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Title: One of Us is Lying
Author: Karen M. McManus
Publisher: Delacourte Press
Publish date: May 30th, 2017
Genres: Young adult fiction, mystery
Synopsis:
Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on 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 all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?
Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Despite One of Us is Lying having been published back in 2017, its surge in popularity has been more recent— and even so, I was late to the party. And what a party it was!
I went into this one without knowing a thing about it apart from the fact that it was made into a TV show. I’m not usually into mysteries, but when I saw a copy at my local secondhand store I decided to try it out.
Despite being a young adult novel, McManus writes in a way that weaves YA with general fiction quite beautifully. There are moments when you wouldn’t know it was a YA novel, and I loved that about it.
But hey, if you haven’t picked this one up yet, maybe you’ll want to give it a shot!
Pick up your copy and let me know what you think!
The Pros:
- As mentioned above, it reads above its presumed demographic, but in a good way. Sometimes it’s nice to “dial it back” from more serious adult topics and see similar topics from a YA lens.
- Admittedly, I’m never the best guesser with who-dunnit style novels, but this one reeeeeally kept me on my toes. I could guess, and guess, and guess, and I was still wrong when the answers were revealed.
- The characters gave me serious The Breakfast Club vibes. Seeing different “cliques” come together over the situation at hand really had me humming “don’t you forget about me” for longer than I care to admit.
The Cons:
- Unfortunately one is my cons is kind of a biggie— there’s definitely a big mental health component to this novel, and for someone who struggles with her own mental health, it seemed like the character’s own issues and decisions were being glorified. I would caution those who maybe have difficulty with their own mental health against trying this one.
- When a suspect needs legal assistance, the legal representation part of the story is very, very unrealistic. Speaking as someone who works in a law firm for their day job.
- Pros can be cons too, sometimes. My above-noted comparison to The Breakfast Club is also a negative aspect because it means the characters are just so. heavily. stereotyped.
Overall:
I think this is probably the most controversial novel I’ve reviewed to date. Normally I have a hard time coming up with cons, because I jump to find things to love about every written work, and I struggle to criticize.
While it is young adult, I think some of the issues with realism are acceptable, however, because it is young adult, the way mental health is discussed is nearing unacceptable.
I don’t like to discourage you from reading any particular work because there are lessons to be learned from all writing. But this one I reiterate to proceed with caution.
If you do give One of Us is Lying a go, let me know what you thought in the comments below, or on social media!
Check out more of my book reviews for other recommendations!