Review: Nine Liars

 I can't describe how sleepy I am as I'm writing this, I really can't. Because I am so close to falling asleep but I am writing this because my insomnia of a bitch would keep me hella awake. So, here I am catering to the needs of the readers who rely on my views on the latest stuff on the market.

Senior year at Ellingham Academy for Stevie Bell isn’t going well. Her boyfriend, David, is studying in London. Her friends are obsessed with college applications. With the cold case of the century solved, Stevie is adrift. There is nothing to distract her from the questions pinging around her brain—questions about college, love, and life in general.

Relief comes when David invites Stevie and her friends to join him for study abroad, and his new friend Izzy introduces her to a double-murder cold case. In 1995, nine friends from Cambridge University went to a country house and played a drunken game of hide-and-seek. Two were found in the woodshed the next day, murdered with an ax.

The case was assumed to be a burglary gone wrong, but one of the remaining seven saw something she can’t explain. This was no break-in. Someone’s lying about what happened in the woodshed.

Seven suspects. Two murders. One killer still playing a deadly game.

QUICK THOUGHTS AND REVIEW: 3.4/5, MAUREEN JOHNSON DIDN'T REALLY TRY HARD WITH THIS ONE.

WHAT DID I FEEL ABOUT THE  BOOK'S: 

1. Writing Quality: The writing quality was nice, I'd say great even, considering I really ABSOLUTELY love how Maureen Johnson sets the vibe for the story. Like all this dark and mysterious and murder-y, if you know what I mean. And I really absolutely adore how I get the vibes from this book and I'm all in for it. But other than that, it ends with the good stuff there. It had such an amazing premise and so much potential to be developed as a story, but instead ended up being monotonous and kind of a filler story. Kind of like, little tidbits of stories we get after the actual story has ended. It didn't feel like a real book to me.

2. Character Development: Okay, I have huge complaints about this because like, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. While I do understand at some points that Nate, Janelle or Vi aren't much highlighted in this book because they're like, supporting cast, but they've always been an integral part of the story. And not seeing them in the book much also like very much angered me. I thought that they seemed very unidimensional to me? Like, I know them from the original trilogy, and I know what tics and quirks they possess. There was no need of repeating that, actually? Like seriously wasn't. I do love the part where Nate comes out to Stevie, and that's a really emotional and touching moment, but beyond that, I don't see a hint of character development from the supporting cast. Stevie isn't much better though, her character remains in the same state of limbo as Book 4 and it's always about David. Like seriously, even in the trilogy it wasn't so much about David than it was in the latter two books. Like seriously, the pining and obsessing over David needs to stop or tone down for real. And like was it necessary to repeat the fact that Stevie wanted to have sex with David? I mean, it could have been implied. Also the David X Stevie drama, stop. Seriously stop. Seriously, it made my head hurt.

3. Couldn't put it down- Ness: 6/10 basically. Basic like fucking vanilla ice cream.

4. Plot Twists: I was actually surprised to see there weren't any plot twists? Or Stevie as is her usual manner finding a Eureka moment? It was so disappointing to be honest to actually see a mystery getting solved like fucking Mary Sue. We know that Stevie Bell is a girl who's always facing difficulties while doing her investigations and not finding any semblance between in between the original trilogy and this book really threw me off my grid.

5. Plot: I kind of feel sad for this book because it had great potential to become a good series. I was kind of hoping it would become a series because stuffing all of it into a book ended up in a haphazard thing in the previous one. But I was so disappointed to find out it became a standalone. Like seriously, why a standalone, I love me a good detective series and I just can't accept a detective story in a single book. Like where was the drama? Where was the juice? WHERE WAS EVERYTHING!!?? I think the original  mystery wasn't even properly focused on which is just a sad waste of plot.

OVERALL, A KIND OF DISAPPOINTING READ, the end made me go what the fuck though.