got through most of the book very quickly and the condensed chapter length helped with this as they didn't drag on for too long. Another highlight of the book is that the dual timelines work very well with me sometimes preferring the past timeline over the present Ellingham one, but both were interesting, and their associated mysteries were good as well though in that regard I would say that the Truly Devious plotline from the past was a much more interesting mystery than the one in the present regarding the murder of Hayes.

My biggest issue with the book is that I found it very difficult to connect with the characters as with regards to the past timeline, the story is told factually that sometimes has some character moments that help develop the cast of characters for that timeline, but this doesn't happen often. The cast of characters for the present timeline wasn't also the easiest to connect as very few characters stood out to me apart from Nate and Stevie who I think had the most distinctive personalities/characters though I would be interested in seeing them develop, I just found that it was quite overwhelming with the number of characters introduced and then often left for extended periods of time before being reintroduced into the story.

The second half and near the end is definitely the strongest part of the book and I am very interested in seeing where both the Truly Devious and Hayes' murder throughout the series. I do hope that the series doesn't drag out the mystery, but I have a feeling that it will reach a satisfying conclusion. I would give this a 4 but I feel like a 3.5-star rating is much more appropriate as my main issues such as the lack of connectivity as well as Stevie and David's relationship kind of came out of nowhere. I feel like my experience with this book would have been much better if I had read it more consistently, so this is a fault on my part.

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quillify_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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binches's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

I didn't expect to like this book so much. It has such a great story and the setting is absolutely fantastic.

Truly Devious tells the story of Stevie Bell, a girl with an obsession with true crime, as she gets the opportunity to live and study in an old school, ready to solve the murder that was committed there 70 years ago. Things change, however, when she is faced with the reality of what it means to be confronting death.

The book features a variety of characters, each of them likable and fleshed out in their own way. I loved how the story managed to shift the perception of a crime from something to just solve towards something that can be traumatic and horrifying. The writing, worldbuilding, characters, and dual timeline were done perfectly to tell an intriguing story about a girl who just wanted to find a dead body.

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