Reviews with content warning for Car accident - The Box in the Woods

Johnson made Stevie dream of being like Hercule Poirot, but the foreshadowing fell flat with the 'grand reveal'. The point of Agatha Christie's mysteries is that all of the information is available to the reader before Poirot reveals his solution, but since the solution depended on Sabrina's diary which was only revealed in the 'grand reveal' itself, there was no way the reader could have tried solving the mystery themselves and that automatically takes off half of the fun in reading murder mysteries. Also making the killer a literal Nazi is sooo unoriginal and overused — I am no Nazi sympathizer (!!) but I've seen this so many times in all types of American media that you just can't surprise me with that anymore.

I was mostly annoyed with how the mystery was executed, but as a cherry on top I couldn't care less about Stevie and David's relationship either — I don't see what they are supposed to see in each other, and in my opinion Stevie is perfectly capable of being a strong female YA protagonist without having a love interest.

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laurenevlyn's review

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Another amazing addition to the world of Truly Devious! I greatly appreciated the fact that the case was introduced and solved in one book (as opposed to the slow revealing of information that occurred throughout the original trilogy). I have to admit, I’m not the biggest fan of David and Stevie (they’re cute but where’s the romantic chemistry??? Plus when he called her “Princess” 😑🤢) Nevertheless, I enjoyed all the characters and their quirks! I can’t wait to read Nine Lives (and the 6th book when it comes out)!

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marine2907's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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whewtaewoon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

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rissaandherbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

Incredible!! (I especially love Nate.)

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someryarns's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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hkburke2's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I like the school setting a little better, but hard to complain about a summer camp. I was thrown off that this was self-contained (unlike the first three/the original trilogy...) and I could've enjoyed more of the original timeline to add some meat, but I still just enjoy these characters and the writing. Just fun.

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