Truly Devious

I really enjoyed this! In the last few years I found in very picky about the YA I enjoy. There tends to be very immature characters with needless drama that just annoys me in YA a lot of time but I heard such good things about this I had to pick it up. I LOVED it! It kept me thinking, and I still am. I love a good mystery and a boarding school with a tragic past so Truly Devious delivered. Can't wait to pick up the next one in the series.

I listened to this on audiobook and really liked the narration by Kate Rudd.

This had a weak start but THEN I fell in love with it. It was just so fun and a complete page-turner. I loved the characters so much. It was unexpectedly funny and I surprisingly didn't completely hate David.
What I didn't love was the actual mystery. Not because there was anything wrong with it, apart from the pacing, but since this is a series, no real questions were answered in this book and it was just all set-up. IMO, it would have been better if each book followed a different mystery (like in Prep School Confidential) instead of just one in the entire trilogy. Also, I have no idea what the ending means. SpoilerLike, are David and his dad ghosts? Is this shit paranormal? Please, someone let me know.
I have to say though that I, like most people, am fascinated (and terrified) by true crime. And even though the one in this book is obviously fictional, that is the case with this one too. It felt so real.



TL;DR: SO. MUCH. FUN.

This had a weak start but THEN I fell in love with it. It was just so fun and a complete page-turner. I loved the characters so much. It was unexpectedly funny and I surprisingly didn't completely hate David.
What I didn't love was the actual mystery. Not because there was anything wrong with it, apart from the pacing, but since this is a series, no real questions were answered in this book and it was just all set-up. IMO, it would have been better if each book followed a different mystery (like in Prep School Confidential) instead of just one in the entire trilogy. Also, I have no idea what the ending means. SpoilerLike, are David and his dad ghosts? Is this shit paranormal? Please, someone let me know.
I have to say though that I, like most people, am fascinated (and terrified) by true crime. And even though the one in this book is obviously fictional, that is the case with this one too. It felt so real.



TL;DR: SO. MUCH. FUN.

Rereading in preparation for Nine Liars!

If you???re looking for a mystery novel that???s going to blow you away and keep you guessing, this is not it.
But: I think these books are extremely well done for what they are and I really enjoy them. It???s been a year and a half since I last/first read Truly Devious and I still find them to be really fun reads!!
The characters are interesting, quirky, and I find them to be overall very likable (other than the main love interest who is so boring and I could not care less about oh my god).
The author manages to keep things light while dealing with sensitive topics, sometimes it reads a bit more like a middle grade book instead of being YA but I didn???t mind that too much with this. The story is clever, easy to follow, and I think the pacing of this book in particular is nearly perfect which I think is really what makes it so engaging.

I also really love the setting, I have such a clear picture of the academy in my head.

However: If you want to be satisfied, you do have to commit to reading the series and not just the first book. The mysteries and plot points that are introduced do not wrap up at the end of Truly Devious, and it ends on a cliffhanger.

This was such a disappointment. I read through 200 pages of basically nothing happening and two miseries being introduced and no fucking solution. Also, Stevie was supposed to be this super-smart sherlock motherfucker, which is showcased a little in the beginning and then never ever again and she is like super dumb throughout the rest of the book. This is just an extremely bland lead up to book 2. Wtf

Also if you do include a non-binary character maybe don't fucking misgender them for the entirety of the book even in the fucking narration, because that isn't representation that is rude and disrespectful.  

This was a bunch of fun. I completely missed some major things that were revealed to us without being super obvious. I deeply wished this was a stand-alone mostly for selfish reasons. I really can't wait to see who was the OG Truly Devious and the reasons why they did what they did. I found the audiobook to be really enjoyable as well.

This was a pleasant surprise! I seriously didn't expect to like this book this much!
I felt connected to the main character: Stevie. I think she's great.
I liked the story in general, I was really immersed in the story. I didn't want to stop reading, because when I thought I wanted to take a break, something happened and it made me want to continue reading xD!

It was a solid read. I'm looking forward to reading the next book. Hope it's good.

2.5/5. This is one of those books where I go in kinda knowing what I'm getting myself into but also hoping that it might be something that defies my expectations. It did not. I can't tell if it's a fault on the book or on myself because I'm reading a genre that I already know I don't prefer because I'm not a fan of the tropes (which this book has in spades).

The book jumps between two different timelines: one in the 1930s when the original mystery happens where Iris Ellingham and her daughter Alice are kidnapped, and then the other one in modern-day when we see our protagonist Stevie Bell attend Ellingham Academy apparently because she's so obsessed with crime investigation and can't wait to solve that cold case from the 30s. This premise in itself is not bad, and I appreciated the way Johnson juxtaposes the information reveal in each timeline. Presumably everything that had happened in the 30s was already known to Stevie from the beginning of the book, but the information is kept unspoken and slowly revealed to us the readers simultaneously on both timelines so there's some bit of suspense there.

I was also much more interested in whatever was going on in the 1930s timeline because that is really where all the action and suspense was. There barely is anything happening in the modern-day one except a whole bunch of YA tropes that I couldn't care less about. I wasn't a fan of the Stevie and the “not like other girls” vibe happening there. I wasn't a fan of how she kept thinking she was smarter than her parents, and also insisting that her parents wanted her to be “normal” and “go to high school” and “enjoy prom” and all that. In trying to probably “rep” the bookworm-y girl loves an “obscure” hobby like forensic investigation and who has never dated before high school, you don't also need to cancel people who do want to just look forward to prom and date - I don't feel like it needs to be a competition or that one is better than the other.

Also, what was with that ending? I know this book was part of a larger series, but I expect at least that the central mystery of the book would have some kind of resolution by the end. It did not. It ended so abruptly that I legit wondered if I had missed something important when I was listening to my audiobook but apparently I hadn't. Most mystery series I've read may have some kind of overarching background mystery that spans multiple books, but at least the core mystery of the book is solved by the end. This one apparently is making the core mystery span across the trilogy which is bewildering to me and kinda makes me not want to continue.

I found this book interesting in concept, and I understand it's a series and this is the beginning but I don't like how NOTHING was wrapped up AT ALL.

The conclusion came so fast and it seemed so causal and nonchalant. I wanted more from it I suppose. The writing is great and characters were interesting but I had higher hopes for the plotting.

I am so glad I went into this knowing I had to read all three to find out exactly what happens. The descriptions of the other two books in this series give nothing away, so I have got to get a copy of the next one ASAP!
The mystery is great. Janelle and Nick are really great friends to Stevie. Larry is a great mentor for Stevie. Lots of other characters have their secrets. Some of those we discover and some I am still trying to figure out. We get to see lots of case file information and a few other flashback scenes. I have 2 suspects, but I am not thinking those are both wrong. I think I figured one secret from before, but again no confirmation on that. This is a really great mystery and a really great boarding school story.

Calling all people who have been looking for a cool, modern mystery set in a Hogwarts-esque castle! This book is for you!

(and check out this review on my blog!)


SYNOPSIS:
Truly Devious has not one, but two mysteries in its plot (yay, more mystery!). The first one begins in 1939, when Ellingham Academy's owner receives a mysterious letter from someone called Truly Devious, and time reveals that his wife and daughter have been taken hostage. Nearly a century later, though the mysterious Ellingham case has yet to be solved, new-student Stevie Bell believes she can solve it before the end of the school year. 

Stevie is obsessed with true crime, and knows everything there is to know about the Ellingham case. She meets new people and makes new friends at Ellingham Academy, and begins to think the school year will go as planned. But soon, things get stolen, classmates go missing, and Stevie suddenly finds herself much deeper into the bad side of Ellingham Academy than she expected.

So how was it? 
Somewhere between 3.5 and 4 stars. 

At first, it took me a while to get used to the plot and its characters, but once I reached about a few chapters in, I was enjoying myself. When a book is comprised of chapters from the past and present, usually I lose interest, but that tactic really worked for the author!

One of my favorite things about Truly Devious was how the author presented the “clues” throughout the book. I'm not really sure if that makes sense, but I liked the pacing! Especially as someone who typically doesn't read mystery books, Truly Devious was a nice blend of compelling clues and simple solutions (meaning that the “mystery” was easy enough for me to understand, but hard enough for me to not see it coming.)

Something else I liked / didn't like:
One of the few things that I disliked was the fact that when one part (I won't say which) of the mystery's solution was resolved, I was like, “But didn't we already establish that?” This element of the plot, I believe, was so obvious from the beginning that when the main characters revealed it, I was a bit confused. (However, since this particular element was not the solution to the mystery, I was okay!)

WHY YOU SHOULD PICK UP THIS BOOK:
- Some interesting characters!
- One mystery is solved at the end of this book, but you'll still have a bunch of questions (which bleed over into the next parts of the series), so you'll be wanting more!
- There are 2 more books coming up!
- Suspense! 
- Mystery!
- A bit of teen romance here and there!
- Who doesn't want to go to the middle of nowhere to solve crimes?

Recensie van audioboek (via Storytel)
3,5 sterretjes

Wat een leuk, mysterieus boek. Een kleine hommage aan Sherlock Holmes en Agatha Christie.
Het mysterie in dit boek wordt steeds dieper en complexer, om dan nog raadselachtiger te worden door de nieuwe misdaad. Ik wou gewoon blijven luisteren tot ik de antwoorden had.
Helaas krijg je er geen in dit boek, want to mijn frustratie bleek dit geen alleenstaand boek, maar een begin van een trilogie. Geen enkele verhaallijn wordt afgerond in dit boek. Het eindigt met 10000 vragen en dan ook nog eens met een heel bizarre, onnodige cliffhanger.
Maar ik heb genoten van de rit en ik heb het geluk dat ik meteen in deel twee kon duiken. Anders zou mijn gevoel bij dit boek misschien eerder negatief geweest zijn, gezien ik één en al frustratie en vragen was gebleven.

When Stevie Bell is accepted into Ellingham Academy, a school for gifted students, she thinks it's the chance of a lifetime to solve the ‘Truly Devious' murders. What she doesn't anticipate is a classmate turning up dead. Was it an accident, or has there been another murder on the property all these years later?I ate up the setting of this book. Ellingham Academy would have been my dream school at this age and I loved all of the different personalities of the characters. It could be over the top at times, but that's to be expected in a YA book. That was part of the fun, too. It's also the definition of a page-turner. As soon as I got to the end I had to start [b:The Vanishing Stair 39893545 The Vanishing Stair (Truly Devious, #2) Maureen Johnson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1529970325l/39893545.SY75.jpg 49916464]!

This young adult mystery novel about teens living in a boarding school had not been on my radar at all. It was recommended to me, and without that recommendation I might not have ever picked up this surprising book.

Stevie wants to solve mysteries like Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, so she applies to attend Ellingham Academy. At this school she can finally flourish and focus on becoming the detective she has always wanted to be. So when things start getting dangerous at her new school, and clues tie into the original murder mystery from the opening of the school, who better to figure it all out?

A mostly enjoyable book with a surprise at the end. I didn't predict anything, but the writing and characters didn't grip me at all.