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A review by anajoy
Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
you genuinely could not pay me enough to care about david or anything that happens to him. he could be getting robbed at gunpoint in front of my eyes and i would remind the robber to turn off the safety.
nine liars follows stevie as she investigates her third case, the murder of two young adults who died on a vacation with their seven friends years prior. as her investigation progresses and she uncovers new facts about that night, she discovers that the string of burglaries in the neighborhood that police suspected to be connected to the murders might not have been connected at all. worse, she begins to wonder whether the true murderer is one of the seven survivors.
i went into this book with the intention of reading something silly, and yet it still managed to disappoint me. i had a fun time with the original trilogy and the box in the woods, but from those, i understand johnson’s writing style and her typical plot choices and, from that, am able to go into her books not expecting much more than a fun time. even with those low expectations, this book just fell flat to me. i hate david with every fiber of my being and the fact that basically the entire first half of this book revolved entirely around his and stevie’s relationship made it almost unbearable to read for me. the second half of the book might have been enough to garner a higher rating from me if the investigation and her conclusion hadn’t felt so rushed. the fact that she chose to end the book as she did also just didn’t really do anything for me because i just do not believe that this case needed to be split amongst more than one book; if even a quarter of the first half had been taken out and the investigation had started sooner, i feel that whatever she is going to do with the next book could have happened in this one instead.
again, i have read her books before, so i knew what i was signing up for going into this book. however, everything that saved the previous books for me just wasn’t present in this one, primarily the absence of a truly compelling mystery. i guessed the true killer and their intentions, as well as everything surrounding the murder, almost as soon as the investigation truly began. i am not saying that a predictable plot twist automatically makes that twist bad, because i do think that it can still be good if it’s done well. this one, however, just wasn’t done very well in my opinion.
the side characters have usually been able to pick up the slack that the plotline has left in previous books, but they just weren’t really doing it for me in this book either. i loved nate and his arc, i care for him like a son, so i am in no way speaking about him; if it wasn’t for his presence in this book, it probably would have only gotten two stars. i enjoyed janelle and vi, but everything that they did in this book felt so similar to everything that they had done in the previous books that it just felt repetitive and boring to me. i didn’t like a lot of stevie’s internal dialogue because so much of it had to do with david, and everything that didn’t have to do with david wasn’t developed enough to feel like anything more than two-dimensional teenage issues.
i don’t know, this one just fell very flat to me. with that being said, i will probably still continue this series, but i will do it very wearily and with the subconscious assumption that the downward trend in the quality of these books is likely to continue.
nine liars follows stevie as she investigates her third case, the murder of two young adults who died on a vacation with their seven friends years prior. as her investigation progresses and she uncovers new facts about that night, she discovers that the string of burglaries in the neighborhood that police suspected to be connected to the murders might not have been connected at all. worse, she begins to wonder whether the true murderer is one of the seven survivors.
i went into this book with the intention of reading something silly, and yet it still managed to disappoint me. i had a fun time with the original trilogy and the box in the woods, but from those, i understand johnson’s writing style and her typical plot choices and, from that, am able to go into her books not expecting much more than a fun time. even with those low expectations, this book just fell flat to me. i hate david with every fiber of my being and the fact that basically the entire first half of this book revolved entirely around his and stevie’s relationship made it almost unbearable to read for me. the second half of the book might have been enough to garner a higher rating from me if the investigation and her conclusion hadn’t felt so rushed. the fact that she chose to end the book as she did also just didn’t really do anything for me because i just do not believe that this case needed to be split amongst more than one book; if even a quarter of the first half had been taken out and the investigation had started sooner, i feel that whatever she is going to do with the next book could have happened in this one instead.
again, i have read her books before, so i knew what i was signing up for going into this book. however, everything that saved the previous books for me just wasn’t present in this one, primarily the absence of a truly compelling mystery. i guessed the true killer and their intentions, as well as everything surrounding the murder, almost as soon as the investigation truly began. i am not saying that a predictable plot twist automatically makes that twist bad, because i do think that it can still be good if it’s done well. this one, however, just wasn’t done very well in my opinion.
the side characters have usually been able to pick up the slack that the plotline has left in previous books, but they just weren’t really doing it for me in this book either. i loved nate and his arc, i care for him like a son, so i am in no way speaking about him; if it wasn’t for his presence in this book, it probably would have only gotten two stars. i enjoyed janelle and vi, but everything that they did in this book felt so similar to everything that they had done in the previous books that it just felt repetitive and boring to me. i didn’t like a lot of stevie’s internal dialogue because so much of it had to do with david, and everything that didn’t have to do with david wasn’t developed enough to feel like anything more than two-dimensional teenage issues.
i don’t know, this one just fell very flat to me. with that being said, i will probably still continue this series, but i will do it very wearily and with the subconscious assumption that the downward trend in the quality of these books is likely to continue.