Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - Truly Devious

Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

135 reviews

themoodreader's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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lily1304's review

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

The thing that kept me off guard was the utter lack of concern about the police in this book? All these kids talking to police left and right without their parents present, let alone lawyers? Is that not very obviously a bad idea?? Every single character is like "yeah of course these teens should talk to the police, alone, immediately" literally WHAT

I get that the main character is really into true crime, but it seems like she never took a second to think about the negatives of true crime? You'd think if it's something you've dedicated your life to, even if you're a teenager, you'd read the Wikipedia section called "Criticisms" and think about the glorification of police and the distraction from the everyday, un-podcast-worthy violence that kills many more people than serial killers ever did? A character name-checks J Edgar Hoover! Was that supposed to be ironic??

In the same vein, "anarchists" are this vague shadowy group that operates in the 1930s murder the main character is investigating. The book is clear that the anarchists likely aren't actually responsible, but it's weird they're thrown in there as a Boogeyman without ever examining why they might have had beef with Mr. Rich who founded the school. "He was a philanthropist! A good guy! He funded the town's schools and fire departments and police officers!" HMMM.

That said... I mean, I did stay up late to finish it and i immediately put a hold on the sequel. There's a chance that the series is self aware about these things and will develop some more complex ideas about crime and justice in the later books. I'm genuinely very curious where the story is going.

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maggie_andthebooks's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-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

1.0

Lol originally was a 4 star but the more I thought about it the more I realised I actually didn’t like anything about this story. I think the only think I liked about it was the murder mystery aspect.

I didn’t like the characters, the love story just felt forced and the flash backs were just annoying ans don’t even get me started on the ending!

Full review will be on https://www.instagram.com/maggie_andthebooks/

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tangleroot_eli's review

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adventurous lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

I really like many things about this book. It's fast-paced and witty and acknowledges its sleuthing roots without being completely wedded to the genre's tropes.

That said, I felt annoyed or outright alarmed about several things in the book that made it harder to get through than I'd expected.

I know how pedantic this sounds, but the kidnapper is not called "Truly Devious." They're called "Devious." The "Truly" is the letter's closing, like "Love, Tipper," "Sincerely, Your Friends at State Farm," etc. And while I bought that Stevie, a 21st-century teenager who probably doesn't write many formal letters, wouldn't know this, the idea that the 1936 characters would look at a letter signed "Truly, Devious" and call that letter-writer "Truly Devious" was one of the least believable parts of the book.
Relatively early in the book, Janelle tells Stevie that Vi uses they/them pronouns. Stevie proceeds to use she/her pronouns for Vi for the rest of the book. From this I have to conclude that either Stevie, Maureen Johnson, or the Katherine Tegen copyeditors don't care about respecting people's pronouns.
I did note the book's one solid clue as to Devious's identity before Stevie starts putting things together in the end. But it was so obvious and heavy-handed in an otherwise subtle book that I immediately dismissed it as a red herring. The fact that it genuinely is a clue? I'm still not sure if that's sloppy writing or sheer genius on Johnson's part.
The book never points toward an adult as a possibility for Hayes's killer. I think this is Johnson's way of showing how little adults matter to Stevie: they're either obstacles to overcome, like her parents, or mentors to learn from, like Larry. But in a book about and allegedly for teenagers, I was disconcerted that the only suspects were teenagers.
How do I loathe David? Let me count the ways. He's not funny. He's not charming. He's a classist, misogynist, douchey edgelord who thinks that being an ass to pretty much everyone he meets is the way to stick it to his morality- and propriety-obsessed father and doesn't realize or care that he's actually recapitulating his father's worst behaviors. The first time he and Stevie kissed, I groaned, "Noooo! Not this asshole!" The “if a boy is mean to you, that means he likes you, and you should totally go along with that” trope needs to die yesterday. After the scene where David wheedles his way into lunch with Stevie's parents, I was so livid I almost couldn't read on. This isn't my first teen sleuth rodeo. I understand that Johnson writes David this way so that when Stevie starts to suspect that Hayes' death was murder, readers immediately think of disdainful, deceitful David and share Stevie's panic: Is he a killer? Has she been making out with a killer? But this is done in such a clunky way that Johnson may as well put David in a T-shirt that says, This schmuck isn't the killer. But if he's not a killer, he's still a schmuck. I'll read to the end of the original trilogy, because I'm too interested in the Ellingham case and Hayes' death not to know how they resolve. But if David continues to be a major player and doesn't have a major character transformation, I'll not be reading the standalones, because no one needs that much schmuck.

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david_slack110507's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I will admit that I would have most likely gotten this finished a lot earlier if I hadn't gotten distracted with other books and other things happening in life as I left the book with about 40ish pages left for a while whilst finishing other books and doing other things in life.

The biggest strength of the book is that it is fast-paced, I got through most of the book very quickly and the condensed chapter length helped with this as they didn't drag on for too long. Another highlight of the book is that the dual timelines work very well with me sometimes preferring the past timeline over the present Ellingham one, but both were interesting, and their associated mysteries were good as well though in that regard I would say that the Truly Devious plotline from the past was a much more interesting mystery than the one in the present regarding the murder of Hayes.

My biggest issue with the book is that I found it very difficult to connect with the characters as with regards to the past timeline, the story is told factually that sometimes has some character moments that help develop the cast of characters for that timeline, but this doesn't happen often. The cast of characters for the present timeline wasn't also the easiest to connect as very few characters stood out to me apart from Nate and Stevie who I think had the most distinctive personalities/characters though I would be interested in seeing them develop, I just found that it was quite overwhelming with the number of characters introduced and then often left for extended periods of time before being reintroduced into the story.

The second half and near the end is definitely the strongest part of the book and I am very interested in seeing where both the Truly Devious and Hayes' murder throughout the series. I do hope that the series doesn't drag out the mystery, but I have a feeling that it will reach a satisfying conclusion. I would give this a 4 but I feel like a 3.5-star rating is much more appropriate as my main issues such as the lack of connectivity as well as Stevie and David's relationship kind of came out of nowhere. I feel like my experience with this book would have been much better if I had read it more consistently, so this is a fault on my part.

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luxxltyd's review against another edition

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tense 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

1.5

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bee87's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Would’ve been five stars but….CLIFFHANGER?!!!!!!!

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liesthemoontells's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

I found this book very slow in its pacing and wasn't a fan of the sharp cuts back and forth from the 1930s to the present, I felt that there wasn't enough done in the modern day plot to justify linking it back to the past.

I found the main character Stevie pretty insufferable, which wouldn't have been such an issue if any of the other characters were well-rounded and likeable.

As the book was a quick read and ended on a cliffhanger (and I already downloaded the sequels) I will keep reading, hopefully the pacing and characters evolve from here.

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thebookpaiges's review

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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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jamespotterluv's review

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

YALL this was mad. im so ANNOEYDSAUI like bro. i cant even spoil it for yall bc by the end half the plot twists aint even solved. like cmon. im lowkey addicted to this series. i need to finish it bc what. so there's quite a few plot twists and there's one right at the end, y'all know which one i mean. i guessed most of the plot twists im not gonna lie, most were predictable buT I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING LIEK WHAT. crazy. the writing was sanist a few times. it felt like diverse characters were j included for it to be diverse. like, a sentence was made abt them, maybe about like their pronouns or smth and that was it. u got one sentence. if ur gonna represent someone do it right! like, the author misgendered her own character. bfr. i felt like the author kinda rushed the ending? i mean, great ending, don't get me wrong. this was a medium paced book up until chapter 26. after that i was like "more is happening in these last chapters than the 26 chapters before it" like sm was happening n it was hard to keep track of who did what.

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