A review by frannook
Nine Liars, by Maureen Johnson
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