Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

CBR11Bingo: Youths!

The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson

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Maureen Johnson has contributed short stories to YA collections that I’ve read before, but The Vanishing Stair and its predecessor, Truly Devious, are the first stand-alone YA novels (Youths!) that I’ve read by her. The Vanishing Stair, in my opinion, really improves on the first book — mostly because it focuses solely on my favorite character, Stevie. However, you really need to read the first one before you read the sequel so go run and do that before you read my review. I’ll wait. “He looked a […]

Teenage Sherlock Holmes

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson

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Ahhh, Maureen Johnson books, always with the cliffhangers. I should know by now, but couldn’t resist picking up these two books in her unfinished Truly Devious series. At least the second book is out and I found that cliffhanger to be much less nefarious than the first book’s cliffhanger. Ellingham Academy seems like a pretty dope place despite its dark history. It’s a private school in Vermont for bright young students of all kinds. Essentially you just have to reach out if you want to […]

Not My Cup of Tea, Unfortunately

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

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 I really did not like this book very much. At the same time, it is clear I am really not the intended audience for this book. Man, I really hate writing reviews like this, because while I didn’t like it, I can see that someone else probably would, especially someone younger, and this being a YA book, that makes total sense. So, I’m prefacing this with the disclaimer that I am a Cranky Old and so if you are not a Cranky Old, take this […]

All Filler No Killer

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The Ellingham Academy has a dark and famous history. In 1936 Iris Ellingham and her daughter, Alice, were kidnapped. Albert Ellingham, a man so rich he can start a free private school in the hills of Vermont, tries to pay the ransom to have them returned, but to no avail. One clue to the crime is a mocking riddle received days before they disappeared, and signed ‘Truly, Devious’. Cut to the present day and the school is still open and accepting students. One of those […]

“This entire exercise was stupid.” Never truer words spoken

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17 year old Ginny receives a package of envelopes from her estranged Aunt Peg, the first letter instructing her to get on a plane to London and to not read any of the other letters until she has completed the task set in the previous one. Peg has set up an account for her that will (supposedly) cover all the crazy antics she has planned for her niece over the summer. In London, Ginny stays with Peg’s friend Richard, befriends an artist called Keith, and […]

1 great story + 2 decent ones

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This book is basically the winter equivalent of a summer beach read, so what would that be? A ski trip hot tub read? It definitely requires a cup of hot cocoa. “Something about me has always liked the drama and inconvience of bad weather. The worse the better, really.” Let Is Snow is made up of three stories, each written by a YA author and each linked in a general way — some characters overlap, and they all take place in roughly the same town. The first story (the […]



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