Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Truly, Devious by Maureen Johnson

85 reviews

laurenevlyn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I enjoyed this book reasonably well. It was very slow to pick up and I did manage to predict a good amount of the twists. Nevertheless, I’m excited to see what happens in the rest of the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Child death, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism

dinipandareads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

WTF WAS THAT CLIFFHANGER ENDING?!
The second book needs to be read ASAP!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Violence, Child death, and Kidnapping

lqvekanej's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Child death and Death

Minor: Blood

verysillygoose's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

• 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death

Moderate: Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Child death

brookey8888's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this. I do have to say the mystery doesn’t happen really until almost 250 pages in. Which I don’t mind because I was enjoying the characters in the relationships forming I’m excited to see where this goes. I will be continuing. I also really like Stevie as a main character and 
I related to her a lot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death, and Kidnapping

stormzx's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

13+
more feet than there was murder

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Child death, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Drug use

puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Truly Devious was a fun read, but I feel like it was more set-up for the series than its own story. In a mystery series I expect at least one mystery to get solved in each book, even if there are questions that run over into the next book. Here, there’s only a partial revelation at the end that just left me a bit disappointed. I am curious about the sequel(s) though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, Death, Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Alcohol and Injury/Injury detail

binches's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

• 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

5.0

I didn't expect to like this book so much. It has such a great story and the setting is absolutely fantastic.

Truly Devious tells the story of Stevie Bell, a girl with an obsession with true crime, as she gets the opportunity to live and study in an old school, ready to solve the murder that was committed there 70 years ago. Things change, however, when she is faced with the reality of what it means to be confronting death.

The book features a variety of characters, each of them likable and fleshed out in their own way. I loved how the story managed to shift the perception of a crime from something to just solve towards something that can be traumatic and horrifying. The writing, worldbuilding, characters, and dual timeline were done perfectly to tell an intriguing story about a girl who just wanted to find a dead body.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Child death, and Cursing

Minor: Medical content, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Drug use

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I felt like this was a fun, engaging mystery with two different stories woven together. While Stevie's own mystery doesn't really happen until later in the book, I am interested in seeing how the two will eventually connect. The writing is easy to get pulled into and the characters are all interesting. The audiobook narrator is pretty good, too!

I will also say that I didn't necessarily believe the budding relationship that was happening. It felt like there was little build up and nothing was resolved. But we do have future books to hopefully do that, so fingers crossed!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Child death, Kidnapping, and Mental illness

abby17's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Child death