A review by meen
The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson

adventurous mysterious 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

3.75

this review is heavily biased because of how much i simply love the characters in this book. i had some problems with the plot and how the mystery unraveled - mostly because there was almost no foreshadowing for the twist at the end, which made it come seemingly out of nowhere. this goes for stevie’s sleight of hand near the end as well, the narrative structure was changed (ie, audience knows everything happening in stevie’s mind) just for some shock value of realizing ‘oh my god, she had the diary the entire time!’ just seemed a little lazy, the entire mystery relied on the diary and it just randomly revealed information that had never been touched on before. it was like putting a painting into a frame you’d needlessly spent hours making instead of being the final puzzle piece that reveals the photo, or the thread that ties all the unrelated information together harmoniously. all of these things are little nitpicky things i noticed but i simply do not care about them! i was too busy laughing at nate’s one liners and relating to stevie’s lovesickness because i too, have fallen for david eastman. every single character in this series has been fun and relatable (besides the murderers) and i’ve never read another text that sums up teenage relationships, platonic or romantic, so accurately. mostly, because of these characters, this book was an incredibly fun read