Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson

e-Audio, 09:23:24
Narrated by: Katherine Littrell
Release Date: August 6, 2024
Published by: HarperTeen
Read from: August 1-4, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received a copy of this e-audio from Netgalley & the publisher in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Fire/Fire Injury, Death, Murder, Grief, Eating Disorder, Suicide, Infidelity, Racism, Animal Cruelty
For Readers Interested In: Mystery, 2sLGBTQ+ (Lesbian), Romance, Historical, Irregular Timeline, YA

   From the bestselling author of the Truly Devious books, Maureen Johnson, comes a new stand-alone YA about a teen who uncovers a mystery while working as a tour guide on an island and must solve it before history repeats itself.
     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?

*MY THOUGHTS*

As usual as soon as I saw that Maureen Johnson was writing another mystery I added it to my TBR. Doesn’t take much for me to want a book from her lol Was I upset that it wasn’t another Stevie Bell and Truly Devious book? Yes. Was I going to read it anyway? Absolutely.

The beginning of this one was so weird lol I didn’t know where it was going when I first started reading it. And then the THING happened and I was very confused. No weirder than Johnson’s other books, but still. Usually she starts the book when the person is already on the way to the place they’ve been banished to lol So this was weird but good and I couldn’t wait to get to the mystery.

The characters were funny tho. Marlowe was hilarious. I still can’t believe all of this happened because she had a crush on a girl. And like girl, I love love, but she was doing too much lol I hated that she just wanted to get closer to the girl and then that happened. Definitely wasn’t what she was expecting at all I’m sure. But the way she handled it was crazy. But she went on to do some amazing things on that island. And I will say, I liked that we didn’t learn everything about her at once. This made it feel no info dumpy and that was perfect.

The mystery was weird. I liked that we went back and forth from the past to the present. And it wasn’t giving us too much at once so there were no spoilers. I liked it so much. But I did think this one was a little more weird than her others. The “dad” was terrible and I hated him. Everything they mentioned about him was terrible. I couldn’t figure out how in the world people kept giving him kids! But it all made sense in the end. So please, don’t let this man keep you from reading it! You NEED to get to the end.

I don’t want to say too much more about this since this is a mystery, but I will say the ending had me say out loud, “WTF!” Because when it happened it was just mentioned so casually lol They were so proud. It caught me off guard. So please, read this and let me know if you feel the same. I need to know I’m not alone!

Overall, I give this