callidoralblack's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Grief, Death, and Violence
Minor: Suicide, Abandonment, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Murder
growintogardens's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The last book was so good, and then we're given this, which is the weakest of the series imo. The author does a pretty good job writing creepy mysteries (this one was ok), but honestly, the relationship between Stevie and David is almost enough for me to stop reading entirely. He's the woooorst.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Violence
tori2629's review
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
The 5th book about true-crime obsessed, detective prodigy Stevie Bell. While the actual mystery of this one felt maybe a little rushed I guess? I still enjoyed it a ton! I didn't exactly guess the whodunnit, but I rarely do, so to me it was a decent reveal. I love how the mysteries that Stevie is solving take place in different time periods. 1930s, 1970s, 1990s, its a good variety.
MJ is great at writing quirky but realistic characters, and she definitely knows her way around true crime so, I feel like she's really found her niche here!! I have enjoyed her writing before, I liked Shades of London, and my Sister in Law Loved Suite Scarlett, but she MJ has a bad habit of leaving a series on a cliff hanger and not getting back around to writing/publishing the last book... so.... Fingers crossed for Stevie Bell!!
I feel like I'm in the minority for actually liking David, but I'm also a super weirdo who likes Logan the best out of Rory's BFs on Gilmore Girls, so IDK. Maybe I have a just thing for a subtype of "Bad Boys" and it's "Rich Rebels" (I just thought of that now, go me.) He genuinely cares about Stevie, he knows he's not who he was "raised" to be, and he wants to prove it. He screwed up big time at the end, but he's also having a bit of an identity crisis. All of the characters are freaking out about the future in their own way, (except maybe Vi, who seems to be pretty chill about it.) Janelle is WAY overthinking it, and making spreadsheet after spreadsheet, Stevie is absolutely avoiding thinking about it as much as possible, and Nate is secretly stressing and not telling anyone that he might just be the most freaked out of all. David's way of dealing with it is to be an impulsive idiot. It all checks out. I'll be ok with it if things get resolved in the next book... *AHEM. MJ.*
MJ is great at writing quirky but realistic characters, and she definitely knows her way around true crime so, I feel like she's really found her niche here!! I have enjoyed her writing before, I liked Shades of London, and my Sister in Law Loved Suite Scarlett, but she MJ has a bad habit of leaving a series on a cliff hanger and not getting back around to writing/publishing the last book... so.... Fingers crossed for Stevie Bell!!
I feel like I'm in the minority for actually liking David, but I'm also a super weirdo who likes Logan the best out of Rory's BFs on Gilmore Girls, so IDK. Maybe I have a just thing for a subtype of "Bad Boys" and it's "Rich Rebels" (I just thought of that now, go me.) He genuinely cares about Stevie, he knows he's not who he was "raised" to be, and he wants to prove it. He screwed up big time at the end, but he's also having a bit of an identity crisis. All of the characters are freaking out about the future in their own way, (except maybe Vi, who seems to be pretty chill about it.) Janelle is WAY overthinking it, and making spreadsheet after spreadsheet, Stevie is absolutely avoiding thinking about it as much as possible, and Nate is secretly stressing and not telling anyone that he might just be the most freaked out of all. David's way of dealing with it is to be an impulsive idiot. It all checks out. I'll be ok with it if things get resolved in the next book... *AHEM. MJ.*
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder and Blood
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Grief, and Drug use
stuckinatimeloop's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-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? Yes
4.0
the thing about these books is the characters don't have a lot of depth. they're likable, sure, but you don't form a connection with them really. they're just there. they have the potential to be something more, but the author focuses more on the plot. and that's not a bad thing, it's what makes these books likable because the plot is written well.
to me, books that have well written characters are more impactful and stay with me for longer. like a study in charlotte. amazing detective series with amazing characters.
i do like truly devious though. overall it's a fun teen detective series. i hope in the future books the characters get more development.
also nate fisher my aroace icon.
to me, books that have well written characters are more impactful and stay with me for longer. like a study in charlotte. amazing detective series with amazing characters.
i do like truly devious though. overall it's a fun teen detective series. i hope in the future books the characters get more development.
also nate fisher my aroace icon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Vomit
theespressoedition's review against another edition
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Murder, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Toxic friendship and Toxic relationship
Minor: Sexual content
booksmoviesandstories's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
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? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Murder, Violence, Toxic friendship, Drug use, and Alcohol
bookishgoob's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Sexual content, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, and Murder
frannook's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
1995 - Nine Cambridge students go to Merriweather, a huge rich manor in the British countryside to spend a week there as their last hurrah before they go their separate ways in life. The brewing then turned violent storm does not deter the youth from playing a game of hide and seek on the countryhouse grounds, only giving up around 2 am when 2 of them were still missing. They go back inside, drink a rare and expensive bottle of whiskey and pass out. The next morning, the 2 missing students are found... dead.
Present - Stevie is still at Ellingham Academy, where she keeps on finding ways to distract herself from focusing on college applications. Her main distraction is her boyfriend David, who is currently attending college in London. In fact, he calls her (kinda) drunk and tells her to go join him for a week with Nate, Janelle and Vi: they'll make an educational school trip out of it. Somehow, the headmaster Dr Quinn agrees to this [very realistic indeed] and they set off to England.
However, once they reach their destination, Stevie and David's time together is unwittingly boicotted by David's friend, Izzy, whose aunt might know something about a murder that happened when she was young, a murder that was never sold and - therfore - immediately catches Stevie's undivided attention.
This 5th installment in the Truly Devious series was... heartbreakingly disappointing for me.
We know Maureen Johnson can write a mystery book, the murders were indeed intriguing and she can hands down totally pull off the double story line structure. All the rest was an absolute MESS.
First of all, it almost felt more like a romance book with a murdery twist instead of a msytery book with a romantic component running its course in the background.
For the way we have gotten to know Stevie in the past books, solving a murder should have been her main priority; and yet she spends so much time thinking about David and what he thinks and what if he gets tempted by a girl in England and is there something going on between him and Izzy or are they just friends? The time spent on the actual investigation was so little and rushed I felt like the author had completely forgotten all about it, if it weren't for the storyline in the past that kept our focus on the mystery at hand.
Hence, the pacing felt much slower than it should have been for a ya mystery book - and for a Truly Devious book.
Second of all - and this really pissed me off - there was no character development at all.
Actually, there was a lot of character... undevelopment? A regression. A fall from maturity. The lie Stevie tells her best friend a lie that was unacceptable and, even worse, a useless attempt at creating drama - and I say useless because when Janelle found out the truth, Stevie was forgiven pretty much immediately and there was no consequence or fall back whatsoever; which, again, was totally unbelievable because for how we've gotten to know Janelle, she would have not reacted well to such a lie that compromised her academic future. Her utter selfishness caught me off guard and what's worse is tht nobody, not even Janelle, really calls her out on it and this is a very blatant case of toxic friendship; Janelle and her other friends will go along with whatever she wants or does, even though there wasn't any inkling that Stevie would do the same, that she cares for their wellbeings and futures and so on. So yes, very toxic.
Third of all, I had a few issues with queer representation. After 4 books, a character comes out as ace. Normally I'd be so happy and be all like "yes to being yourself and coming out for who you truly are, go you!" and I'd throw confetti and give them a hug. But we didn't see that process of figuring out who you are, we didn't see any clue from that character that they might have been ace, nothing that led to such revelation and, even worse, nothing else followed that coming out. It was an isolated parenthesis that was disconnected from everything else that was happening and had no other references to anything else in the whole book. It irked me because it truly felt like Maureen Johnson was riding a trend: "People now are asking for more asexual representation? Uh, I haven't said anything romantic about that character in the previous books, let's make them ace!" and... that's just wrong. And it's not the point of having queer rep just to have it.
Also, the author fed Janelle a line that might have given us a clue as to Vi's biological sex? And Vi identifies as nonbinary. I don't identify as nonbinary (they/them), so I'll pass my judgement to the enby community for this specific issue but... to me, it felt a bit wrong.
If I hadn't been listening to the audiobook, finishing it would have been much more of a struggle; I still had to suffer through what I mentioned above, but this way it was much more manageble
Also, that ending? What was the reason to leave us with that ending? It felt sudden in very negative way, out of the blue and rushed, serving no purpose other than having the readers ask for another book in the series just to have that ending undone.
I was expecting to love Nine Liars like the rest of the books in the series and that did not happen, so I am very disappointed. And, unfortunately, hesitant to pick up the next one - because that ending was only a marketing plug for the next one, which pisses me off even more.
Present - Stevie is still at Ellingham Academy, where she keeps on finding ways to distract herself from focusing on college applications. Her main distraction is her boyfriend David, who is currently attending college in London. In fact, he calls her (kinda) drunk and tells her to go join him for a week with Nate, Janelle and Vi: they'll make an educational school trip out of it. Somehow, the headmaster Dr Quinn agrees to this [very realistic indeed] and they set off to England.
However, once they reach their destination, Stevie and David's time together is unwittingly boicotted by David's friend, Izzy, whose aunt might know something about a murder that happened when she was young, a murder that was never sold and - therfore - immediately catches Stevie's undivided attention.
This 5th installment in the Truly Devious series was... heartbreakingly disappointing for me.
We know Maureen Johnson can write a mystery book, the murders were indeed intriguing and she can hands down totally pull off the double story line structure. All the rest was an absolute MESS.
First of all, it almost felt more like a romance book with a murdery twist instead of a msytery book with a romantic component running its course in the background.
For the way we have gotten to know Stevie in the past books, solving a murder should have been her main priority; and yet she spends so much time thinking about David and what he thinks and what if he gets tempted by a girl in England and is there something going on between him and Izzy or are they just friends? The time spent on the actual investigation was so little and rushed I felt like the author had completely forgotten all about it, if it weren't for the storyline in the past that kept our focus on the mystery at hand.
Hence, the pacing felt much slower than it should have been for a ya mystery book - and for a Truly Devious book.
Second of all - and this really pissed me off - there was no character development at all.
Actually, there was a lot of character... undevelopment? A regression. A fall from maturity. The lie Stevie tells her best friend a lie that was unacceptable and, even worse, a useless attempt at creating drama - and I say useless because when Janelle found out the truth, Stevie was forgiven pretty much immediately and there was no consequence or fall back whatsoever; which, again, was totally unbelievable because for how we've gotten to know Janelle, she would have not reacted well to such a lie that compromised her academic future. Her utter selfishness caught me off guard and what's worse is tht nobody, not even Janelle, really calls her out on it and this is a very blatant case of toxic friendship; Janelle and her other friends will go along with whatever she wants or does, even though there wasn't any inkling that Stevie would do the same, that she cares for their wellbeings and futures and so on. So yes, very toxic.
Third of all, I had a few issues with queer representation. After 4 books, a character comes out as ace. Normally I'd be so happy and be all like "yes to being yourself and coming out for who you truly are, go you!" and I'd throw confetti and give them a hug. But we didn't see that process of figuring out who you are, we didn't see any clue from that character that they might have been ace, nothing that led to such revelation and, even worse, nothing else followed that coming out. It was an isolated parenthesis that was disconnected from everything else that was happening and had no other references to anything else in the whole book. It irked me because it truly felt like Maureen Johnson was riding a trend: "People now are asking for more asexual representation? Uh, I haven't said anything romantic about that character in the previous books, let's make them ace!" and... that's just wrong. And it's not the point of having queer rep just to have it.
Also, the author fed Janelle a line that might have given us a clue as to Vi's biological sex? And Vi identifies as nonbinary. I don't identify as nonbinary (they/them), so I'll pass my judgement to the enby community for this specific issue but... to me, it felt a bit wrong.
If I hadn't been listening to the audiobook, finishing it would have been much more of a struggle; I still had to suffer through what I mentioned above, but this way it was much more manageble
Also, that ending? What was the reason to leave us with that ending? It felt sudden in very negative way, out of the blue and rushed, serving no purpose other than having the readers ask for another book in the series just to have that ending undone.
I was expecting to love Nine Liars like the rest of the books in the series and that did not happen, so I am very disappointed. And, unfortunately, hesitant to pick up the next one - because that ending was only a marketing plug for the next one, which pisses me off even more.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug use, and Classism
toffishay's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This was a weaker mystery than the others in the Truly, Devious series. A little harder to follow and more of a guess at the end. The travel through London dragged the story to me, but others might find that part interesting. The more social drama between Stevie and her friend group was interesting though; I would have liked to see more of them to offset how annoying Stevie is in this one! The book leaves off on a cliffhanger that I think will have me coming back.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Toxic friendship, and Death
Moderate: Violence, Grief, Infidelity, and Murder
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Suicide, Medical content, and Death of parent
purrpurr's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
they came back and suddenly they are out of reach again. with that ending though, i am certain there will be another book. i just ........ need another one.
another spoiler warning for everything that follows.every truly devious book can be split into the mystery part and the personal part. the personal part was fine, great even but unfortunately this was the weakest book mystery-wise.
i loved the set up but if i may quote my notes: .... peter helped with the whiskey thats all im saying. and although i had many other hunches, this was kind of obvious from the first time it was stated. the fact peter yelled “i’m fine” after throwing up was also so suspicious. and although i loved the time jumps, it just made the whole story slower because stevie had to find everything out after the reader did. just like we could already figure that there was an important hint on one of the analogue pictures – it just took the characters so long to get to that.
so yeah, you could quickly cross out many suspects. for some reason i was instantly sure all the women were innocent. i LOVED sebastian, so i was simply praying he was innocent (and there was loads speaking for that so). oh, and julien was also a given. everyone dissed and disliked him, it would have been too obvious. which leaves yash and peter. the trauma poor yash probably has from this week. horrible. (thinking back to when my notes said: peter and yash <3 married haha guess not)
one more thing: did we find out what the button was? /gen
am i tripping right now or did stevie never tell us. i thought the button was code for the clothes peter had been wearing but i guess not. what was the button? if anyone paid enough attention, please enlighten me.
now we’ll get into the recurring characters. my darlings. although, maybe not in this book – looking at you stevie. i mean yes, lesson learned, but she was so mean and heartless to her friends a few times throughout the book. everything is david, david, david and where did that get you, huh, stevie? (they were NOT on a break, he is in the wrong).
while we have another david L, we have only nate Ws, obviously. except he spent 5K on collage applications, i guess. (i’m baffled this is a thing in the states). apropos being baffled about culture: stevie could have been a little less startled about british and european culture, i know she is smarter than this. shoutout to david though, who answered all her questions about behaviour patterns with “well, they’re british”.
HAPPY COMING OUT NATE ILU AND U DESERVE THE WORLD!
another spoiler warning for everything that follows.
i loved the set up but if i may quote my notes: .... peter helped with the whiskey thats all im saying. and although i had many other hunches, this was kind of obvious from the first time it was stated. the fact peter yelled “i’m fine” after throwing up was also so suspicious. and although i loved the time jumps, it just made the whole story slower because stevie had to find everything out after the reader did. just like we could already figure that there was an important hint on one of the analogue pictures – it just took the characters so long to get to that.
so yeah, you could quickly cross out many suspects. for some reason i was instantly sure all the women were innocent. i LOVED sebastian, so i was simply praying he was innocent (and there was loads speaking for that so). oh, and julien was also a given. everyone dissed and disliked him, it would have been too obvious. which leaves yash and peter. the trauma poor yash probably has from this week. horrible. (thinking back to when my notes said: peter and yash <3 married haha guess not)
one more thing: did we find out what the button was? /gen
am i tripping right now or did stevie never tell us. i thought the button was code for the clothes peter had been wearing but i guess not. what was the button? if anyone paid enough attention, please enlighten me.
now we’ll get into the recurring characters. my darlings. although, maybe not in this book – looking at you stevie. i mean yes, lesson learned, but she was so mean and heartless to her friends a few times throughout the book. everything is david, david, david and where did that get you, huh, stevie? (they were NOT on a break, he is in the wrong).
while we have another david L, we have only nate Ws, obviously. except he spent 5K on collage applications, i guess. (i’m baffled this is a thing in the states). apropos being baffled about culture: stevie could have been a little less startled about british and european culture, i know she is smarter than this. shoutout to david though, who answered all her questions about behaviour patterns with “well, they’re british”.
HAPPY COMING OUT NATE ILU AND U DESERVE THE WORLD!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Alcohol, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Death of parent, Outing, and Toxic friendship
More...