Book Review: One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus

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Synopsis:

Yale hopeful Bronwyn has never publicly broken a rule.
Sports star Cooper only knows what he’s doing in the baseball diamond.
Bad body Nate is one misstep away from a life of crime.
Prom queen Addy is holding together the cracks in her perfect life.
And outsider Simon, creator of the notorious gossip app at Bayview High, won’t ever talk about any of them again.

He dies 24 hours before he could post their deepest secrets online. Investigators conclude it’s no accident. All of them are suspects.

Everyone has secrets, right?

What really matters is how far you’ll go to protect them.

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My Review

“Let’s face it: everyone at Bayview High hated Simon. I was just the only one with enough guts to do something about it.
You’re welcome.”

There is something about this novel where you can’t put it down. If this is ever turned into a TV show, I would binge-watch it. This is Gossip Girl as a YA Thriller. The characters are the stereotypical Breakfast Club but I love that movie so I ain’t complaining. Five characters walked into a room, only four walked out.

Each character had a secret that they didn’t want to get out, which Simon was all but ready to hit publish on his gossip app the very next day; so who did it. The novel is told from the perspective of the four suspects; Addy, Bronwyn, Nate and Cooper. This allowed us as the reader to get to know each character’s story, something that if told from a single narrative we wouldn’t have gotten to see. The twist of who did it I didn’t see coming; it seemed so obvious; all the clues were there and that is what makes this such a great novel.

As this is a story set in the modern age, the story uses social media to heighten the tension within the story. The ‘killer’ is writing anonymous Tumblr posts revealing what went down in the detention room. Things that only the people who were there should know.

This story has well-fleshed out characters, backstabbing, and online gossip. This isn’t just a story about finding a killer, but about how that hunt affects the lives of these four individuals. It’s a unique story with a brilliant narrative, and I’m glad that I picked it up.

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