“It hits all the same buttons. Stop. Go. Up. Down. It’s all the same anxiety. The curtains said fear and the floor said fear. the dark said fear, and if she turned the light on, that too would likely say fear.”
Maureen Johnson
If you know me then you know that I don’t really read mystery or thriller books because they scare me and this book was no exception. However, even though it scared me I was still on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next in this book
The Ellingham Academy is a school for exceptional students, who are strongly passionate and have. However, it has a long and twisted history is most known for the kidnapping and murder case of 1936, when the founder’s wife and daughter were kidnapped, as well as a student from that year’s class of Ellingham Academy. In the present day Ellingham Academy, Stevie Bell, a new Ellingham student, has one desire: To see a dead body (her words not mine). Though she doesn’t fit in with her everyday, run of the mill high school, she fits right in with the other students of Ellingham Academy. Stevie wants to be a detective who solves mysteries and resolves crime. Stevie wants to go to the Ellingham academy for the amazing opportunities but also to solve the mystery of the Ellingham Academy. The only evidence: a letter from Truly Devious, the one behind the murder. However, years later when another student is killed at the Ellingham Academy and is pronounced as an accident, Stevie seems to be the only one wondering whether Truly Devious behind this murder too.
One thing that I thought while reading this book was that there was a lot going on in the book such as issues with Stevie’s parents, romance, school, friends, and a lot of murders, and investigating the people involved in the murders. However, this is just the first book in a trilogy so I expect to have the loose ends tied up by then, and the cliffhanger in this book ties up one of the loose ends in the process.
Another thing that also confused/ bothered me was that the murder note was signed truly, devious, so shouldn’t the murderer be called devious instead of truly devious? It’s like if I signed my name on a letter, sincerely, Anjali. I wouldn’t be called Sincerely Anjali, would I?
This book reminds me of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None a little bit because of the way the unsolved murders keep piling up. There were a few references to Sherlock Holmes in this book too, so I would expect that Sherlock Holmes readers would also enjoy this book, but I can’t be sure because I haven’t read those books yet. However, one thing to note is that this book is geared toward a younger audience than Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes, it is for YA students but even though the main character was younger, I still found this to be a serious book.
This book was no doubt very good, and all of the things that were confusing or bothered me were small in the big scope of things. This book ended on a huge cliffhanger that kept readers on the edge of their seats until the next book and the main character is someone that I found I could rally with even though she sometimes makes cringe worthy decisions. But hey it’s the books that make you feel somethings that are the good books, right?
| Characters | ★★★★☆ |
| Plot | ★★★★☆ |
| Ending | ★★★★★ |
| Storytelling | ★★★★★ |
| Overall | 4.5 |
