FINALY!!! I've been waiting for this book to come out for months! MONTHS!! As soon as I finished the original Truly Devious trilogy, I saw that Maureen Johnson was writing a fourth book to the series (not immediately connected to the original murder mystery nor Stevie's fancy, smart-people boarding school--that again, reminds me of Chatham): "The Box In The Woods". And it finally came in the mail! Of course, I immediately opened it and began reading it (well, after a nap--it had been a long-ass day).
["After solving the case of Truly Devious, Stevie Bell investigates her first mystery outside of Ellingham Academy in this spine-chilling and hilarious stand-alone mystery from New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson.
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."]Seventy pages in, when I realized the original Camp Wonder Falls murder wasn't just some simple ol' thing, when I got to /that/ plot twist/reveal, I might have started manically laughing (again, it was a long-ass day).
Also, the fucking plot twist, like I should THANK my mother and profusely apologize. Turns out, she's always right.
As for Nate, I've never identified with a character so much (over-exaggeration, sure), but the way he talks about writing, and not being able to write, and it being there but not /there/, is so fucking on. point., its scary (takes to the author who created him, of course, getting the struggle #writingproblems).
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