Andrew Fendrich's Reviews > Truly, Devious

Mixed feelings on this one.

On the one hand, I have to give Johnson credit where credit is due: it was a clever mystery that really had me guessing until the end. (It's also the first of a trilogy so the mystery wasn't resolved.) The writing had its moments of wit and charm but also some stereotypical YA clichés.

On the other hand, here is a perfect example of how saturated our culture is with progressivism. I'm giving the book 3 stars because I don't want to come across merely as being triggered by the never-ending stream of post-postmodern snipes at conservative values; still, the characters in the book (mostly teenagers who I couldn't relate to at all--maybe because I'm a curmudgeonly old man or maybe because they were all exaggeratingly angsty) didn't seem like real people at all. They were just instruments in Johnson's hands to push a narrative that our progressive society desperately wishes was reality: social outcasts tearing down the traditions of conservatism and saving the day.

If the defining characteristic of postmodernism was "you speak your truth and I'll speak mine," then the defining characteristic of post-postmodernism is, "If I speak my truth over and over again, it will become objective reality."

For example: How many times is the politician Edward King referred to in one form or another as a "rich, racist tyrant"? (One character says of him that "he just wants to return us to the bad old days." At that point I sighed and said to myself in my car, "Jeez, Johnson should've just named Edward King "Ronald Prump" instead.") Or, how often are the protagonist's parents seen as backwards, traditional, suffocating old people? One more example: The protagonist, Stevie (who, to the surprise of absolutely no one, made her parents mad by cutting her hair into a pixie cut--random side rant: please, PLEASE, progressives, stop using the cliché of short hair to show how radical your women are), says of Edward King's supporters: "They believe in aliens but they deny climate change." This one was particularly annoying. Do progressives really think that conservatives are just a bunch of tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theorists? But as I mentioned, post-postmodernism says that if I repeat my truth over and over again, it will become objective reality. If we all collectively gather and agree that conservatives believe in aliens, then they won't have any choice but to succumb to our reality.

Speaking of reality: One professor (a female who, to the surprise of absolutely no one, has a peach-fuzz short haircut, muscular arms, and thick hairy legs) has a sign in her classroom that reads "I reject your reality." So on the one hand, these radical, liberated 21st Century characters reject your reality; and yet, on the other hand, one lesbian student chastises the protagonist for not using her girlfriend's preferred pronouns of they/them. But, I thought we were all about rejecting others' reality? I guess the sign should've said, "I reject your reality, but you must bow to mine."

But there's the ultimate takeaway: Progressivism will ultimately eat itself. And thankfully, objective truth will win in the end.

Other than that, like I said, not a bad story, in terms of plot development. And my family had a good discussion over it.