Truly Devious
Truly Devious is a book written by Maureen Johnson. It is the first book of a trilogy, and it shows. It is very introductory, with the real action starting in the last third of the book. The first few chapters really hooked me in, but then the book got really boring. I thought this book would be a page-turner, full of mystery and plot twists, but it really was not.
The book is set in 1936 and in the present, where our main protagonist is Stevie, a true crime aficionado. Everything starts with the famous Truly Devious letter, a letter which seems to predict the murders to come. Throughout the book, I found the excerpts of the interviews from 1936, and in general, the chapters set in 1936 a bit boring. Nothing really seemed to be happening in those chapters. Not that the chapters set in the present were action-packed either.
At first, I really did not like Stevie, I found her a bit pretentious and pedantic. Maybe even a special snowflake. But as I read more and more, I started liking her a lot. She is a unique character, and I think it is really well-developed and coherent. I did not like though that Johnson gave her a love interest because it seemed a little extra to me.
Towards the middle of the book, the story starts to get full of suspense, with the clues slowly fitting into place. I was thinking of giving the book two stars out of five, but the last few chapters really got to me, and I ended giving it three stars in the end.
The ending is dreadful though, it is really an open end. The mystery is not really solved, and the last line is a cliffhanger about the size of a ship.
I think I will be reading the second book, A Vanishing Stair, soon. Not immediately though, since I need to forget how boring the middle chapters were and only remember the good feeling of the last ones.
★★★
2 comments
Great review! I've been curious about this book. It's a bummer about the boring middle, but at least it picked up in the end. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you! It's true.
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