Book Review: Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson

“Stevie’s brain had to hit a white-hot pitch of panic before it was willing to do any real work. It would work quickly then. It was a good brain, but it had only two modes—fog and frenzy.”

Maureen Johnson, Nine Liars

Review:

I figured I’d go ahead and pick up this book after I finished The Box in the Woods. After realizing my reading tastes have changed, I didn’t go into this one expecting the same enthusiasm as I did returning to the series after the original trilogy. 

Stevie is trudging through her senior year. With no cases to solve, everyone absorbed in college prep, and missing David (who’s at school in London), she’s mostly floating. That is, until David invites her and their friends to London for a visit. There, she learns about an unsolved case from 1995, and she’s back in her element. 

This book spends a lot of time on Stevie and David’s relationship, which I’m not interested in (yet again, a symptom of having largely grown out of the series and not the book’s fault, though it does feel like an offshoot of the series). The mystery was interesting and I was more invested in this one than the previous, but the focus was fuzzy with all of the high school stuff surrounding it. The book does end on a cliffhanger, and even though I’m not on the edge of my seat needing to know the resolution, I am curious to see how it will play out in the next book.

Likes & Dislikes:

What I liked:

• The mystery felt more aligned with the first book.

What I didn’t like:

• Way too much focus on the teenage romance, to the point it overtook the mystery.

Afterthoughts:

Although I might have enjoyed this book more a few years ago, I’m glad that I haven’t had to wait all of those years for book six.

Where to buy the book: