* 3.5 but rounding down *

When tragedy strikes where can one turn if not an island job where you give tours to a mansion known famously for the curse that befell the owners? ‘Death at Morning House’ is Marlowe’s chance to start over but thrown into a group of other guides she finds herself in the middle of grief over the recently deceased she has trouble finding her footing even more so as a whispered lost treasure lurks beneath the floorboards.

A story with split timelines are some of my favorites especially when it comes to unraveling a whodunit like mystery however there are times when you find yourself more intrigued by one mystery vs the other and this book sadly fell into that category. As much as I enjoyed Marlowe and the idea of giving an island tour of a stricken old mansion I wanted to live in the past with the family who owned the house to begin with.

The entire dynamic of these six perfect children losing their seventh sibling and the constructs of their upbringing along with what ultimately shatters that perfect image had such a strong hold on me and I wanted an entire book with just those characters and plot. When we moved to the present, while a decent mystery, it is still one I have read before with a cast of characters I too have seen so there was nothing really new there to keep my attention.

I wish these had been separate stories but still paired together they work well and there is a sense of completion there when you reach the final page but man do I wish we spent more time in the fractures of the past.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

This was an awesome little queer story where the lesbian solves the mystery! I loved this book and couldn’t put it down. The characters were great and so well done that my interest was just captured. I plowed through this book like it was nothing. It was so well done and the large cast of queer characters made my little gay heart so happy! Very engaging storytelling, highly recommend!

The cover is stunning and the premise is interesting, but I could not get past Marlowe's narrative voice. She comes off as incredibly immature and hyper-fixated, to the point where I couldn't get invested in her. It's a shame, because I feel like the scenes from the 1930s were cool and could have built toward a great mystery. Unfortunately, I couldn't stick around that long.

When i see a new YA thriller/mystery coming out, i HAVE TO GET MY HANDS ON IT! The book takes place in the same place, which is a mansion that has a lore to it. You get dual timelines from the Ralston family in the early 1930’s and present time from Marlowe Wexler, who is very quirky, and very much in love with girls that kicks the story off with a very much failed date.

Marlowe is very much in love with Akilah and is ectastic when she agrees to go on a date with her. She plans it all out, buys a candle with Akilahs favorite scent which quickly all goes down hill when the candle starts a fire( how could she imagine a candle she spent $30 could explode?!) long story short..it’s a failed date. Marlowe is embarrassed, fired from her job, feeling guilt an opportunity arises that she can’t refuse. Becoming a tour guide at the infamous Morning House. Morning House has been renovated and for the first time, opened up to tourists where the Ralston family- a known scientist, and his ex celebrity wife, sister and 7 kids reside. The family was very known for their lifestyle they abided by including obsessions with health. Tragedy stuck and their 4 year old son, max drowned and the very same day, their oldest daughter, Clara committed suicide, jumping to her death.

Marlowe steps foot into the mansion feeling off, and feels something else has happened here after talking to her new friend. Riki, who happens to be obsessed with the crime. While she is there, another tragedy strike, her boss, Belinda Henson, goes missing and her and her new friends she has met try to uncover the crime. Secrets are revealed as she gathers the pieces of the puzzle about what truly transpired.

overall, this is a very quick, fact paced read. I think it started off slow and it truly didn’t get interesting for me until about 50% through the book when the mystery really starts to unfold. Marlowe tended to annoy me slightly here and there always commenting on wanting someone to like her, commenting on girls appearances during the wrong time. When Henson goes missing one of the girls strips down to jump into the water and of course, she makes a comment about her not minding a cute girl in underwear. Why? I don’t think the twist was truly shocking to me.

Thank you Netgalley and harperCollins Children’s books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Well-loved and highly respected as an author by yours truly, I will of course read anything that Maureen Johnson writes, even if it's a grocery list. Her new stand-alone novel is wildly more addictive and interesting and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt just how amazing and versatile of an author she is. I couldn't turn the pages quickly enough and really enjoyed the main character, a self-described "accidental arsonist". Highly recommended and can't wait to own this one in print! Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher. It was such a treat!

Thank you to NetGalley for this. I want to start off by saying that I was into the book, I just felt like some things fell flat for me. I expected more of the reveal of what happened to Max and Clara, i also wanted more from what happened to the lady in the house. Marlowe’s character was quirky and I really liked that. Overall, that was the only thing that saved it. But I did enjoy the story. I wanted to hear more of Carla’s thoughts and what she felt before she died.

Was worried about a non-Stevie Bell book - but I shouldn't have been! Marlowe is an amazing and nuanced character all on her own. The book follows Johnson's typical storyline - story in the present researching story in the past. But it still works. I was captivated by both stories and absolutely did not see the ending coming. Annoying because in retrospect, every single clue was there!

Anyway, I hope there will be more Marlowe books!

A very similar plot structure to Truly Devious of current day + historical flashback. The historical murder mystery is more solid than the present day, which I think was also the case with much of the Devious series, and it's frustrating to be invested in the past murder only to change chapters to current day. It honestly feels like a leftover story that Johnson couldn't use for Devious.

The narrator is an empty placeholder for the reader to self insert as they read. She has Johnson's snappy, sarcastic, self deprecating voice, but we don't learn or become invested in her as a character. Devious had a developed character in Stevie, and fleshed out side characters; this story's present day characters are flat and inspire no interest in the present day mystery/murder. The present day mystery felt like an afterthought, something required for the structure Johnson uses in her most recent books, a vehicle to use to unravel the mystery of the past.

I don't want more Stevie Bell stories. I would love to read Johnson write an adult mystery, if she's not writing under a different name already. She can nail writing teens but their ages feel shoehorned in for the sake of publishing in the YA genre and what's underneath is a ability to write adults. Teen protagonists box Johnson in and I would love to see what she can do without the restrictions of YA. I would also love to read a novel that doesn't rely on the flashback structure.

All in all, a fun read whose structure is familiar and comforting. Johnson is skilled in crafting mysteries and this one is just a riveting.

I loved this mystery, the blend of contemporary and past, the characters, the canny, flawed and beguiling narrator. The beginning was practically zany. A perfect blend of so many of the things I love about Johnson's books, mixing in some of her lighter earlier books with the true crime grit of her mysteries. While I was anxious for the next Truly Devious I was very happy to have this.

This was such a great YA mystery and I loved that we got multiple different POV of the days before the deaths that happened at Morning House in the 1920s that caused the family to flee the house and never return which was unfolded so well and I thought I knew what happened and it took me completely by surprise. The modern mystery at Morning house with the death of one of the teen tour guides before the job even starts that opens up the position for Marlowe to work there and get away from the disaster of life at the moment to the fact that their boss goes missing just kept you guessing. Poor Marlowe had the worst first date with her girl crush that anyone could have and just wanted to get away for the summer and instead she ended up neck deep in a mystery and trying not to get murdered. All in all, this was a great mystery that really keeps you guessing until the end.

Thanks to HarperTeen and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

This book was amazing and I devoured this book in just a few sittings! I loved the character development and how the story progressed.

Can Maureen Johnson write anything but an outstanding book? DEATH AT MORNING HOUSE, her latest, suggests we should all stop expecting anything but perfection from Johnson. Riveting, with a twisty murder mystery driving the plot and fully developed characters that reel you in, this book is simply fantastic. I loved every last page.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC!

It opens with the worst first date ever and I couldn’t put it down.

I absolutely loved Marlowe’s voice throughout Death at Morning House. She is self aware, awkward, and hilarious. Her descriptions of her co-workers is great, albeit sometimes insulting.

He had the widest mouth I’d ever seen outside of a muppet.

The first act moves a little slow but Marlowe’s humor does some heavy lifting to keep it all moving. In these early chapters, I was more interested in the history of Morning House than I was in Marlowe’s experience with being exiled there for the summer. Much of what she goes through is very slice-of-life.

It’s a summer job, she does summer job things.

The only modern day death to occur, within the first act, happens before the story even starts and does affect the relationships between the characters.

Then someone goes missing (trying not to spoil things here) and everyone runs around looking for them. Eventually they conclude they are no longer on the island and assume an accident happened, echoing an accident happening in the past.

We watch a murder get planned in the past and then spring forward as a massive storm moves toward the island to trap Marlowe and her coworkers just in time for her to realize that the missing person had been murdered.

I was pushed out a little when Marlowe comes to realize that a murder took place. She does so off the smallest of evidences, which could have easily been washed away or from came from anything else.

The third act is action packed, people get drugged, there’s climbing out tall wet windows, and things heat up, but the the reveal of the murderer’s identity felt very Scooby-Doo.

How could it not? There are only a few other characters on the island and they didn’t all get equal screen time. There wasn’t really a lot of room to have us follow smoking guns for each character simply because of the tightness of the setting.

The ending wraps everything up nicely, the murder(s), the consequences, and the effect of everything on all of the relationships.

I highly recommend Death at Morning House for everyone looking for an end of the summer read.

This was a fantastic YA thriller. It was set on a mysterious island in a house where two deaths had occurred. It flipped back and forth between the past and the present and I loved the slow unweaving of this mystery. This was a very readable book and hard to put down.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for providing me with an arc of this book! I do have to say out of all of Maureen Johnson’s writings, This one was my least favorite. I loved the whole mystery aspect and where it was going, but I feel like a lot of the writing was focused on the main character trying to emphasize her sexuality. Every other paragraph was her describing how she was attracted to one of the girls in the group, or she was commenting how depressed she was that she was not with the girl she originally liked, at least half of the book was her having an inner monologue of her checking out EVERYONE or her failed relationship. I feel like there were loose ends with the deaths, unnecessary drama that really did not add to the story which turned out to literally just be lack of communication. I think the main thing I didn’t like was just the main character was not mature at all and it was a distraction, she really didn’t do any research or investigating, everything she found literally fell into her lap by accident. The only person who did all of the detective work was a character who I will not name. She was the star of the show and should have been the main character.

A captivating mystery that oscillates between the details of two mysterious deaths that took place during the 1920's prohibition era, and a string of strange occurrences in the present day at a remote, historical home. The Morning House was originally inhabited by the Ralston family and their seven children. After two children die suddenly, the family leaves the island, unable to recover from the tragedy. Many years later, the house is inhabited by teens working over the summer to provide tours of the historical home with its twisted history. One teen, Marlowe, begins to unravel secrets from the past as similar tragedies seem to befall her peer group. This is a fun standalone mystery perfect for fans of the Truly Devious series.

I’m not a huge historical fiction person, so Johnson’s historical prologues always throw me off a bit, but then I get into it. (I actually really like the way she writes the past.)

This is not a Stevie Bell mystery, although it’s similar in a lot of ways (positive). We get a sapphic mc though! An absolutely useless and hilarious & (seemingly) neurodivergent lesbian. I love her, and being in her head is so fun. Somehow, Johnson is able to maintain the same slightly goofy style the whole way through, even with all the murder and danger. Sidenote: Johnson is so much better at writing her love interests than she was for Stevie. There’s a bit of a love triangle here, but it’s sapphic and I like how it’s handled!

She’s so good at somehow making her mysteries spooky! I legit shouldn’t read them alone at night. I got fully creeped out.

The twists and turns almost made me want to reread the whole thing, which is how you know it’s good.

Overall, highly recommend. I even have a bit of a book hangover.

Thanks to Netgalley for the EARC! It’s out August 6.

I have to admit that as popular Truly Devious is at my school, I haven't gotten around to reading it yet--mainly because it's always checked out! So this is actually the first Maureen Johnson book I've read, and I can't wait to read more! Death at Morning House follows the main character Marlowe Wexler who, after a failed date that ended up in someone's guest house accidentally being burned down, takes a job at Morning House, a mansion on an island that holds a mysterious history. It was owned by a family from the 1930s and had been abandoned after two of their children died the same day. On this island Marlowe meets up with five other teens, all of whom have known each other since nearly birth. They have all taken summer jobs working with the tourists who come visit the island, and they have their own mystery to unravel. My only trigger warning is that there is discussion of eugenics in the book as the father who owned Morning House was a believer, and this does influence some of the story line. Overall, however, the mystery unravelled well, and the story was paced well, balancing light-hearted moments with action and some very good laugh lines. I do recommend this book for all high school libraries and thank Net Galley and the publishers for the ARC.

While browsing #NetGalley, there's always a book or two that you request even though you KNOW you will get rejected, because What If. Well, what fucking if!?! I was accepted to read an ARC of Maureen Johnson's "Death at Morning House." YAY!

["The fire wasn’t Marlowe Wexler’s fault. Dates should be hot, but not hot enough to warrant literal firefighters. Akilah, the girl Marlowe has been in love with for years, will never go out with her again. No one dates an accidental arsonist.

With her house-sitting career up in flames, it seems the universe owes Marlowe a new summer job, and that’s how she ends up at Morning House, a mansion built on an island in the 1920s and abandoned shortly thereafter. It’s easy enough, giving tours. Low risk of fire. High chance of getting bored talking about stained glass and nut cutlets and Prohibition.

Oh, and the deaths. Did anyone mention the deaths?

Maybe this job isn’t such a gift after all. Morning House has a horrific secret that’s been buried for decades, and now the person who brought her here is missing.

All it takes is one clue to set off a catastrophic chain of events. One small detail, just like a spark, could burn it all down—if someone doesn’t bury Marlowe first."]

My ARC didn't come with a map, it being an ARC and all, but I was still a little sad (I'll survive).

But I did LOVE how the book had 2-3 chapters from Marlowe's POV, and then it switched over to the Ralston Family POV (the original owners of the Morning House), taking turns through the individual family members to show us readers that the Ralston Family wasn't as perfect as the prologue (a Life magazine article) insinuates. It was brilliant (and it added that second layer suspense through a second mystery).

It took me a while to get through this book, NOT because it wasn't good (it was GREAT), but because life and stress and other books debuting (and my lack of impulse control) and whatnot getting in the way. The hook for this book did take a bit to catch you though, so many that was it as well.

But when it did hook you!?! Holy. Fucking. Shit. So much murder and secrets and treasure and "accidents" and wow. Just wooooow. The moment everything started to come together? I don't think I breathed for the last like 2 hours of this book.

Everyone needs to buy this thing when it comes out on August 6, 2024. Ev. Ery. One.

#deathatmorninghouse #maureenjohnson #thriller #yathriller #murdermystery #yamurdermystery #books #bookstagram #bookphotography #ilovebooks

Marlene Wexler had a very bad day that began with kissing and ended with a fire.

After the fallout from that day, Marlene needed a summer job. Her parents decided that she also needs to get away for a little while. That’s how she ends up giving tours, along with several other teens, at Morning House, a mansion built on an island in the 1920’s.

Marlene figures that there’s a low risk of fires at her new job, but then people start dying.

I loved Marlene and her dry, sarcastic wit! I also loved the duel timelines with the Ralston family in the 1920’s leading to the tragic deaths of two of the Ralston children and the mysterious deaths happening at Morning House in the present. This was a fun, fast paced read that left me hoping for a sequel.