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A review by lise__
The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson
dark
emotional
tense
medium-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
3.75
I think this was a good book, however I was a bit disappointed. The premise was interesting and so was the mystery in the past. I liked the characters, but I think we got too much of them doing nothing of value. The mystery felt dragged out. I loved the truly devious triology and there you can also say it was dragged out, but that didn't bother me as much (or at all), because the setting was better. We also didn't know the characters yet which made it more interesting. Overall I still rated it pretty high, because I enjoyed reading it and it wasn't terrible, I had just expected better...
There was a lot of "fake" tension like when she thought David had just left or when we thought she lost the diary. That just wasn't necessary. I also didn't like the way everything was explained through the diary at the end, it felt lazy and it wasn't that interesting to read (it would've been more interesting if we had to piece it together ourselves). The ending also came out of nowhere. Yes, we knew she had taken out books about Nazi's at the library, but there was now way to know otherwise. I also saw someone that said there were no plot twists, which made it more boring, and I agree. A part of what made the first books so good was that there were those little plot-twists and that you could try and piece togheter the mystery, here that wasn't the case.
There was a lot of "fake" tension like when she thought David had just left or when we thought she lost the diary. That just wasn't necessary. I also didn't like the way everything was explained through the diary at the end, it felt lazy and it wasn't that interesting to read (it would've been more interesting if we had to piece it together ourselves). The ending also came out of nowhere. Yes, we knew she had taken out books about Nazi's at the library, but there was now way to know otherwise. I also saw someone that said there were no plot twists, which made it more boring, and I agree. A part of what made the first books so good was that there were those little plot-twists and that you could try and piece togheter the mystery, here that wasn't the case.