Loved this book so much!! Such a great addition to the series! Can’t wait for the next book! 

“Truly devious” series is back and better than ever. Usually spin-offs are not as good as the original, but that is definitely not the case for A Box in the Woods. Stevie, now that she has solved the Ellingham crime of the century, is now in demand to solve other murders. A camp director offers Stevie a paid counselor role to come and bring her friends to help her solve the “Box in the Woods” murders of 1978 at the camp where they occurred. This book brings a new summer camp slasher thriller type vibe to the series and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Maureen Johnson truly delivered on the addict-ability of the books, matching if not exceeding the shocking plot twists of the first three books. When I tell you that I never in a million years would have guessed this, I am not kidding. I wanted to stay up all night reading this, but couldn’t because of school, and I went to bed upset every night that I couldn’t keep reading. This book seriously defied every expectation that I had for it, and I am so thrilled to see what new adventures Stevie is going on in the next books. Again, Stevie is such a complex and lovable character. We see straight into her thought process and experience everything with her, including a close up on her mental health struggles. These mental health struggles (anxiety and panic attacks) are presented in such an honest way, which many other books from different authors should take note of. Additionally, it should be noted that Maureen Johnson DELIVERS on the representation! Such good LGBTQIA+ rep!! Again, Maureen Johnson is giving everything and more. If you didn’t know already, I love these books. 
Age rating: 14+ (true crime gets graphic at times) 

2.25, and only because I thought this *slightly* better than The Hand on the Wall. Ugh, what a let down. I genuinely had high hopes for this because, like, look at the premise. Yet Johnson somehow turned this into a boring story with no atmosphere??

The biggest issue was the pacing. There was no thorough investigation of the murders as there was really only one track that Stevie investigated, making the plot THIN. Why weren't there proper red herrings??? And then ALL of a sudden, Stevie has solved the mystery. I'm not even kidding, it just happens out the blue when I thought there would be at least a chapter or more till the big reveal.

And to me, she didn't really solve anything, she just found a diary, and Sabrina did the rest.

In terms of the actual resolution, it was okay, though to me didn't quite fit.

It also felt kind of gross in that it felt like Johnson was capitalising on the concept of undercover Nazis without really addressing the horrors of Nazis and WWII.

The second worst thing was that I don't think Johnson did her research, which made it feel like a cash grab (this was not helped by the fact that the writing was a little sloppy and repetitive, which led me to think it had been rushed through the writing and editing process). Any person interested in true crime worth their salt KNOWS the significance of stabbing as a murder method, especially how many times a person is stabbed, and also knows that spree killers exist. These two things are incredibly relevant to the crime that took place, given four people were stabbed to death (a different number of times) in one night. Yet they are NEVER DISCUSSED. 

Finally, the characters. Nate was a true saving grace in this. I loved him, and I loved his character development (even if THAT felt a little rushed and behind the scenes). I also liked that Johnson set it up in the beginning that the story would only feature Stevie, Nate and Janelle, as I really like this trio and their dynamic. But then DAVID comes on the scene. His presence was simply unnecessary, and he was only included to offer some relationship drama, which wasn't needed as it took space away from the already thin plot.

The drama didn't even go anywhere, as Stevie didn't apologise for being rude and David is still going to England when they didn't even have a discussion about it. Also, the fact that David turned down the money reeks to me of more privilege than if he had accepted it?? Like, that random guy was only going to offer it to him??

Janelle was turned into an ornament which infuriated me. And Stevie herself felt flat and annoying (she is at her most irritating when with David), and the whole imposter-syndrome thing could have been played up so much more to give her some depth. 

So, yeah. I did not like this. I really hope Johnson doesn't release any more books in this series because I will feel obligated to read them as I am a completionist, but I have lost all faith that I might enjoy them. 

Fresh off solving the murders at her boarding school (the current ones and the ones from the 1930s), Stevie is invited to solve four murders that happened at a summer camp in 1978. 

I loved the original Truly Devious series and I love that there’s another one. Technically this book could probably be a stand alone, but for character development and to understand the references it’s best if you’ve read the first three. 

This book is somewhere in between medium to fast pace in my opinion. It’s primarily told from Stevie’s perspective, although it occasionally goes back to 1978. 

I absolutely did not expect the twist of who did it. There’s a bunch of information leading up to it but we don’t know all the evidence until it’s revealed by Stevie. 

NAZI’S?!?!

Not really related to the plot of the story, but I thought Nicole was so annoying and unnecessary. I thought maybe she’d redeem herself at the end but nope. 

I really liked this book, maybe more than the first three (which I really liked). I also love the characters. However, the clues weren't laid out in advance like they were in the earlier books; instead, there was a bit of an infodump at the end.

There are several things I loved about this book. For one, i just love summer camp horror. I love that even if you didn’t read the previous trilogy, there’s still enough background information that you could read it as a stand alone. the bringing back of characters made my heart happy. the development of friendship as a side plot made me so giddy. stevie is smart and has gotten less annoying with each book. this book was so interesting from start to finish. it started strong and it never stopped. there was nary a dull moment. the reveal was a wild twist but it made so much sense. i would absolutely recommend this book even if you haven’t read truly devious. also maureen johnson, if you’re reading this, please please write more about stevie and her friends. and if anyone else is reading this, like hbo or hulu or netflix, please consider a limited series of this book. it would work so well as a tv series. gosh i loved this book. please read it and please read truly devious. it’s light enough that it could satisfy people who love thrillers but don’t like the horror feeling but not too light that well seasoned suspense/thriller/mystery lovers would hate it. it’s a great middle ground for everyone. there’s so much more i could say about this book but i’m going to leave it at this. 

Honestly I didn’t know where this book would go, I felt like it would fall flat after the series. I felt like it wouldn’t hold up to the previous books but honeslty  this is probably my second favourite book in the series, first one being the vanishing stair. I felt like we really saw more into who Stevie was, whereas with the first three books we really saw her as this crime obsessed kid. It was nice to see the author dive more into Stevie’s anxiety problems, and as a kid with anxiety I could totally relate. I loved the little small town “Hallmark” vibe of the book. I loved how we learned more about Stevie’s triggers for her anxiety, and I love that she FINALLY got a love interest. I felt like her ending up with David was the perfect ending. Overall, I did feel like the mystery was sort of an afterthought as we really only see a progression in the solving of the case after around page 250.I didn’t mind this however because of how enthralled I was by Stevie’s personal life and her problems. I felt like the ending of the case was very satisfying. ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE PLOT TWIST. And I felt like Stevie finally relaxing and finally admitting her true love to David was an amazing ending. I hope that their will be another book with these amazing characters in it. (Maybe David was hinting at something at the end, I’d love to see Stevie solve some “real life” murder mysteries.)