Truly Devious: Book Review

 

Title: Truly Devious
Author: Maureen Johnson
Genre: YA Mystery/Contemporary

Synopsis: “Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place” he said, “where learning is a game.”

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym, Truly Devious. It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.” (Goodreads)

My Review:

Since I have been in a reading slump for awhile, I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and try books I normally wouldn’t pick up. Truly Devious was one of those books and I am actually grateful for that reading slump because I would have missed out on this fantastic book!

One aspect of this book that I really liked was how the chapters were separated by past and present. It helped to really bring the mystery to life and suck you in! It sucked me in so much that I read it until I couldn’t keep my eyes open and then continued to binge read it when I woke up. The past and present chapters also made the plot quite intriguing from the beginning because of the past being the first thing you read about.

The plot twists were ones I didn’t see coming. This is great when this happens because I want to be surprised as I read. Of course, I had speculations and even when I thought I knew who the culprit might be it only covered the surface. Let me tell you, that ending was insane!

As for the characters, I didn’t feel too connected with Stevie Bell but this book doesn’t make it a hit or miss when it comes to connecting with characters because to me it is more plot driven. I did enjoy reading about Stevie because she is obsessed with crime and wants to solve the case. She is full of determination and its one quality that I love about people. Although she never would have imagined the mystery going the way it did.

Overall, this was a great read. If you are into mysteries then I would suggest checking this book out!

 

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