It really was a delight slipping back into the world of Stevie and co. The book hummed along with its excellent and clever writing, an entertaining mystery (I did guess the culprit about three-quarters of the way through, even though I rarely solve anything, but it was still engaging), and its now-familiar characters, who are so specifically described, flawed and loveable. Even the flashbacks, which were fairly prevalent and could sometimes get a bit info-dumpy, felt like miniature studies of those side narrators.

I do think that there was a sense that this book was somehow ancillary, almost like the noncanonical stories or novellas that are sometimes inserted between entries in a series. This was somewhat fitting for a book out of the traditional setting of the others and especially for one that takes place during summer vacation. But there was a noticeable focus on the mystery, without a balance with side elements from past books (e.g. Stevie’s struggles with her anxiety, her feeling of alienation) to round things out; the relationship drama which might have served this purpose came quite late and barely seemed to be dealt with.

Although I wouldn’t necessarily start with this one, readers who have enjoyed the other books in the series or Holly Jackson’s work will likely enjoy this jaunt as well.

"The Box in the Woods" was a thriller, mystery that should live on in readers minds for years to come. I went into reading this book not knowing it was a sequel however, it was not hard to pick up and follow along with at all and just like every Maureen Johnson book the story is thought out, written very well and leaves you in suspense. I went into this book because I love the author and the book cover was very interesting. I would not adapt this into my classroom however, I would suggest this to my high school students for summer reading options.

Fun murder mystery. The reveal is a little heavy handed but it worked. Fans of true crime will enjoy.

Thank you, NetGalley for the advanced copy for an honest review. Stevie and her friends are at it again. Stevie is back home for the summer bored and missing her friends. When Stevie is hired to solve another murder by a box billionaire, the crew heads to summer camp. The original murder took place in the '70s and Stevie is on the case. This book has the same banter and great relationship between characters we enjoyed in the original trilogy. Johnson does a great job of showing Stevie's thought process again and how her brain works when trying to solve the mystery. The action is fast-paced and the ending has a great twist. I loved being back in Stevie's world!

Summer Camp Murder Mystery!!! Let's head on over to Camp Wonder Falls to solve a cold case with our favorite true-crime aficionado Stevie Bell! Stevie is home for the summer and working at a grocery store. She gets an email from the owner Camp Sunny Pines offering her a job as a counselor to help him with his podcast about the murders that happened there in 1978. Stevie accepts and sets out to Barlow Corners with her friends from Ellingham Academy, Janelle and Nate!! Nate is still doing everything in his power to not write his second book and Janelle's partner is away in Vietnam which leaves their summer vacation available to help Stevie solve her mystery. Sadly, David was unable to make it due to demands of the campaign he is on. Do not worry you have not seen the last of him.

I really enjoyed this read! The town had many secrets to unravel. The book had twists I did not expect. It had all my favorite things from the previous books. Nate and Stevie's friendship is my favorite!! I am already a big fan of the Truly Devious series so I loved every second being back in Stevie's world. She goes all in with her work and it is fascinating to read how she thinks. I can't wait to see what Maureen Johnson has in store for the next one!

Ok so while the ending was a surprise to me and I didn't expect that, I was close!
I definitely was going down the right path..

I hope we get more Stevie in the future because her stories are insanely entertaining! We can now travel to England with her, hint hint.

I loved the themes in this book. The 90s slasher movies were my absolute thing growing up and the atmosphere of this one gave me what I wanted. The family themes flowed really well as well as the small town hating on outsiders feel.

I would have liked a bit more of Janelle and Nate.

Thank you to the publisher for the advanced readers copy 😊 all opinions are my own.

Alright, where to begin. I guess I’ll start with saying I am OBSESSED with the Truly Devious series. I flew through each of them the day they came out and I’ve read the series multiple times. I knew this book wasn’t necessarily part of the TD series but it was still a spin off of sorts and I was really looking forward to it. The Box in the Woods missed the mark of being a good follow up and I was pretty disappointed with it.
I am going to keep this review spoiler free.

Pros:
Nate—He’s still so great.

The setting—I love old slasher films and camp is always a great setting for a murder. The case Stevie is asked to solve is really interesting.

Cons:
The plot itself? The stakes never actually felt high and there was not much driving the plot. For me, part of that is the fact that the characters were kind of boring. They weren’t invested enough and didn’t seem to have any real drive.

Characters — They lacked the same spunk and charisma they had in the TD series. It’s like something had fizzled out in them.

The ending was…it was something. Random, choppy, sudden, and incredibly far fetched. Like just really out there. Unsatisfying to me but creative at least.

Overall, this was not what I expected and I am sad when I say I didn’t enjoy it.

Read this book in one sitting, as I did the previous books in the series. This is a standalone mystery, enjoyable even if you haven't read the first three books. It has a steady build and a very satisfying reveal at the end.

I recently read the Truly Devious trilogy written by Maureen Johnson, so I was delighted to see The Box in the Woods available on NetGalley. Stevie's amateur sleuthing continues, this time at a summer camp notorious for a brutal series of unsolved murders in the 70s.

The Truly Devious trilogy was a similar premise...Stevie works to solve a decades-old mystery (with murder) at the Ellingham school while navigating present-day mysteries as well. There are a lot of nods in all of the books to typical murder mystery tropes. Stevie even talks about Hercule Poirot's method of gathering the cast of suspects together to reveal the killer, which she then does at the end of both the trilogy and The Box in the Woods.

The summer camp murders in The Box in the Woods are equally evocative of slasher movies from the 80s, something one of the characters notes. In other words, there are VERY visible and obvious homages here to the mainstays of the genre. Does Johnson add anything new? Not really, Teenage sleuths who get pulled into improbable situations that dozens of investigators can't solve have certainly existed in many forms. Summer-camp slasher? Nothing new.

The ultimate reveal was interesting and the killer's motivation was a twist, but one accessory to the murder seemed a bit implausible to me. I also felt that the clues were very vague. It seemed like not much was really happening and Stevie was making no headway - and then all of a sudden she understood all of it. On one hand, it made for a nice surprise. On the other, it felt like the reader wasn't really allowed to even guess at what was happening as it was all obscured.

The setting and characters are fun, as they were in Truly Devious. The mysteries are interesting and have enough of a disturbing element to make them even more compelling. The reveal, as noted, was a surprise. There just wasn't quite enough revealed along the way to make this all work as well as Truly Devious. Additionally, The Box in the Woods felt even more firmly YA than Truly Devious. A mostly enjoyable, if ultimately forgettable, book that is likely to find an audience with fans of Truly Devious.

The Truly Devious universe lives on in Maureen Johnson's The Box in the Woods. Stevie and her band of friends are home for summer break when a new case falls into her lap (or inbox). Now the gang will spend the summer at a sleep-away camp in Massachusetts looking into a decades old murder case.

Like Truly Devious and its sequels, this book brings a young adult mystery in a fun setting. Instead of the remote forests of Vermont, we are in American summer camp, complete with an arts and crafts tent, lake, and creepy woods. Stevie is still the most endearing teen detective, and now she has a boyfriend (David). While the mystery is kind of far fetched, it is still great to be with Stevie and the gang as they get themselves into some hairy situations.

Read the Truly Devious trilogy before this one!

A new Stevie Bell mystery set at a summer camp that was the scene of quadruple homicide in the 1970s- I was hooked by the premise and the book did not disappoint! Stevie is given a chance to explore the “Box in the Woods” murder while being a camp counselor at the camp where the murders occurred, and the story alternates between the present time and the summer of 1978 at the camp. It’s delicious, and I found myself stopping periodically toward the end of the book because I didn’t want the book to be over! This is a must read for Stevie Bell fans, and it is an absolutely perfect book to lead you into the summer season.

Another absolutely wonderful book from Maureen Johnson! I loved the Truly Devious series, and was super excited to see Stevie and co back to solve another cold case. The change in setting from Ellingham to summer camp was enjoyable, as were the new cast of characters Stevie needed to observe and question. The mystery was very well done and the ending satisfying. I’m hopeful there will be another!

I LOVE NATE! I also LOVED this book!!

I finished this book in practically a day, I just couldn't put it down. The ending was surprising to me, I didn't guess the culprit at all, hahaha. The entire time I read this book, I kept saying to myself, "oh yeah, this is the murderer......no, this is, wait...maybe this person.." lol.

I've really grown to love all the main characters and the writing style keeps me engaged. Nate's character always makes me smile and I kept laughing at his witty banter. He is the best!

I can't wait to read more books with these characters!!!

Thank you so much to HarperCollins Childrens Books and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Maureen Johnson's latest in her 'Truly Devious' series is enjoyable but nothing to write home about, in my opinion. Once again it follows Stevie and her friends as they spend their summer at a sleep away camp as part time employees and part time murder mystery solvers. As usual this novel is a little bit Sherlock Holmes mixed with a teen version of CSI.

My biggest issue with The Box in the Woods is how Stevie is portrayed this time around compared to the previous 3 stories. All of a sudden her logical personality is completely thrown out, as she become a whiny teen who doesn't understand why all of her friends and boyfriend won't bend to her will.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for this advanced reader copy. The Box in the Wood will be published on June 15, 2021.

Here's what Truly Devious fans (like me) would want to know before starting this book (even though we all are compelled by our love of the series to read it anyway). No spoilers.
1. This is a one-and-done sequel novel to Johnson's "Truly Devious" series. Stevie solves the case by the end, don't even try to beat her to it, you can't. It's twisty.
2. In "The Box in the Woods" you get a 70's summer camp slasher mystery with Ellingham Academy pals Stevie, Nate, Janelle and David investigating/counseling in present day. (No Vi, no Hunter). Nate participates more this time around.
3. You will sincerely hope for more sequels continuing into the kids Senior year, college and beyond! I am thoroughly expecting David to get into some trouble only Stevie can get him out of. This book is in no way a series killer.
4. This is a quick, compelling read like the others. You look down and fifty pages have gone by in a flash. I wish it was about 50 pages longer.

When I read Truly Devious a few years ago I knew it was something special. While it was too YA for my middle school library and for the award committee I was reading for, I myself was hooked. Last year, during a lag time on the committee, I reread Truly Devious and read the other 2 books in the series - and bought them for myself (I don't buy many books for myself really). So, when I saw this on the Goodreads of a friend I rushed right over to Amazon to get it. Drat - not published yet, so the next best thing - get it on NetGalley and read it. Don't worry - I will be purchasing it for myself.

After solving the Ellingham mystery Stevie has time on her hands and no plans. When she is invited to work at a summer camp where murders took place in 1978 she jumps at the chance to work on another mystery. But for a long time she is stumped - was it a drug deal gone bad, a serial killer called the Woodsman, or something else entirely? Maybe it's just enough to find a mysterious missing diary of one of the victims... except that the diary is dangerous and could expose everything.

Loved this - favorite characters back, good mystery, and just darn good overall. Now I think I may need to read more by Maureen Johnson.

As always, Maureen Johnson's skill at detective stories is A++. Although this book was in a different setting than the original Truly Devious mysteries, Stevie is no less a compelling protagonist, and the twists are just as delightfully twisty. Did I worry the magic wouldn't be there if the book wasn't at Ellingham? Yes. Were those fears unfounded? DEFINITELY.

Stevie does it again. Maureen writes snarky young heroines like no one else. And the cast of supporting characters are truly hilarious and a great example of friendship through thick, thin, and murder. I fell in love with Maureen Johnson reading her lighter romantic comedies, and while I miss those, I am impressed with how she creates the same warmth and fun in suspenseful books like this one. She makes me like this genre more than I thought I would.

I have such mixed feelings about The Box in the Woods! I loved the original Truly Devious trilogy so I was excited to be back with Stevie and everyone else, solving a new (old) mystery, but this one never quite came together for me. This started out alternating chapters between the present and the past, but eventually became just the present and the parts about the past crime felt more like an info-dump than an organic story. The case also seemed to wrap up really quickly at the end and while I enjoyed Stevie's best Poirot, I also felt a little cheated because there didn't seem to be any way for the reader to come to the same conclusion based on what was in the text. While I didn't like this one as much as Truly Devious, it's a good summertime mystery and I'll be handing it to my library teens.

“The Box in the Woods” by Maureen Johnson

I’m pretty sure I could be the leader of the Stevie Bell fan club. After devouring books one through three of the Truly Devious series by author Maureen Johnson in one sitting, I was in no way ready to let go of Stevie Bell and her friends. Lucky for me, neither was Maureen.
Stevie is back, and this time she’s headed to summer camp. If you know anything about Stevie, you know she’s not exactly “camp counselor” material. But she’s been handed an opportunity to escape her less-than-exciting summer at home to spend a few months at Sunny Pines, formerly known as Camp Wonder Falls—the same camp where four counselors were found dead in the woods back in the 1970’s. The new owner of Sunny Pines only wants one thing from Stevie—for her to solve the cold case that has plagued the small town of Barlow Corners for decades—and she even gets to bring her friends along for some added extra fun.
However, it’s not long before we come to realize that not everyone in Barlow Corners wants Stevie to solve the mystery of Camp Wonder Falls. And when a family member of one of the camp’s victims winds up mysteriously dead, Stevie must do everything she can to keep her own head above water…or die trying.
I love a good horror film and the flashbacks to the camp during the time of the murders will remind you of some of the best ones to hit the screen. Remember that famous hockey mask worn by a familiar ‘crazy’ named Jason? Stevie and the rest of the cast of this murder mystery will leave you begging for at least a few more of the Truly Devious series. Coincidentally, a series that’s truly awesome to read!

Reviewed by Abbey Peralta for Suspense Magazine