Reviews with content warning for Murder - Nine Liars

Okay this may be the worst in the series. I still found it entertaining enough and I didn’t mind Stevie and her friends having some real coming of age moments but the internal monologue about David got old quick. I have a few concerns about her priorities since she was so consumed by thoughts of him while trying to solve a missing person/murder case.

The mystery itself was much less solvable in my opinion. I did catch one of the main clues but I had a hard time connecting it to a killer since the cast was so big. I don’t know how I feel about this child going to spend the night at a house where someone is almost certainly a murderer. Stevie doesn’t have a very good sense of self preservation, which makes for a better book but is going to catch up to her someday.

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bella_cavicchi's review

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funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I love the Truly Devious series. The books don't always hit the mark, but I don't really mind. Give me teen detectives solving cold cases! Why not! That said, I felt that the murder of the 90s far surpassed the present-day narrative here, and so my one complaint (if big) is that I wanted to spend the whole book in the Nine's company. It may also be my Cambridge/London bias...

A delight to devour all the same.

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lindsaysofia_25's review

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

I am Maureen Johnson's biggest fan! There's something so wonderful about her writing style and I'm always impressed by the detailed plotting. This is an author who was made for YA murder mystery, honestly. This novel, and the entire series, encapsulates exactly what I love about this little subgenre of mystery wherein the point is to watch a genius protagonist solve the case, rather than observing the case unfold as the reader yourself. I just love being inside Stevie's mind! At times, I was laughing out loud at the narrative style, and at others I was completely enthralled by Stevie's thought process... it was fantastic!

I have to also point out that this book balances the coming of age and romance aspects inherent to a story following a high school student against the mystery very well. Stevie and her friends feel like real high schoolers, all the way down to being extremely horny at inappropriate moments. The themes in the mystery also serve the personal stories of the characters well and vice versa, which helps everything tie to together nicely.

I just love the depiction of the Nine in the flashbacks to '95, and the dynamic the surviving ones have in the present. I am a sucker for these dysfunctional, friend-cestuous, deeply connected friend groups depicted in books ever since reading Secret History, and Nine Liars really delivered on that front. Honestly I'm also impressed Johnson managed to introduce all of them and get me to remember their unique characters without just overwhelming me considering there are nine of them that all appear in the story at the same time.

Last but not least, two quick comments on particular plot elements. First, I really like that it winds up being Peter and I think putting his flashback right before Stevie explains it was very well-done. Readers saw what happened and his mindset at the time (which can only be described as sociopathic) but it wasn't graphic, which is important for YA (and my sensitive constitution). Second, I like that the mystery is resolved, but the novel ends on a cliffhanger in Stevie's personal life. Readers have enough intrigue to await another book, and Johnson signals that there will be another in this way, but since this part of the series is really a set of spinoffs from the original trilogy, the novel is still self-contained. While I love the trilogy and I do enjoy how intricate the plotting gets when you have three novels on a single set of mysteries, I also think that this and Box in the Woods were well-served by essentially being the literary equivalent of a bottle episode, where the mysteries are solved under time constraints.

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tanvi45's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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agiraffereads's review

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Okay, so I'm probably gonna get a lot of hate for this. But I'm gonna say it anyway because this is my opinion on the book.

I liked the general idea, the mystery is intriguing.
But I was so annoyed with the details. This is supposed to be a young adult book, but the main people being investigated by the MC, which are the nine liars, are all sleeping around with everyone in their group, which the book clearly states. Also there are multiple gay/lesbian couples, no hate on that in general, just it gets quite a bit of attention (yes I knew there was one lesbian couple from the main series) and then at some point one of the other side characters has this whole talk with the MC that he is asexual and is like explaining it, etc. I just hate that it has to take up so much of the story that the mystery is just on the background. This is a young adult book for petesake. Idk in my opinion a ya book does not need this much attention on stuff like that. It felt like propaganda for the lgtbq+ community and not like the mystery book it claims to be. Hate me all you like for being honest but I was excited for the mystery, and it did not deliver.

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guessgreenleaf's review

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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lenaricharz's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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bookishlysophie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The clues in this book have a subtly and I love how it all connects in the end. An incredible standalone case in a solid series and something I’ll keep coming back to reading. I’d highly recommend.

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