The Box in the Woods (Truly Devious #4)
Published June 15th 2021 by Katherine Tegen Books, ebook 400 pages
The Truly Devious series continues as Stevie Bell investigates her first mystery outside of Ellingham Academy in this spine-chilling and hilarious stand-alone mystery.
Amateur sleuth Stevie Bell needs a good murder. After catching a killer at her high school, she’s back at home for a normal (that means boring) summer.
But then she gets a message from the owner of Sunny Pines, formerly known as Camp Wonder Falls—the site of the notorious unsolved case, the Box in the Woods Murders. Back in 1978, four camp counselors were killed in the woods outside of the town of Barlow Corners, their bodies left in a gruesome display. The new owner offers Stevie an invitation: Come to the camp and help him work on a true crime podcast about the case.
Stevie agrees, as long as she can bring along her friends from Ellingham Academy. Nothing sounds better than a summer spent together, investigating old murders.
But something evil still lurks in Barlow Corners. When Stevie opens the lid on this long-dormant case, she gets much more than she bargained for. The Box in the Woods will make room for more victims. This time, Stevie may not make it out alive.
User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I just hope Stevie dumps asshole David and winds up dating her true love Nathaniel Fisher
Rating: really liked it
can this series have ten more books? thank you very much😭
Rating: really liked it
all the Nate content gave me life
AND I ACTUALLY LOVED DAVID??? who am i-
RTC(4.5⭐)______
Pre-read Review: All I need in this book is more Nate
Rating: really liked it
Ding ding ding! We have a big WINNER!
I loved this standalone more than Truly Devious Trilogy! It was amazing to see my favorite gang members back! ( of course I talk about Stevie- Nate and Janelle) Douchebag David is also back! But something magical happened in this book: I learned to tolerate David: I never fantasized to perform 100 ways of punching him. Especially at the last third of the story he earned so many brownie points with his contribution to solve the case and proved himself as a devoted member of the team. But I’m still watching him! I hope he doesn’t screw again and confuses Stevie’s mind!
Stevie is one of a kind. Most high school teens have different hobbies. Some of them into sports. Some writes…Some draws… Some dances… But Stevie solves crimes. She already solved Ellingham Academy’s coldest, very famous case which occurred mid 30’s.
Stevie is still quirkiest Queen: reminding me of my teenage years: whodunnit books, true crime addiction ( additionally she also devours true crime podcasts), suffering from anxiety issues. She’s interesting way to look at things and see the world from different view!
Now she is working at her summer job at charcuterie, cutting cheese in thin pieces, struggling not to fantasize how to kill the customers in 5 million creative ways.
But an email changes everything. Carson Buckwald, owner of Box Box recently purchased a camp site at Western Massachusetts called Camp Sunny Pines which was used to be called Camp Wonder Falls where the Box in the wood murders have been committed in summer of 1978 : 4 innocent camping counselors: young teenagers were massacred.
Now Carson makes a true crime podcast/ documentary about the camp and he heard about her brilliant performance at Ellingham Academy. He asks her help by providing her fully paid summer job at the camp. She can also brings her friends.
A big bold YES! This is the opportunity she’s been looking for. Janelle and Nat already says yes and David hmmm yes he’s always extra annoying who promises to join them later and wants her to keep him updated about events.
So the gang reunites the solve the 4 decades long mystery and this is where I’m shutting my big mouth!
This is unputdownable, addictive, exciting, one of the fastest reads of mine! I’m telling you this is so much better than trilogy and if you haven’t read Truly Devious series you may still read this book because the author summarizes the past events adroitly and briefly so you can catch it fast and take your ticket to this wild ride!
I’m giving my five murder mystery, quirky Sherlock Holmes meets Poirot apprentice, teen slasher vibes at the camp side, exciting, action packed thriller stars!
Rating: really liked it
Hi MTV, and welcome to my
purgatory crib.
Come on in. Make yourself at home. But also get homey while you're walking, because it's tour time. So...yeah. This is my humble abode and the location of my unrelenting mundane quasi-punishment.
Over on your left, you'll see a pretty good series starter, a mystery book with fun banter and completely unhinged and unrealistic characters but also an autumn-y boarding school setting. Highs and lows.
Up ahead, there's a slightly worse version of the same thing. No need to spend much time here. It'll only get less interesting if you keep thinking about it.
Okay, if we keep moving a bit, here we are at the original ending of the house. Not what you wanted, right? Pretty unsatisfying, as far as endings go. You kind of realize that the journey here was more fun than the conclusion. So it's no wonder that...aha! Another door. We built a surprise addition! We couldn't end there.
So finally, here we are. The center of the home, and the fourth book in the series. Where both highs and lows go to die. Nothing particularly good, nothing particularly bad - other than the pain caused by your memories of when things were better. Not good - never good - but better.
There's no way of knowing, but Maureen Johnson might just keep building. Aren't those memories, that nostalgia, your yearning for things to be as okay-to-good as they once were - aren't those enough for you to come back for the rest of the tour?
It's a pretty sh*tty house. But maybe it'll get better. There's always that.
Bottom line: Quick! Run, while nobody's looking! There's not much time, and like a Sarah J. Maas series, this tour will just keep going!
Bottom bottom line: Was this too abstract?
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pre-reviewthese books are not good and yet........they do have a certain something.
review to come / 2.5ish
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currently-reading updatestis the season
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tbr reviewi am so excited for this book and i am so certain i am not going to like it. we exist
Rating: really liked it
?!?! WHAT, WHAT, WHAT !?!?
THIS COVER IS PERFECTION!
Yesss, give me all the purple goodness.
The Box in the Woods is going to look so great on my shelves.
And Maureen Johnson, blessing us with more Stevie Bell?!
I mean, I just can't handle it.
Rating: really liked it
Will not be going camping anytime soon.
Rating: really liked it
Nate is one of the best fictional characters ever and I will accept no argument on this matter.
Rating: really liked it
Not to be dramatic but I'd die for Stevie...
I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MY EMOTIONS RIGHT NOW!
Rating: really liked it
as usual, nate carried
Rating: really liked it
OMG why am I knowing about this only now??? so excited!!!!
Rating: really liked it
STEVIE BELL IS COMING BACK STEVIE BELL IS COMING BACK STEVIE BELL IS COMING BACK STEVIE BELL IS COMING BACK ————————————————————————————————————-————
not surprised at all that i loved this!! hoping we get more from the series because of (1) reason: STEVIE BELL!!!!
Rating: really liked it
NO WAY!
(all i want from this is for stevie to actually get her moose lol)
Rating: really liked it
3/5
So this was a disappointment. I expected so much from this. I loved the previous three Truly Devious books and there was no reason I wouldn’t read this. Sadly it wasn’t that good.
I think a big thing that made me like it less was the setting. I didn’t connect with the summer camp vibes like I connected with the private school in the middle of nowhere vibes of Ellingham Academy. I feel the school setting really gave the story this unique feeling which is odd to say since so many murder mysteries take places at school but those were my feelings! I’m such a sucker for dark academia and this wasn’t dark academia because there was no school 😩
It seemed like a typical YA murder mystery. The format of the mystery wasn’t unique and my biggest pet peeve here was NO PLOT TWISTS. What. The whole plot revolves on finding a diary. Once they had it the mystery was solved. It was so disappointing and with the twists in the first three I wished we had had more of that here.
Stevie was so annoying here. I’ve never liked her or Nate (unpopular opinion) so having so much of them drained me. My favourite has always been David and his role in this book was so subpar and, quite frankly, I found him annoying.
Janelle was her usual good self which was relief.
The first few 1970’a flashbacks were so so good and got me completely hooked into the story. But once those ended and we were fully in the present time, I got bored. So many parts seemed unnecessary to me and there wasn’t any drama to make up for the lack of action. Everything seemed so odd. And when we had all those diary entries as well I got bored because all though they were revealing who the killer was, it seemed as if there was no stakes to anything.
The conclusion to the mystery itself was so bad. The murderer was a Nazi???????? That was the most random out of nowhere plot twists that made no sense in the slightest. I get the mentions of Germany were foreshadowing but still. It felt so odd to read. He got away with the crime and died free. If you have a nazi as your villain the least you can do is have them go to prison or, you know, get killed. It left such an unsatisfied tone and ending to the story.
Overall I wanted to like this but didn’t but if the next book takes place in England as I think it will be based on the hints at the end I’m in bc I adore mysteries in England <3
Rating: really liked it
WHERE IS DAVID?!
