Satan Reviews- Books: Jolly Foul Play (Wells and Wong #4)

Jolly Foul Play (Wells and Wong #4)

Robin Stevens

Puffin

Warning for Spoilers.

This series makes me really happy for some reason. Idek why. It's just really cute.

Jolly Foul Play was another notch in Robin Stevens belt and another excellent addition to the series. Well written, enjoyable characters and it was really hard to put down. I had to force myself to stop reading so I could sleep because apparently it's something I need to do.

I only had one problem with this entire book and it was the suspects. I don't know why I did, but I always got them confused with each other. Five suspects isn't even a large number of suspects. I blame lack of sleep.

One of my favourite things about this series is that one of the main characters is a woc. Hazel is wonderful and for some reason her and Daisy's friendship makes me really happy. Idek. 

The characterisation in this novel is wonderful. Even characters who haven't featured much in previous books seemed to have developed as characters. Hazel has grown so much since the first book. She's even more confident than ever and believes in her own abilities.

This is the second book set at their school, Deepdean. This time a student has been murdered. But a student that was almost an adult, so it's not like a child died or whatevs. And it's up to the Detective Society (AKA a group of mildly messed up children) to solve the case, and actually prove it was a murder because adults don't listen to kids.

In this book you get to her 13?? year-olds argue over discuss whether Elizabeth deserved to die. Fun... I think it's good that you actually see the girls have a small moral dilemma so not full on Poirot at the end of Murder on the Orient Express, that isn't ridiculous. Elizabeth was awful to everyone and Stevens tried really hard to make her sympathetic, and in a way, she succeeded.

The Detective society is getting pretty big. I mean one dorm of girls (five), at least one boys and possibly a maid. At this rate, the entire school will know it exists. Tbh, they probably do. They don't seem to be very good at keeping the secret society a secret.

I don't think I figured out who the murderer was. Doesn't help that I got all of the Five confused. Especially Una and Enid. I honestly have no idea why as well. Probably because I'm great at reading... Which was fun at the end when it was revealed that Enid was the murderer 

Also, hurray for the lesbians! This is good representation, even if it's limited. Because, often with books with a largely female set of characters, there's nothing at all. And this book, that was written for slightly younger readers basically just said, "look, lesbians existed in the 1930's" . Which is nice. We need more positive representation of LGBT characters, especially in YA and younger novels. I also like Hazel's response because, as the narrator, she provides the tone for the book. By being cool with lesbians, she's made the entire book have a more positive slant towards lesbians. Which is good for younger readers who are still learning about these things. 

But enough about lesbians...

There was a lot of drama in this book. The secrets that got a child kidnapped, someone else murdered, some children attacked other children, lesbians, the whole thing where Daisy got jealous over Hazel having other friends (a boy, OhMyGoodness). Hazel rightly slapped Daisy in a sort of badass, why are they fighting????? 😭, kind of way. Their friendship makes me happy, okay? Idek why. It's very sad. You can't judge me.

The next book has already been published and I should be getting soon. Can't wait to read it. 😄

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.