I heard about this book through Epic Reads’ social media, as it’s the one (1) YA mystery they acknowledge the existence of. It’s also gotten a decent amount of hype from other readers, and I gave it a try because I wanted to read more mystery novels. Unfortunately, Truly Devious was not enjoyable for me.

The plot had so much potential—a remote boarding school, an unsolved mystery—but it just didn’t work. The story was told through dual timelines, one in present day and one in the 1930s when the mystery began. I didn’t care whatsoever for the 1930s narrative, and only a bit more about the present day occurrences. While I didn’t predict who would die, it was rather easy, in my opinion, to figure out the culprit.

I can’t recall many instances in which I cared more about the side characters than the protagonist, but that was the case here. Stevie is an awkward girl that loves true crime and mystery/crime media, misunderstood by her parents and most other people. Although I felt the portrayal of her anxiety and panic attacks was handled well, overall she felt quite plain. Her friends Janelle and Nate—the former a lesbian STEM student, the latter a famous young writer that’s rather grumpy and struggling with writing something new—were more interesting to me. I was especially interested in Janelle’s developing relationship with classmate Vi, who I believe is nonbinary but, at least, uses they/them pronouns.

If the story was told from another perspective, and that person was just trying to make it through school but got sucked into their friend Stevie’s attempt to solve both past and present mysteries....sign me up. I probably would’ve liked that more. I don’t have anything against Stevie, I just don’t care about her. Oops.

One thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was the romance. Stevie and David had absolutely no chemistry, and honestly, it felt like the author was just trying to check off something on a list. Romance? Check. Does it make sense? No, but it adds ~drama~ and besides, this book is YA. Of course there needs to be a random relationship subplot.

As for the ending, well, I was glad to reach it. I was too close to the end to ditch the book, by personal standards, so I pushed through. I know that it was setting up the story for the second book, but very little made sense. Nothing was resolved. It kind of felt like a waste of time.

So yeah, Truly Devious wasn’t my cup of tea. I’ll leave it at that.

CW: death, kidnapping, anxiety, panic attacks