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angelune's review
3.0
i heard so, so much about this series. private boarding school, murder mystery, killer on the loose, set in vermont AND written by maureen johnson (i'm a big fan of shades of london)? count me the fuck in!
on paper, i feel like this book had the potential to be absolutely great with its marvelous setting. however, i feel like truly devious lost itself a little bit with how little actually happened plot wise. the long paragraphs of descriptions of places were beautiful, but got really old halfway across the book, enough that i started skimming through them. the characters were interesting, but once again, i feel like they could've been fleshed out a bit more.
i am lenient on the book by giving it 3 stars because it is, after all, the first book in a series of four publications, so hopefully it gets better with each release and fully meets the potential it has!
krabcake's review against another edition
4.5
miaruthdp's review
4.0
I loved the setting! It's still weird setting up a school in the middle of nowhere but that's interesting.
I also like how we get to see snippets of what happened in the past. Albert Ellingham was such a fascinating character.
Stevie was okay. I have neutral feelings for her. At times, she was very relatable but I'm not a fan of her other qualities.
The one that stood out for me tho was Nate. Idk, he's plain and quiet but I love him. I love his honesty! And he's lowkey a very dependable friend.
ashashashashash's review against another edition
4.5
snoopydoo77's review against another edition
4.0
I have been seeing this series everywhere and it sounded like something I would enjoy. Once in a while I like a good mystery and who can resist a school setting?!
I saw that it had mixed rating and I was hesitant but I went for it anyway… I’m happy to report that I enjoyed it.
I liked the writing, and the way she mixed the two timelines to keep it interesting and us reading and guessing, but without being confusing or too much of it.
I have to admit though that Stevie was not my favorite, while I liked her (most the time) I often got annoyed by her. She sometimes thought very highly if herself. Also, sometimes things just always seemed to work out for her or people all the sudden stepped in out if nowhere, that not always made complete sense.
The semi very low-key romance I could have lived without, or at least I'm not sure how I feel about it … yet…. we will see how it goes.
Overall, it definitely is a first book in the series and establishes worldbuilding and interduces us to a lot of characters.
It started out a bit slow because of the world and character building but it got pretty fast paced about quarter way in and has some twists for sure. It also keeps us guessing even at the end.
The end is a pretty good cliffhanger…… I didn’t see that coming ….I thought there was something up…. but that was not it.
Overall, I loved the mystery and guessing and can’t wait what book two has in store for us.
I rate it 4★
addiec1's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
ashiia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0