When I first read the synopsis of Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson, I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of the book; it just screamed murderino!

But unfortunately, this one was a miss for me.

Honestly, if I had known this was a trilogy, I probably wouldn't have picked it up. I was so frustrated with the pacing and then with the "To be continued..." at the end. Ugh. The very last page was so out of the blue it left me more annoyed than anything.

The characters also fell a bit short for me. I didn't like the main character much at all, so of course that put a major damper on my reading. But I also didn't care for any of the side characters either.

I thought the pacing was wicked slow and I found myself getting frustrated with that. There was also quite a bit of repetition and many errors with formatting and grammar that I noticed. On numerous occasions, I realized that I had no interest in picking the book back up when I had taken a break. But of course, I stubbornly pushed through.

The book didn't really interest me until I was very close to the end. But then, of course, when things started being revealed, it felt rushed and a bit sloppy to me. And then it just abruptly ended, much to my disappointment as I didn't know that this was a trilogy.

Overall, I think this is one that I enjoy the idea of more than I enjoy the actual work, unfortunately.

I'm on the fence with whether or not I'll continue with the series. Part of me is interested to find out what happened both in the current timeline and in the past, but a larger part of me just doesn't care. But who knows! Maybe I will read the second book and have better luck.

Let's end this one on a better note with some passages that I really enjoyed:

Let if go, for real. Go full Frozen.

Stevie had no fears of the dead. The living, however, sometimes gave her the creeps.

There is something about early mornings that changes your perceptions subtly. The light is new; no one has put on the defenses of the day. All is reset and not quite real yet.