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A review by emiliedeeann
The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson
3.0
The not so good:
1. The romance in this book actually concerns me. David isn’t a sarcastic jerk. He purposefully says the cruelest things he can think of to Stevie, and really crosses the line several times. Stevie doesn’t stand up for herself at all, they never have a conversation about his behavior, no apologies or anything. It’s one thing to create imperfect characters; it’s another to normalize how David treats Stevie in this book. It almost brought my score down to 1 star.
2. This series did not need to be a trilogy. The second book is mostly filler. I found a few storylines to be unnecessary as well. Why were Eddie & Francis important? The only thing I can think of is to illustrate the types of students Ellingham has attracted since its beginning, but even then... this is an example of a storyline that just feels unnecessary.
The good!
1. The author created a really fun, colorful world with unique and vibrant characters! However, I saw one review that said it felt as though a lot of the side characters were there to check diversity boxes, and I have to agree with that. You’ll likely find that a lot of these side characters, while having a promising introduction, fall flat. For me, Stevie, Nate, Larry, at some points Janelle, Albert and Dottie were the most developed.
2. Stevie. I really like her. She’s fun and sarcastic and felt new to me, even though she reflects some lead character tropes we tend to see. I liked her storyline, her background, her personality.
3. The flashback/1930’s chapters were soooo good! Definitely my favorite parts of the book.
4. The mystery is pretty gripping. There are a few of them going on, and while some of them feel unnecessary and I wasn’t quite *happy* with how some of them ended, overall I chose to read all three books in about a week (which is fast for me) so it clearly compelled me.
As you can see, despite some glaring problems, overall this series is a lot of fun and a great escape! The first book really was my favorite though, and had the series been limited to a duology and had David been a decent person, I would have given it 4 stars all around.
1. The romance in this book actually concerns me. David isn’t a sarcastic jerk. He purposefully says the cruelest things he can think of to Stevie, and really crosses the line several times. Stevie doesn’t stand up for herself at all, they never have a conversation about his behavior, no apologies or anything. It’s one thing to create imperfect characters; it’s another to normalize how David treats Stevie in this book. It almost brought my score down to 1 star.
2. This series did not need to be a trilogy. The second book is mostly filler. I found a few storylines to be unnecessary as well. Why were Eddie & Francis important? The only thing I can think of is to illustrate the types of students Ellingham has attracted since its beginning, but even then... this is an example of a storyline that just feels unnecessary.
The good!
1. The author created a really fun, colorful world with unique and vibrant characters! However, I saw one review that said it felt as though a lot of the side characters were there to check diversity boxes, and I have to agree with that. You’ll likely find that a lot of these side characters, while having a promising introduction, fall flat. For me, Stevie, Nate, Larry, at some points Janelle, Albert and Dottie were the most developed.
2. Stevie. I really like her. She’s fun and sarcastic and felt new to me, even though she reflects some lead character tropes we tend to see. I liked her storyline, her background, her personality.
3. The flashback/1930’s chapters were soooo good! Definitely my favorite parts of the book.
4. The mystery is pretty gripping. There are a few of them going on, and while some of them feel unnecessary and I wasn’t quite *happy* with how some of them ended, overall I chose to read all three books in about a week (which is fast for me) so it clearly compelled me.
As you can see, despite some glaring problems, overall this series is a lot of fun and a great escape! The first book really was my favorite though, and had the series been limited to a duology and had David been a decent person, I would have given it 4 stars all around.