33/100: The Hand on The Wall

I promptly texted my friend "what the crap!" after finishing The Hand on The Wall. The journey through the Truly Devious series has been quite the ride. No doubt if COVID had not happened, I would have devoured the whole trilogy in the span of 2 weeks. Kindle holds are a thing, though, so I had to wait like a peasant (and practice patience) and instead finished the series in a span of several months... no big deal, I guess. It made the enjoyment last longer :)

The series surprised me in so many ways and gave me some hope for the ever-expanding YA genre. The Hand on The Wall was probably my least favorite in the trilogy, a-la Mockingjay style (if you know, you know). I genuinely feel like this last installment could have been parcelled out in such a way that the series could have been a duology. The first half trudged a little because it was basically a litany of Stevie's thoughts. Don't get me wrong, I like getting inside her mind because she is a fascinating character. It was mostly her reflections and feelings on everything that had gone down so far; some of it felt a little unnecessary, and as such, could have been absorbed into the second book.

The last half was where crap really went down... and I read it in one sitting, neglecting baking and history papers. I fell head-over-heels watching Stevie do her thing and stick to her guns. I'm a sucker for cliche, mystery-novel tropes and welcomed the scene at the end where all the suspects were gathered together in one room. As much as I love a good mystery story, I am truly terrible at piecing the clues together and calling the ending, so I am usually delightfully surprised by the culprit(s). This ending really threw me for a loop, though, and many of the facts divulged to us through passages from the past made my head spin a little.

I'd say there are generally two pieces of evidence that a book is good: 1) You devour huge chunks of it, even the whole darn thing, in one sitting; and 2) You put off writing trivial little things like final writing assignments to finish it. Unfortunately, that is what I should be doing right now, so I will leave you with this concluding thought on the Truly Devious trilogy: please do yourself a favor and read it!

Stats:
Completed: May 8
Rating: 4 stars
Pages: 369