Name: Romi's review of Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
Item: Truly Devious
Rating: 2.5
Author: Romi

Maureen Johnson

New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson weaves a delicate tale of murder and mystery in the first book of a striking new series, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and E. Lockhart. Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.” Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history. True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder. The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three. Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2018 * Junior Library Guild Selection * 2019 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination * 2019 ALA's Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination * Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books 2018 * Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction 2018 * 2018 Nerdy Book Club Young Adult Winner * Seventeen Best YA Book of 2018

A Mystery

Truly Devious

New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson weaves a delicate tale of murder and mystery in the first book of a striking new series, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and E. Lockhart. Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.” Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history. True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder. The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three. Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2018 * Junior Library Guild Selection * 2019 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination * 2019 ALA's Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination * Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books 2018 * Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction 2018 * 2018 Nerdy Book Club Young Adult Winner * Seventeen Best YA Book of 2018 * Lincoln Award Nominee * 2020-2021 South Carolina Book Awards Nominee * 2020 Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award Winner

Amelia Hruby

STEVIE BELL HAD A SIMPLE DESIRE: SHE WANTED TO BE STANDING OVER A DEAD BODY.

We have a limited emotional vocabulary. We’re indoor kids.

Games are not fun when you don’t know you’re playing.

That was the genius of the demand—no time to think, no time to plan.

When you have enough power and money, you can dictate the meanings of words.

Krystal Campbell 

Halfway into the book it still felt like we were in the introduction stage. It was pretty obvious who was going to die, I didn't except the ending but it wasn't really surprising. I had higher expectations but I'll still read the second book.

Romi

i enjoyed this but … they didn’t solve any question i had in this book???????? wtf. also the characters that were actually diverse were just completely not fleshed out and totally only mentioned to show “diversity” and not for depth or for the plot.

big ab

Ahh!! I thought I was going to 4-star this until I got to the end and I never saw it coming! I love the setting and Stevie as an MC and I need to read the next one immediately!

Isabella 

not bad but i don't think i'm the target audience for this. not really interested to read the rest of the series. might give it another try soon tho idk

issa

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the dark academia theme and the flashbacks between the cold case in 1936 and the current case. However it took a very long time to actually get into the mystery, so hopefully the next book in the series has more plot to it. Overall, I very entertaining read- with a hint of romance. 

Olivia 

Amal Hassan

I have a headache

It finished before I was ready. 
Excellent. Didn’t realise there would be a sequel. I’m both mad and excited about this. 
I require answers

Pretty enjoyable murder mystery. It’s a bit frightening how relatable Stevie is 😃

Tabea

Nessa Luna

Reread Feb 2020: Still pissed off the book ends LIKE THAT. But I can now jump right into the sequels yay me. I enjoyed this probably just as much as I did the first time but I think I might just reread them all physically another time to maybe see if there are details/clues I missed... 
--------------------------
WHO ENDS A BOOK LIKE THAT?!

Vicky (A City Girl's Thoughts)

Ok, there's two twists/reveals that are kinda obvious and I personally didn't like the cliffhanger and felt the final reveal should've been ditched, but other than that it's ok for YA. I did enjoy it. Full review to come.

although the concept is intriguing, the pacing of the plot was incredibly slow. in fact, the pacing was so slow, the book ended before the story did. i found the cliffhanger ending a lazy and frustrating ploy to get me to read the sequel, so expect a grudging review of that shortly! 

the sub-plot set in 1936 was far more captivating than the new-at-school main plot (disclaimer: i am aware that i am an adult and this is YA for teenagers) that mostly just meandered around for the first two thirds of the book. the teenage leads are frankly boring and unlikable, and the surprise pairing had absolutely zero chemistry. and yet, despite all of this, i am just intrigued enough by the mystery to read book 2. if that one also ends on a cliffhanger i will not be accountable for my actions. 

avarni

although the concept is intriguing, the pacing of the plot was incredibly slow. in fact, the pacing was so slow, the book ended before the story did. i found the cliffhanger ending a lazy and frustrating ploy to get me to read the sequel, so expect a grudging review of that shortly! 

the sub-plot set in 1936 was far more captivating than the new-at-school main plot (disclaimer: i am aware that i am an adult and this is YA for teenagers) that mostly just meandered around for the first two thirds of the book. the teenage leads are frankly boring and unlikable, and the surprise pairing had absolutely zero chemistry. and yet, despite all of this, i am just intrigued enough by the mystery to read book 2. if that one also ends on a cliffhanger i will not be accountable for my actions. 

Victoria

That was...
Okay, I love everything about this.

The build up was slow. In fact, the entire pace of the book was slow. But, I think that's the beauty of this. Normally, I'd hate it because I get bored about halfway through but this time, I'd say it was warranted.

I love it!

Elaina 

Honestly I feel like this book had the potential to be much better. But sadly I struggled through the whole thing and skimmed to the end. :/

Sarah Selvaratnam 

I loved this book! This would have been a dream school for me (it still is!), the beautiful buildings, rich history, quirky characters, and of course, a perplexing mystery. Delightfully creepy, this book with a cup of tea on grey days, or fall nights is a dream come true.

menna

Jamieson

“There was something there. She could feel it.
Stevie had no fears of the dead. The living, however, sometimes gave her the creeps.”


this book took me so surprise! I rarely read mysteries/thrillers, not really sure why. They just never appeal to me. But Truly Devious caught my attention, because of it's focus on solving a complex true crime cold case, the Ellingham family murders. 

Set at the prestigious Ellingham Academy, true crime fan Stevie Bell comes to the academy, determined to solve the cold case once and for all. This involves discovering the truth behind an eerie letter threatening the murders, written by the mysterious identity who only goes by "Truly Devious". 


  “There is nothing so serious as a game.” 



Truly Devious hit all the right notes for me, and it was so fun. It had the creep factor, a complex mystery that I couldn't piece together, and I seriously loved how the dual perspective functioned here. the setting flicks between the current day, and the night of the Ellingham murders and I found that SO interesting. I love True Crime, and how this blended what is interesting about unsolved cases with storytelling was really great. And like I said, this book was so fun. I just had an absolute ball listening to it, trying to piece together the mystery and that counts for something too. And the creep factor was REAL. The letter left my the killer gave me the chills. 


  “What you lack in any investigation is time. With every passing hour, evidence slips away. Crime scenes are compromised by people and the elements. Things are moved, altered, smeared, shifted. Organisms rot. Wind blows dust and contaminants. Memories change and fade. As you move away from the event, you move away from the solution.” 


I think one of the main things that I had to detract points for on this book was the character work. I would have liked to see more intense characters then what we got. I didn't mind them, but they all just felt like characters who exist to move the plot. I didn't really find myself invested in any of them, and I didn't feel like they leaped off the page. But on the other hand, I did really like Stevie Bell as a protagonist! Her interest in true crime and her kind of awkward demeanour was relatable and her interested and determination to solve the case was really cool. Diversity wise, I will also mention Stevie takes medication for her anxiety and her best friend Janelle is a lesbian with a girlfriend who uses they/them pronouns. 

I also thought the romance could have been toned back just a smidge. I actually quite liked the romances but there was one section of the book where it kind of eclipsed the plot and that was a little annoying. 

I also have mixed feelings about the end. While I loved that it ended on a cliffhanger because I LOVE THEM, and I love that this set book two up so well, I also think more could have been done to wrap up some events and mysteries in THIS book. However, I didn't really think this book felt like pure set up which is good, and I can tell Maureen Johnson is building up for book two already which is so exciting. I actually love when books carry on plots throughout the trilogy rather than self-contained plots for each book, so ultimately I liked the ending but I just didn't LOVE it because things were a little rushed at the end. 


  what shall we use?
we can’t decide.
just like you cannot 
run or hide
haha.



anyway I had SUCH fun reading this and I am just so surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Mystery really isn't my thing but this book got me HOOKED and I am DYING for the next book. I want to know what happened so much. I feel like this really had that true crime appeal like it really captured that kind of fun feeling you get when you read true crime where you're simultaneously horrified and fascinated. So if you like true crime cold cases I recommend this (FELLOW BUZZFEED UNSOLVED FANS I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE)

Rachel Kanyid

It took me a bit to get into this, but excited to continue the series!

henrique

This book manages to create a realistic setting for a secondary school, with characters who actually behave and talk like teenagers, in a way which makes it really easy to engage with the story, through the likeable and non-likeable characters. The intricate plot is swiftly complemented by snippets of the past, which allow us to slowly realise how everything is liking together, rather than giving everything away at once, and break up, or create tension, depending o  how you see it. 

The final cliffhanger definitely left me wanting more, and I would definitely say this is a very enjoyable book, which I’m expecting to give way to an even better overall series.

It just did not catch me at all. Nothing really happening, flat characters, no emotion. 

Woltering

amelia <3

taylor alyse pisanie

bro.. WHAT? going to grab the next book off of the shelf RIGHT NOW.

I loved it sfm and I decided to try and figure out who Truly Devilus was myself and I did it. Anyway the book was so awesome. Definitely one of my all time favorites. 

Kat 

tina

second read: january 31, 2020

still a page turner the second time around 



first read: april 1, 2019 

i didn’t really have high expectations going into Truly Devious, but i ended up being so intrigued by the story to the point where i finished it in less than 24 hours (which, i should note, i have not done since like forever) so that really says much about how addicting this book is. it’s told in two timelines. one from the 1930s, when the initial crime took place. and the other in present time, where we follow Stevie Bell, who loves to study and investigate crime, and where the mystery continues. the story was told in a way that kept me so invested in the mystery and everything that’s going on that’s why i found it so difficult to stop reading. although this wasn’t a really flawless book, and i do wish that some aspects were developed (like the characterization of some of the secondary characters and pacing) i still really enjoyed it overall. i even annotated my copy and scribbled it with notes to help me when i read the second book. not everyone is going to love this book, but i had a lot of fun with it and it constantly kept me on my toes! i’m certainly going to pick up the second book!

Izza

3.25 stars | This is a weird one to review. I enjoyed it, but it felt like nothing really happened...even though a lot happened? I don't know. I'm probably going to continue on with the series.

Krystal Campbell &
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

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