"In life, the murderer is anyone. The reasons, the methods, the circumstances - the paths to becoming a murderer are as numerous as the stars.The Vanishing Stair was one of my most anticipated sequels for 2019 after falling absolutely in love with Truly Devious last fall. I was really excited to see what happened after that incredibly rude cliffhanger, and hoped to get more answers in this installment. 🕵️ I am pleased to say that we got some much-needed answers (& some new questions!), as well as more actual investigating, but overall this one fell into the middle book syndrome for me. It was an enjoyable and I will finish the series, but if I am being honest I could have done without the first 40% of this book.
My friend Hamad @ Book Prescription summed up my feelings pretty well in his review:
"The Vanishing Stair was what I expected it to be; an unnecessary bridge to the third book and this whole series could have been a duology."The book opens up with Stevie back home in Pittsburgh, her parents having removed her from Ellingham Academy after news got out about what happened - and Stevie's involvement - in the end of the book. She's trying to readjust to life back home while still obsessing over the Truly Devious case, but we as readers feel the same disconnect she does once she leaves the Academy. Lucky for everyone she gets back into Ellingham, but not without strings. And the longer she keeps that truth hidden, the worse it is going to be for her.
"Murderers aren't a type. They're anyone."I got 40% into the book before any real investigating started to take place, which was a lot more of a disappointing pace than in the first book. I feel like there was a lot of repetition and reiteration in the narrative of The Vanishing Stair, and in my opinion there is little of value that was added in the first half of the book to where the mysteries uncovered here could have been part of book 1 and it may have been stronger for it.
I was rather disappointed with the "secrets for getting back into Ellingham and the subsequent fallout" plotline. The conflict made little sense to me and I was left wondering why she even kept it a secret to begin with. (For conflict, that's why.)
I will say that this series has some amazing anxiety representation in it, and I really appreciate how Stevie's anxiety is almost a character itself in this book. As a person who suffers from chronic and crippling anxiety, it means a lot to me to see it depicted with care on the page and have it normalized.
Despite my not really enjoying myself for almost half of the book, once the investigation and clues begin to fall into place I was absolutely hooked! I really enjoyed how everything was unraveled slowly, and you can tell than Johnson has plotted the main points of the overall mystery with care. I'll admit that I guessed the big twist, but that isn't uncommon for me to do so it never really lessens my reading experience. I felt like the ending made sense and I am excited to see how things wrap up!
Overall, while this wasn't a perfect read for me it was definitely an enjoyable addition to the Truly Devious trilogy! You'll learn the solution to Ellingham's final riddle in this one, but there's still more of this mystery to uncover. Looking forward to seeing how this one ends!
REPRESENTATION: anxiety, nonbinary
CONTENT WARNINGS: mutilation, murder, loss of a loved one
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