A review by thebiasedbibliophile
Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson

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

5.0

Mystery is not my favorite genre, but I’m convinced that if Maureen Johnson wrote all the mystery books, it might be! Nine Liars is the fifth book in the Truly Devious series, and somehow it was even better than book 4, The Box in the Woods.

The novel follows Stevie and her friends to the United Kingdom, where they are supposed to be learning about history and furthering their studies. When David’s friend Izzy mentions that her aunt was connected to a murder mystery in the English countryside during the 1990s, Stevie’s interest is peaked, and her friends know it’s only a matter of time before she’s on the case.

If I’m being completely honest, the original three books in the Truly Devious series were not phenomenal reads for me. Don’t get me wrong, they were 3-star reads, which is a good book in my opinion. However, this series is one that gets increasingly better over time. When I received an ARC of The Box in the Woods, I’d figured I would try it, but wasn’t wholeheartedly invested in the series. After reading it, I was willing to read more in the series. Now, after reading Nine Liars, I need more books in this series! It completely blew me out of the water!

One thing I love about these novels is that they typically have two alternating storylines. We read a little about the mystery that happened in the past, then we read about Stevie’s life now. This pattern makes the books so compelling in my opinion. As a reader, I found myself more invested in the mystery timeline at the beginning, but the more I read the more invested I was in the present timeline as well.

Furthermore, the mystery in this novel was riveting! The suspense built well over the course of book, and I literally couldn’t stop reading. I couldn’t guess any of the big reveals, yet the series of events was also completely plausible. The cast of characters were dynamic and added a lot to the story. I sometimes feel like authors write very similar characters when they need more murder suspects, but that was not the case with Nine Liars.

Additionally, the characters that we already knew and loved were developed further. I adore the fact that Stevie is a flawed, yet relatable character. Truthfully I don’t think we see enough of this in novels, especially YA novels. We somehow expect the characters to be perfect or stereotypically morally grey, but in many ways, Stevie is just an average teenager who makes mistakes just like anyone else. Her character development throughout this novel drew my emotions into the story even more, and as always, I appreciate the authenticity of reading about a character with anxiety.

Finally, the cherry on top of the cake, there is an ace (asexual) character in this book! This is kind of funny because, at the beginning of this book, I was reading about this character and thought, “Wow, they really seem like they could be ace!” However, it had not been mentioned in the previous books, so I was happily shocked when this character comes out as ace later in the novel. I don’t want to spoil who it is, but I felt like this identity lines up with what we know about this character from the previous novels, and I was so elated to see this representation!

Overall, there is not a single thing I didn’t love about this novel! Maureen Johnson, I sincerely hope you plan on writing another book in this series because I need it yesterday!