One of Us is Lying | Book Review

One of Us is Lying

Written by Karen McManus
# of Pages: 360

Average Rating: 4.07/5 stars
My Rating: 5/5 stars

Published: May 30, 2017
Read in June 2017


Summary According to Goodreads

The story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Brownyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already of probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.

Only Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes them all suspects in his murder.

Everyone has secrets right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.


My Thoughts

This novel is one that was high on my "Most Anticipated" releases of 2017, and I was not disappointed! I read this novel over the course of a couple days, but each time I put it down I craved picking it back up. Eventually I had to sit and finish the last 100 pages in one go just to find out who the killer was!

There are four suspects in this novel, and it is written in a way that gives us each of their perspectives across the timeline of the investigation. These were such ordinary characters (a brain, a beauty, a jock, and a troublemaker), but the author was able to make them so unique while still keeping them relatable. One of my favourite things about this novel was how anyone could read this and find some part of themselves in a character. Was it racially diverse? Not completely, but there was diversity there. I think I personally related to Addy the most, going through a tough-time in order to come out of her shell and stand on her own. There was a lot of character development, and it was very well done.

This novel covered so many themes: friendship, betrayal, romance / young-love, family, drug abuse, and more. Nothing specifically felt like an add-on and instead it all came together to form a cohesive plot. I found all of their secrets rather interesting to discover, some more surprising than others but all, again, realistic to current high school students.

Reading this novel I was so nostalgic to my own high school career, and can't imagine being in the position these four were. I did guess who was behind Simon's death, but more in a "what if" scenario than being completely convinced.

I gushed so hard over the romance in this novel, because it would seem so random but it actually felt so real. It was frustrating at times but came together enough that once I finished reading, all I could say was "AWE!" Overall this was such a fast-paced, interesting thriller that you should look into reading! An exciting new release from a debut author that I will be reading more from in the future!