Truly Devious: A Mystery (Truly Devious, 1)

This book was amazing! Technically is about high school kids, and there is brief mentions of drugs and brief scenes of alcohol, but this book is definitely appropriate for mature 7th-8th graders and older. Book takes place at fictional Ellingham Academy in VT, and is 75% in the present and 25% in the past, when a major crime happened at the school. Main character is relatable girl, Stevie, who loves to solve crime but also has bad anxiety. She talks about balancing all of that and school, tries to solve the 1936 crime. SO COOL

I’m honestly not sure what drew me to begin this series. In recent years, my reading of YA and liking it has been really hit or miss. In the case of Truly Devious, while I am intrigued by this first book, I’ll have to read one more book before deciding to keep going. This book has the typical “first” book feel to it. The reader learns about characters and spends time trying to understand the world, but it only has pieces of the story in it. There was not a lot of action in this book. I am still not a fan of dual timelines, but having notes on who connects to which timeline helps tremendously. I believe I enjoyed the most recent timeline as it gave me more insight into the characters than the past did. My favorite character is Stevie, but it isn’t necessarily because she is a good character or well written one, I just found her the least annoying of the lot. The premise of the school is for the students to learn and work on their projects within their own time without being confined to regular standards. It is this premise that keeps me wanting to find out what happens next for Stevie and those left at the end of book one. The pieces for a great series are there, but it hasn’t been fully demonstrated yet. This will definitely be a guilty pleasure read and I’m okay with that. I gave it 4 stars because I see the potential and I think the target audience-teens would enjoy it once the characters are given more to work with. I fully understand that I am not the audience this was written for so I will not hold it to my normal standards. Would I have read this as a teenager? Yes. Yes, I would have!

GAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! The. Ending.

I loved so much about this book. It is the exact life I wish I could have had as a young teen. (Minus people having to die.) I have dogged eared so many pages, marking those sections that made me love it oh, so much.

pg. 136 :: This was the page that *completely* sucked me in. I had been enjoying the book, but had been picking it up and putting it down for a day or two. However, once I reached this point, I could not put it down.

pg. 178 :: One of my favorite quotes: "The whole thing smelled like a thrift shop that had been baked in a low oven and felt like a too-tight and too-long hug by a rejected muppet." (laughed out loud as I typed it)

pg. 185 :: The brilliant description of anxiety and panic attacks. It's beautifully accurate.

pg. 188 :: "Stevie went outside. The morning was fresh and bright - big blue skies and shaggy, happy clouds blowing over the mountains. It was the kind of morning that mocked the fear of the night before. This kind of pleasantness almost made it worse. How could she be anxious when everything was so cheerful."

pg 197 :: "I think you worry too much," Stevie said. "Of course I *worry* too much," Nate said. "But I'm usually right. The people who worry are always right. That's how that works."

pg. 234 :: How Stevie helps Nate breathe through his panic attack and how she has dealt with her own.

pg. 258 :: "I think I'm fine. Maybe it hasn't hit me yet. Is that bad?" "It's not bad or good. It just is. That's something you'll find out if you decide to go into this line of work. You have to take things as they are, not how you hear they're supposed to be." That was one of the most sensible things an adult had ever said to Stevie.

pg. 318 :: The descriptions of Stevie as she struggles with expressing her feelings. Well stated and so incredibly accurate...esp. for a young teen.

All in all, I loved this book. As I reached the final chapters, I texted my husband (who was out running errands) and required that he stop at a bookstore before he came home to get me the sequel. ;)

Unpopular opinion, apparently. The first half of the book was incredibly slow. Also - I understand this is setting up a series, but in order for me to be invested enough to read the sequels, something, anything, would've had to have happened in this book. Seriously. Neither of the mysteries are solved, all we have is some weird new clue with no lead up and a riddle. I will not be reading the rest of the series. Also - i saw the twist about David being Edward King's son a mile away. The characters were underdeveloped and the love interest (and her feelings for them) were incredibly boring and not built up in a believable or compelling way.

Holds your interest. Didn’t realize it was part of a trilogy so now I need to finish it!