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I am treating myself for my birthday, to reprising my new favourite series by the incomparable Maureen Johnson who has other great ones. I am pleased and proud that I was able to wait a year before reading the sequel. She cannot write about Stevie Bell and her 'non-crime mystery' quests fast enough for this clue-solving birthday girl.... in two days!

I am loving this novel and flying through it. While most would cite the 'science fiction' period and setting, this is a bonafide 'non-crime mystery' quest, which is why it is pleasing me immediately!

This is such a great novel, it isn't funny! Being unable to put it down is not an expression. I am actually walking around with it by day, even while looking forward to an excursion to town.

This is such a great novel, it isn't funny. Being unable to put it down is not an expression. I am actually walking around with it by day, even while looking forward to an excursion to town.

This is marvellous! We seldom see such a fresh, boundless imagination for a truly original story universe! The casual but observant and hilarious narrating and dialogue style are a dream to read too. Hello, my new favourite novel! I am glad Ron gave me the blu-ray as a birthday present last year.

Let's rock reading awesome books, birthday girl!

Beautiful, wonderful, unforgettable, compelling!

This is one of the "Hardy Boys" mysteries trimmed to too much unbelievable, constant action without much substance or story. It will have to pull off a dynamite ending to get more than two stars from me when I finish it shortly.

I am entering my birthday month! Yay! Once finished the book I have going; I reserve November to pamper myself entirely with authors, series, genres, books I am sure to love best. The week of November 18th itself and especially on my wonderful day, I treat myself to whichever books I have looked forward to the most: Michael J. Fox's autobiography sequel and the "Truly Devious" sequel. Pure comfort reading bliss!

I boogied through on the week-end and am at a point when even I am sharply interested in the answers to this gruesome chaos of crime mysteries. I tolerate one or two 'thrillers' per year, a dark step up from my preferred 'standard mystery' tone. I usually wonder why people go for these. What I get out of these stories is awareness of evil and signals and scenarios to avoid, caution of situations that are abnormal.

Not "cozy" in the least! I like that because I am grown-up. Cute covers and characters are not the gauge: tone and content inform the category labels. Please be warned that this series firmly belongs in "standard mystery". For the millions of people who overlook it, it is the middle ground between "cozy" and "thriller / horror": serious, dark, adult things like swearing (which I consider natural) but nonviolent.