Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

43 reviews

mcirish02's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

The ending made me furious. The rest was decent. That's all I've got to say about that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Child abuse, and Murder

thebookpaiges's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Child death, Mental illness, Murder, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Kidnapping

whewtaewoon's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Sexism

oceanwriter's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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? Yes

4.0

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 The Vanishing Stair.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Kidnapping, and Mental illness

laurenevlyn's review

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

verysillygoose's review

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

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

imnotvelinda's review

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense 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

4.75

It was so good! The writing, the plottwist, the cliffhanger, the characters, everything was amazing. Can't wait to read the next!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness

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