Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson

84 reviews

m4rtt4's review against another edition

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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
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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puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

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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

3.5


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tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
A satisfying but not overly pat resolution to the mystery! Not a lot of David! MOOSE!!!

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lily1304's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

4.25


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elsebeok's review against another edition

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adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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themoodreader's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0


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mlhanson's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny 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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bzliz's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-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

3.25

It’s nice to see this mystery come to a close with Stevie and her crew coming out relatively unscathed. The characters are generally secondary to the plot and don’t see a lot of personal growth. 

I can’t even begin to sum up the events of the book without giving away major plot points so check the following spoilers if you want to know whodunnit:
<spoilers>”Call me Charles” aka Stevie’s advisor is the culprit behind the deaths and accidents at the school. Alice’s body was found while tunnels were being filled in but as a member of the faculty he couldn’t claim the reward. He used dry ice to make a tunnel deadly and lured Hayes there presumably after Hayes heard him conspiring with his accomplice, leading to the death in the first book. Ellie- after Stevie accused her of being the brains behind Hayes’ show- said some things that make Charles nervous so when she ran, he blocked her into the tunnel where she eventually died, giving us death number two. Dr. Fenton was the accomplice and became Stevie’s advisor at Charles’ hand. When Fenton stopped going along with the plan and gave Stevie a warning that Alice was at the school, Charles turned on the gas burner in her kitchen and she died in the resulting fire- death #3. 

He got Fenton’s nephew to come stay at the school since he still needed a partner who wasn’t faculty but thanks to David’s return and desire to destroy his father’s campaign- Stevie and her crew didn’t evacuate like the rest of the students and he couldn’t bring Hunter in on his scheme. 

As Stevie grandstands and explains this all to her crew, Charles, and the remaining faculty, Larry is scanning the walls of the second floor looking for where Charles hid Alice’s body. They find it and Charles tries to escape which leads to a steep fall and his own demise. 

Ultimately, David is able to crumble his father’s campaign & Stevie has solved the case. She even decides not to come forward with evidence of Alice’s birth parents and adoption when the body’s DNA doesn’t match the Ellinghams.

So many things happen in this that it would be impossible to sum it all up. I do wish some of the discoveries here had made it into the previous books so it didn’t all come crashing together right at the end but I suppose that’s what you get with YA mysteries. 

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theespressoedition's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.0


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thebookpaiges's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25


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