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A review by abbier_14
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
2.5
2.5 doesnt mean im not gonna read the second one lol because i apparantly hate myself. This was defo a hate read and i only kept going so i could be a hater and write this review.
➞ I only liked two characters in this (one of them is david who everyone else hates but i thought he wasnt too bad) but thats typical for most books i read and one of them diessssssssss because ofc they do. Everyone else was severely severely annoying. It was like the author was trying to make all the characters unique so in the start of the book we are given extremely long descriptions of what everyone is wearing and its like giving off 2014 style vibes (one person was wearing a bin bag dress at one point like come on). And even though these characters are given these elaborate first descriptions setting them apart from everybody else they are never really explored in depth again (which looking back im fine with because they would have probably been an annoying character anyway lol) Everyone was just of like a stereotype the author thinks the readers will like disguised badly as being a geniune, fleshed out character.
➞ Lets talk about the main character, one the most obnoxious people anyone could ever write omfg. She overthinks every. single. dumb. thing. she ever comes across in her life. Yeah maybe its cute to some people and adds relatability but no its extremely frustrating to read and im screaming in my head NO YOU ARE COMPLETELY BEING IRRATIONAL AND OVEREACTING but of course it continues.
She is so nosy and insufferable like she thinks its warrented for her to just go through peoples stuff without permission because she knows more about crime then they do. I literally hated her from the start she is somehow self depricating while also being smug and thinking shes the smartest person in the room like oml. I hate hate hate her guts.
Why does she think shes the one who is going to be able to solve the case that has been cold for 80 years that seemed to have every fbi agent on the east coast working on. Just so dumb and big headed. Also what was the point of her seeing that note in her room. She always brings it up and its never relevant but ig we have to read the other book and we are gonna find out she somehow solved the case in her sleep because she is so amazing and somehow better than fbi agents who have trained and have years of experience and probably the same passion she has.
Also another thing i didnt get was why the suspect couldnt have been the murder. Like i know he didnt speak english but he could have just got someone else to write the riddle and then done the murders himself. He seemed like he deeply hated the Ellinghams and wanted them dead sooo whats the problem. But maybe this is just coming from me wanting to disagree with whatever stevie thinks.
➞ Lets talk about the plot for a minute. So nothing happens until way into the book. And when something does happen is that Hayes dies (oh no there goes another bearable character). So to me as a reader nothing seemed sketchy about this what so ever so when Stevie starts poking her head around everything im like oml what is she doing now. Im genuinely so upset that she may have been correct in the fact that hayes has been murdered. How she worked that out i dont know to me she seemed dumb, actually i know how because all the evidence just fell right into her hand, thank god shes the main character of a story otherwise i dont think she would have been that successful. I wanted her to be wrong sooo bad just to teach her a lesson to just stay in her lane.
➞ Who tf is Ellie and why is she constantly being mentioned. This character is more annoying than stevie and this is saying something. So over the top. No one acts like that in real life i was put off from the start. Baffled at why this character was the way she was it wasnt needed at all she made me wanna die. Do people seriously enjoy reading about characters who act like that? bc if so that blows my mind.
➞ Minor thing, i wish the school was explored more in depth. Maybe this is just because i love boarding school settings in books so i would prefer this more than the average reader but i barely knew what the campus was like. We also arent told much about Stevie's lessons, and that project thing she had to do was just completely dropped out of the plot (i know it was the video hayes and that lot were making but still i would have thought she would have to come up with something different after)
➞ I know this is the whole premise of the book but i dislike the dual timeline lol. Even though i hate almost everything about the modern timeline, when it switched to the old time line i was just soooo bored. I actually dont really care about the outcome of the ellingham kidnapping lmfao.
➞ Another thing, this conflict stevie has with her parents im over it. Its never really explained why she hates her parents, we are given vague reasons but no real evidence what so ever. It just comes off as immature and adds another level of annoying to her character.
➞ I only liked two characters in this (one of them is david who everyone else hates but i thought he wasnt too bad) but thats typical for most books i read and one of them diessssssssss because ofc they do. Everyone else was severely severely annoying. It was like the author was trying to make all the characters unique so in the start of the book we are given extremely long descriptions of what everyone is wearing and its like giving off 2014 style vibes (one person was wearing a bin bag dress at one point like come on). And even though these characters are given these elaborate first descriptions setting them apart from everybody else they are never really explored in depth again (which looking back im fine with because they would have probably been an annoying character anyway lol) Everyone was just of like a stereotype the author thinks the readers will like disguised badly as being a geniune, fleshed out character.
➞ Lets talk about the main character, one the most obnoxious people anyone could ever write omfg. She overthinks every. single. dumb. thing. she ever comes across in her life. Yeah maybe its cute to some people and adds relatability but no its extremely frustrating to read and im screaming in my head NO YOU ARE COMPLETELY BEING IRRATIONAL AND OVEREACTING but of course it continues.
She is so nosy and insufferable like she thinks its warrented for her to just go through peoples stuff without permission because she knows more about crime then they do. I literally hated her from the start she is somehow self depricating while also being smug and thinking shes the smartest person in the room like oml. I hate hate hate her guts.
Why does she think shes the one who is going to be able to solve the case that has been cold for 80 years that seemed to have every fbi agent on the east coast working on. Just so dumb and big headed. Also what was the point of her seeing that note in her room. She always brings it up and its never relevant but ig we have to read the other book and we are gonna find out she somehow solved the case in her sleep because she is so amazing and somehow better than fbi agents who have trained and have years of experience and probably the same passion she has.
Also another thing i didnt get was why the suspect couldnt have been the murder. Like i know he didnt speak english but he could have just got someone else to write the riddle and then done the murders himself. He seemed like he deeply hated the Ellinghams and wanted them dead sooo whats the problem. But maybe this is just coming from me wanting to disagree with whatever stevie thinks.
➞ Lets talk about the plot for a minute. So nothing happens until way into the book. And when something does happen is that Hayes dies (oh no there goes another bearable character). So to me as a reader nothing seemed sketchy about this what so ever so when Stevie starts poking her head around everything im like oml what is she doing now. Im genuinely so upset that she may have been correct in the fact that hayes has been murdered. How she worked that out i dont know to me she seemed dumb, actually i know how because all the evidence just fell right into her hand, thank god shes the main character of a story otherwise i dont think she would have been that successful. I wanted her to be wrong sooo bad just to teach her a lesson to just stay in her lane.
➞ Who tf is Ellie and why is she constantly being mentioned. This character is more annoying than stevie and this is saying something. So over the top. No one acts like that in real life i was put off from the start. Baffled at why this character was the way she was it wasnt needed at all she made me wanna die. Do people seriously enjoy reading about characters who act like that? bc if so that blows my mind.
➞ Minor thing, i wish the school was explored more in depth. Maybe this is just because i love boarding school settings in books so i would prefer this more than the average reader but i barely knew what the campus was like. We also arent told much about Stevie's lessons, and that project thing she had to do was just completely dropped out of the plot (i know it was the video hayes and that lot were making but still i would have thought she would have to come up with something different after)
➞ I know this is the whole premise of the book but i dislike the dual timeline lol. Even though i hate almost everything about the modern timeline, when it switched to the old time line i was just soooo bored. I actually dont really care about the outcome of the ellingham kidnapping lmfao.
➞ Another thing, this conflict stevie has with her parents im over it. Its never really explained why she hates her parents, we are given vague reasons but no real evidence what so ever. It just comes off as immature and adds another level of annoying to her character.