Scan barcode
asigler03's review
4.0
**I 4-starred each book in this series but, overall, it is a 5-star series for me**
I really cannot, by any means, say this is a great book. This is not a masterpiece. But oh my gosh, did I enjoy it? I really have not been this captivated by a series since I was in middle school. I bought the first book on a whim because I was obsessed with Clue (and the Clue movie) when I was younger. I got so instantly hooked. Are the characters pretty annoying? Yes. Are some of the plot twists ridiculous? Definitely. But I just had so much fun.
I didn't have service for a few days after buying this book, so I counted down the moments after finishing this book to read book 2. A total recommend if you're looking for a fun read, and especially if you like the Clue movie.
I really cannot, by any means, say this is a great book. This is not a masterpiece. But oh my gosh, did I enjoy it? I really have not been this captivated by a series since I was in middle school. I bought the first book on a whim because I was obsessed with Clue (and the Clue movie) when I was younger. I got so instantly hooked. Are the characters pretty annoying? Yes. Are some of the plot twists ridiculous? Definitely. But I just had so much fun.
I didn't have service for a few days after buying this book, so I counted down the moments after finishing this book to read book 2. A total recommend if you're looking for a fun read, and especially if you like the Clue movie.
jmj697mn's review against another edition
3.0
As someone who adores the movie, I was a little let down by this. I loved, loved, LOVED all of the references to the movie (flames, flames on the side of my face....) but I knew whodunit before the first 1/3 of the book was complete. Still, I'll definitely finish the series.
risun's review
this is so slow why hasn’t anyone died yet? kinda the whole point of the story
foofers1622's review
4.0
A great new take on the classic board game Clue. I wish there were "Easter Eggs" from the movie Clue through out the book tho. Diana closed the book with a classic cliffhanger and I can't wait to see what's next.
amym84's review
5.0
4.5
A terrible winter storm has hit the wooded wilds of Maine - including elite boarding school Blackbrook Academy - stranding a rag tag group of students/faculty: Beth "Peacock" Picach, Vaughn Green, Orchid McKee, Scarlet Mistry, Finn Plum, Sam "Mustard" Maestor, principal Mr. Boddy, and dorm matron Mrs. White. They're all prepared to hunker down and ride out the storm, but when Mr. Boddy's dead body is discovered in the conservatory with a knife to the chest it now turns into surviving long enough to figure out who the murderer is, and since everyone is the house is harboring secrets, everyone seems to have a motive.
Getting nostalgic here - I remember reading/collecting the original book series of Clue by A.E. Parker when I was in grade school. Typically getting them from the scholastic book order. I just loved the mystery of it, and of course I loved Clue the board game (this was before I was introduced to the classic 1985 movie Clue). While I haven't read those books in so long, I someday look forward to reading them with my kids - hopefully they'll find the love and mystery in those original books that I found.
So....when I heard that a new series of Clue mysteries was being published, there was no way I was going to miss out on reading it.
In the Hall with the Knife is everything that updated Clue has become over the years, including the addition of the character of Orchid. I loved how it really tries and - in most places - succeeds at paying homage to the original series. I loved the setup of the characters and their various secrets many of which will come into play in other book installments. That was one of my issues with the story, is for everything we learn about the characters I'm equating it with something that has to do with Boddy's murder in this book, but there's a lot of information that will be relevant at a later time, in a later mystery, and I think this takes away from this particular mystery just a bit.
In the Hall with the Knife is a definite YA read which leans a little more towards the Y than the A - even with the inclusion of a murder in the mix. I would have liked it to push the envelope just a bit more. We are given multiple points of view in the story, and I loved how Diana Peterfreund really makes each character's personality stand out in their own voice. This is the same for the setting of the book. The students are stranded in Tudor House which has a long history that goes beyond being a dorm at Blackbrook that lends itself nicely to the somewhat Gothic feel of this locked-roomesque mystery. However, with the way the book is constructed, it's pretty easy to figure out the culprit. Maybe not the motivation, but certainly the murderer.
Honestly, In the Hall with the Knife was a satisfying read. There is certainly room for character growth, and I'm very interested to see how the storylines are kept going throughout each new mystery. If you're a fan of the books, game, or movie, I think you'll find a lot to like with this one.
*Copy provided by Publisher in exchange for an honest review.
A terrible winter storm has hit the wooded wilds of Maine - including elite boarding school Blackbrook Academy - stranding a rag tag group of students/faculty: Beth "Peacock" Picach, Vaughn Green, Orchid McKee, Scarlet Mistry, Finn Plum, Sam "Mustard" Maestor, principal Mr. Boddy, and dorm matron Mrs. White. They're all prepared to hunker down and ride out the storm, but when Mr. Boddy's dead body is discovered in the conservatory with a knife to the chest it now turns into surviving long enough to figure out who the murderer is, and since everyone is the house is harboring secrets, everyone seems to have a motive.
Getting nostalgic here - I remember reading/collecting the original book series of Clue by A.E. Parker when I was in grade school. Typically getting them from the scholastic book order. I just loved the mystery of it, and of course I loved Clue the board game (this was before I was introduced to the classic 1985 movie Clue). While I haven't read those books in so long, I someday look forward to reading them with my kids - hopefully they'll find the love and mystery in those original books that I found.
So....when I heard that a new series of Clue mysteries was being published, there was no way I was going to miss out on reading it.
In the Hall with the Knife is everything that updated Clue has become over the years, including the addition of the character of Orchid. I loved how it really tries and - in most places - succeeds at paying homage to the original series. I loved the setup of the characters and their various secrets many of which will come into play in other book installments. That was one of my issues with the story, is for everything we learn about the characters I'm equating it with something that has to do with Boddy's murder in this book, but there's a lot of information that will be relevant at a later time, in a later mystery, and I think this takes away from this particular mystery just a bit.
In the Hall with the Knife is a definite YA read which leans a little more towards the Y than the A - even with the inclusion of a murder in the mix. I would have liked it to push the envelope just a bit more. We are given multiple points of view in the story, and I loved how Diana Peterfreund really makes each character's personality stand out in their own voice. This is the same for the setting of the book. The students are stranded in Tudor House which has a long history that goes beyond being a dorm at Blackbrook that lends itself nicely to the somewhat Gothic feel of this locked-roomesque mystery. However, with the way the book is constructed, it's pretty easy to figure out the culprit. Maybe not the motivation, but certainly the murderer.
Honestly, In the Hall with the Knife was a satisfying read. There is certainly room for character growth, and I'm very interested to see how the storylines are kept going throughout each new mystery. If you're a fan of the books, game, or movie, I think you'll find a lot to like with this one.
*Copy provided by Publisher in exchange for an honest review.
jmbibliolater's review
3.0
Special thanks to the Hachette Group for sending me an advance copy via a Giveaway. Here’s my honest review….
Bookish Tip: Sleuth hat, optional
In the Hall With The Knife by Diana Peterfreund is the quintessential YA mystery that is absolutely perfect for a) readers that love the game of Clue and b) readers that want a soft Halloween read with mystery and spookiness but also want to go to sleep at night just fine.
The story is told through multiple point of views, switching between Scarlet, Mustard, Green, Peacock, Plum and Orchid. As in the game of Clue, none of the characters are truly likable. Each character has secrets and each has motive. Their own personal biases or agendas mark some as suspects and other as not. However, the multiple POV is needed because it adds more layers to the mystery of who killed the headmaster.
I love the Clue elements that were written in: a shady, mansion like dorm with a billiards room, the wrench, the knife, the rope, secret passages, etc. I can only imagine the fun Diana had writing this one.
My only issue is I felt like the killer who was a little obvious. But you know what? It's a FUN and fast read. It brought a lot of entertainment, smiles, Ooohs and Ahhs.
Just one note......this book does end on a cliffhanger so Reader, beware.
Recommendation: Read. In The Hall With The Knife reminds me of watching a Scooby Doo mystery without the comedy or the Mystery Machine. I'm kinda excited to see where the series goes from here.
Bookish Tip: Sleuth hat, optional
In the Hall With The Knife by Diana Peterfreund is the quintessential YA mystery that is absolutely perfect for a) readers that love the game of Clue and b) readers that want a soft Halloween read with mystery and spookiness but also want to go to sleep at night just fine.
The story is told through multiple point of views, switching between Scarlet, Mustard, Green, Peacock, Plum and Orchid. As in the game of Clue, none of the characters are truly likable. Each character has secrets and each has motive. Their own personal biases or agendas mark some as suspects and other as not. However, the multiple POV is needed because it adds more layers to the mystery of who killed the headmaster.
I love the Clue elements that were written in: a shady, mansion like dorm with a billiards room, the wrench, the knife, the rope, secret passages, etc. I can only imagine the fun Diana had writing this one.
My only issue is I felt like the killer who was a little obvious. But you know what? It's a FUN and fast read. It brought a lot of entertainment, smiles, Ooohs and Ahhs.
Just one note......this book does end on a cliffhanger so Reader, beware.
Recommendation: Read. In The Hall With The Knife reminds me of watching a Scooby Doo mystery without the comedy or the Mystery Machine. I'm kinda excited to see where the series goes from here.
betsyjoy's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
briarhoes's review
challenging
funny
mysterious
slow-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
3.25
Alright. Let's get this out of the way. I actually really liked this book. It was fun, it was interesting, and it used its source material well (if not a bit overbearing sometimes). I will absolutely read the next books in the series, and I'm probably going to buy my own copy, as this is on loan from the library.
However, I do have some gripes, as a murder mystery aficionado.
The multiple POVs in this book were somehow both over and under utilized. Beth "Peacock" Picach was barely even a character in this book, with her POV chapters seeming to exist just because she had to have them. Which doesn't make sense, considering the killer herself didn't even have a POV chapter, rendering the entire system useless. I cannot express to you the irritation and disappointment I felt at realizing that I was right, and that what I was worried about for the entire book would come to pass. Having the killer be the only character of note who doesn't have a POV is cheap, lame, and a huge letdown. It's especially aggravating considering the author had used the POV chapters to great effect when handling the Vaughn twist, so much so that I praised her highly for it! To quote a message from me not 20 minutes before I read the ending:
"extremely clever blink and you'll miss it moment from this book that I only realized in hindsight: in the second 'Green' chapter, which is actually Vaughn, he meets Orchid and thinks she's very pretty. he has trouble remembering her name and mentions in his thoughts he always has trouble with that kind of thing. and then he idly thinks "He's surprised he didn't notice such a pretty girl in his history class.". Orchid says on page 202, like 150 pages later, that the Vaughn she knew before this was cocky and self assured and rude, meaning it wasn't Vaughn, it was Oliver, and the narration was using third person very effectively to obfuscate the meaning of the sentence: He (Vaughn( was surprised that he (Oliver) hadn't noticed her. it's just genuinely so subtle and so clever and it's not even one of the clues I had remembered when thinking about this potential twist. I love it."
For the record, the clue that I was basing my theory that Vaughn had a twin he was switching with actually doesn't even seem to be related, since it was that he was eating twice as much as everyone else. I figured that one out pretty quickly but having that confirmed was the highlight of the book, it's been a while since I saw a twin switch in a mystery and didn't find it hacky or cliche. It was fun.
The conclusion of this book nosedived the score for me so hard. It crashed into the ground. I was already hesitant about giving it four stars considering everybody just went in circles the entire book and the multiple POVs did little else than mask the fact that nothing had happened since the murder, but the climax was anticlimactic, irritating due to the cheap cop out of having a non pov character be the killer, and to be honest, kind of bewildering. Why was this aging old lady suddenly talking like a 15 year old girl? Why did she knock out and kidnap the not-twins? The dialogue took me out of it so bad. And don't even get me started on the not-twins Kayla and Kaylee. I just called them the twins or the Kaylas the entire time I was reading because they were so inconsequential to the plot that you could take them out and not have to edit a single thing. They served no purpose, had no reason to be there, had no POV chapters...seriously, why were they there? I'm not even giving the author the grace of saying they were red herrings, because they weren't. It was obvious they weren't going to be important, they're not even listed with the characters on the back of the book. They literally were only there to get Orchid into the secret passage, and there has to have been a better way to do that.
Lastly, why on earth were these characters in their teens. I didn't realize until page 85 or so, when Orchid straight up said she was 17, that the school was a high school, not a college. Don't ask me how - I recognize in hindsight that it's called a prepatory academy and they mentioned AP classes. Alright? I get it. But everything about this school and the characters screamed 'college campus' to me, and it became 10 times more goofy and pulled me out of it so bad when I realized my error. I get that it's a more juvenile book, but I feel like you still could have made this teen-YA with them being college students. You would really have to change nothing except the AP classes mention, and it would make more sense than the characters basically being Dangan Ronpa super high school level geniuses rivaling Anish Kapoor.
I don't want to hear anything along the lines of 'Well, if she'd given the killer a POV, it would have been obvious!' Because firstly, she managed to hide that one guy was actually TWO guys, though I'm actually not sure there was a 'Green' chapter from Oliver's POV, which would be massively disappointing too. But more importantly, I know for a fact that you can hide a character being a killer in their own POV, because I've seen it done before. I've done it before myself, too. I've been in Clue-based RP games for over ten years, and every single character has a constant, basically real time POV. I know it's possible and it's much more gratifying than doing something this lame, but I guess it's also more difficult. I wish the author would have put that effort in.
It gets 3 stars because despite all these criticisms, I actually loved reading this book, and I had a lot of fun. I just have high standards for a murder mystery and Clue based media. Cringey quote from Beth halfway through, by the way, trying to cash in on the flames on the side of my face meme. It made me say 'Ugh' out loud. Hate that.
However, I do have some gripes, as a murder mystery aficionado.
The multiple POVs in this book were somehow both over and under utilized. Beth "Peacock" Picach was barely even a character in this book, with her POV chapters seeming to exist just because she had to have them. Which doesn't make sense, considering the killer herself didn't even have a POV chapter, rendering the entire system useless. I cannot express to you the irritation and disappointment I felt at realizing that I was right, and that what I was worried about for the entire book would come to pass. Having the killer be the only character of note who doesn't have a POV is cheap, lame, and a huge letdown. It's especially aggravating considering the author had used the POV chapters to great effect when handling the Vaughn twist, so much so that I praised her highly for it! To quote a message from me not 20 minutes before I read the ending:
"extremely clever blink and you'll miss it moment from this book that I only realized in hindsight: in the second 'Green' chapter, which is actually Vaughn, he meets Orchid and thinks she's very pretty. he has trouble remembering her name and mentions in his thoughts he always has trouble with that kind of thing. and then he idly thinks "He's surprised he didn't notice such a pretty girl in his history class.". Orchid says on page 202, like 150 pages later, that the Vaughn she knew before this was cocky and self assured and rude, meaning it wasn't Vaughn, it was Oliver, and the narration was using third person very effectively to obfuscate the meaning of the sentence: He (Vaughn( was surprised that he (Oliver) hadn't noticed her. it's just genuinely so subtle and so clever and it's not even one of the clues I had remembered when thinking about this potential twist. I love it."
For the record, the clue that I was basing my theory that Vaughn had a twin he was switching with actually doesn't even seem to be related, since it was that he was eating twice as much as everyone else. I figured that one out pretty quickly but having that confirmed was the highlight of the book, it's been a while since I saw a twin switch in a mystery and didn't find it hacky or cliche. It was fun.
The conclusion of this book nosedived the score for me so hard. It crashed into the ground. I was already hesitant about giving it four stars considering everybody just went in circles the entire book and the multiple POVs did little else than mask the fact that nothing had happened since the murder, but the climax was anticlimactic, irritating due to the cheap cop out of having a non pov character be the killer, and to be honest, kind of bewildering. Why was this aging old lady suddenly talking like a 15 year old girl? Why did she knock out and kidnap the not-twins? The dialogue took me out of it so bad. And don't even get me started on the not-twins Kayla and Kaylee. I just called them the twins or the Kaylas the entire time I was reading because they were so inconsequential to the plot that you could take them out and not have to edit a single thing. They served no purpose, had no reason to be there, had no POV chapters...seriously, why were they there? I'm not even giving the author the grace of saying they were red herrings, because they weren't. It was obvious they weren't going to be important, they're not even listed with the characters on the back of the book. They literally were only there to get Orchid into the secret passage, and there has to have been a better way to do that.
Lastly, why on earth were these characters in their teens. I didn't realize until page 85 or so, when Orchid straight up said she was 17, that the school was a high school, not a college. Don't ask me how - I recognize in hindsight that it's called a prepatory academy and they mentioned AP classes. Alright? I get it. But everything about this school and the characters screamed 'college campus' to me, and it became 10 times more goofy and pulled me out of it so bad when I realized my error. I get that it's a more juvenile book, but I feel like you still could have made this teen-YA with them being college students. You would really have to change nothing except the AP classes mention, and it would make more sense than the characters basically being Dangan Ronpa super high school level geniuses rivaling Anish Kapoor.
I don't want to hear anything along the lines of 'Well, if she'd given the killer a POV, it would have been obvious!' Because firstly, she managed to hide that one guy was actually TWO guys, though I'm actually not sure there was a 'Green' chapter from Oliver's POV, which would be massively disappointing too. But more importantly, I know for a fact that you can hide a character being a killer in their own POV, because I've seen it done before. I've done it before myself, too. I've been in Clue-based RP games for over ten years, and every single character has a constant, basically real time POV. I know it's possible and it's much more gratifying than doing something this lame, but I guess it's also more difficult. I wish the author would have put that effort in.
It gets 3 stars because despite all these criticisms, I actually loved reading this book, and I had a lot of fun. I just have high standards for a murder mystery and Clue based media. Cringey quote from Beth halfway through, by the way, trying to cash in on the flames on the side of my face meme. It made me say 'Ugh' out loud. Hate that.