Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

24 reviews

taylorsevalia's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Self harm, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Confinement, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Pregnancy, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

likeactualsoulmates's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book would have been so much better if I hadn't gotten the twist spoiled for me. So I will review it like I didn't know the ending at all.

This was freaking enjoyable. Where the clues to the mysteries were very obvious -and I'll go more in-depth on that- how interesting all the characters were stepped up to meet it. I didn't continue reading this book because I wanted to solve this mystery, I read this because I liked all of the characters and was invested in their story. All of the four main characters had something unique and relatable about them, a struggle they were going through. And even the side characters were great. By halfway into this book I was more invested in their lives going well than in the mystery being solved.
The clues weren't that greatly hidden, at least for me. I think maybe they were meant to be obvious, and the characters were so distressed they couldn't easily connect them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Cursing, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Mass/school shootings, and Outing

Minor: Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Mass/school shootings

ghosty_mushroom's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Bullying, Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, Outing, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Cursing, Drug use, Homophobia, Terminal illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

abi_ineedtoreadmore's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

pagbasa's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Homophobia, Self harm, Suicide, and Outing

Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism

Minor: Terminal illness and Mass/school shootings

mary_johnston's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I first heard about this book a few years ago, from one of my classmates. She had brought it to school for English class -we all had to bring a book and kind of talk about it for a while- and the teacher actually asked who the murderer was and she answered, but good thing the memory of her reply is locked somewhere in my brain and cannot be accessed because it would've been such a waste to not discover it on my own.

What I'm trying to say is One of Us Is Lying is such a fun, and yes, tense at times, ride. The characters are all so lovable and feel concrete. The whole piece is just a mood, a vibe. My eyes scanned the last few pages, maybe a little too quickly, as I was asking myself what on Earth was I going to do now that it's over. At least Karen McManus altered the ending in a way that didn't make it sour, as I initially thought it was going to be.

Definitely glad I finally got around to reading it. And I can't stress this enough, I am going to miss The Murder Club so so much! They were all individually and so beautifully developed and interacted with one another in such a realistic manner that made everything even more believable than it already was.

I can't really say that the last chapters wrapped up the novel perfectly, but at the same time they also did?? I have no idea, I liked it a lot and that's final. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Drug use, Homophobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Mass/school shootings, and Outing

Moderate: Cursing, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

mllewellyn's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Good plot but under whelming 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

syd991's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I’m not sure how I feel about this book. The concept is interesting, but the writing didn’t sit right with me. I know there’s lots of people who enjoy this book, and I can understand why, it’s just not my personal cup of tea.

Each of the main 4 characters felt like a typical high-schooler cliche, you have the brains, the jock, the criminal, and the popular one. It’s part of the story, but it almost felt superficial for me.

I enjoyed the mystery aspect, although I feel like I could guess at it from the first few chapters. It almost felt too obvious.

I don’t know if I’ll pick up the sequel just yet, but I’m intrigued enough to watch the TV show adaptation. Overall, it was okay, I just didn’t love it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Physical abuse, Self harm, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Mass/school shootings, and Outing

Minor: Car accident

daniellearlotta's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Terminal illness

npak07's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, Outing, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide, Terminal illness, and Blood