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ONE OF US IS BACK: Das fulminante Finale des SPIEGEL-Bestsellers ONE OF US IS LYING by Karen M. McManus
36 reviews
zombiezami's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
4.0
I’ve been impressed with this author’s ability to weave a complex mystery while also giving satisfying character development to multiple characters in each book. With this book, I feel like the characters might have gotten unwieldy because the character development felt more uneven. Knox was a POV character in the last book, but not this one, so he wasn’t developed much at all in this one. The fact that he and Phoebe didn’t get together officially until the end didn’t make a lot of sense to me. I found myself wondering stuff like: did Cooper’s dad ever come around to Cooper being gay? What about Addie’s realization about being bi?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Cancer, Sexual content, Suicide, and Car accident
hematthews's review against another edition
adventurous
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Pregnancy and Alcohol
david_slack110507's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
3.75
I've been looking forward to reading this book because I've really enjoyed the previous two books in the trilogy. I attribute them as being part of the reason why I got really interested in reading back in 2022. Even though I don't fully remember each book in the series due to me reading them 2 years ago, I feel like this book did a good job to make it clear what the previous two books' plots were and what you need to remember from them to know for this book's plot.
I liked how it brought the cast of characters from the two books and had them all fully interact and within the same group as it allowed for characters that wouldn't really have interacted all that much without sharing scenes, and so this allowed for the two sets of characters from each book to have friendships with one another such as Addy and Phoebe as well as if it was brief like Phoebe and Nate. It also allowed for these characters to grow as they were given more screentime and it even allowed characters from the original One of Us is Lying book to come back and have some closure such as Keely and Vanessa, the latter of which, got surprisingly a lot of depth and screentime to develop and reform her character.
The plot was also pretty good as it once again centred around taking revenge against someone who had wronged the perpetrator and while it was obvious that the reintroduction of Jake into the narrative would mean that he would be somewhat involved with the main plot, the way that it was done and how it was revealed was well done. I didn't really guess who could be behind the new 'game' though the explanation and the backstory effort put into who was behind it was satisfying. I liked the flashbacks to before the events of One of Us is Lying as it meant that we could see Jake and Simon's relationship as well as also getting to flesh out Simon's character as we don't actually see a whole lot of him in the first book despite him being the cause for all the events that happen in this series.
I'm interested in reading Karen M McManus' other books as I have all of the ones that have been released and I just haven't gotten around to reading The Cousins as well as You'll Be the Death of Me despite having them for a good while. Either way, I enjoyed reading One of Us is Back and I just found it to be an easy and quite a quick read for me seeing as I've had a bit of a reading slump that has really slowed down my reading progress as well as it being a good and satisfying ending to the series/trilogy.
I liked how it brought the cast of characters from the two books and had them all fully interact and within the same group as it allowed for characters that wouldn't really have interacted all that much without sharing scenes, and so this allowed for the two sets of characters from each book to have friendships with one another such as Addy and Phoebe as well as if it was brief like Phoebe and Nate. It also allowed for these characters to grow as they were given more screentime and it even allowed characters from the original One of Us is Lying book to come back and have some closure such as Keely and Vanessa, the latter of which, got surprisingly a lot of depth and screentime to develop and reform her character.
The plot was also pretty good as it once again centred around taking revenge against someone who had wronged the perpetrator and while it was obvious that the reintroduction of Jake into the narrative would mean that he would be somewhat involved with the main plot, the way that it was done and how it was revealed was well done. I didn't really guess who could be behind the new 'game' though the explanation and the backstory effort put into who was behind it was satisfying. I liked the flashbacks to before the events of One of Us is Lying as it meant that we could see Jake and Simon's relationship as well as also getting to flesh out Simon's character as we don't actually see a whole lot of him in the first book despite him being the cause for all the events that happen in this series.
I'm interested in reading Karen M McManus' other books as I have all of the ones that have been released and I just haven't gotten around to reading The Cousins as well as You'll Be the Death of Me despite having them for a good while. Either way, I enjoyed reading One of Us is Back and I just found it to be an easy and quite a quick read for me seeing as I've had a bit of a reading slump that has really slowed down my reading progress as well as it being a good and satisfying ending to the series/trilogy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Car accident, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Classism
amachonis's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Alcohol
annamwallace66's review against another edition
challenging
dark
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? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
moonfromearth's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Coming off of You'll Be the Death of Me my expectations were really low for One of Us is Back. However, due to loyalty to the One of us series I vowed to read its finally installment and was... Actually pretty surprised to enjoy it a lot! Blasted through it in two days and can say that it was a good book.
It contains pretty much all of McManus's usual tropes that you're likely to recognize if you've read her books before, but this one felt less tied down to the teen drama cheesiness because many of the characters are now halfway through college or about to graduate high school. I found that made the characters seem to have a lot more depth in this installment, and I think that McManus's writing could benefit from writing some more of these older perspective characters. It was very cool to see what characters were chosen to be the perspective characters since the cast has grown so much since the first book, and I was really glad to see more of Addie since she was one of my favorites in the first two books.
Overall, One of Us is Back isn't the most thrilling of mystery novels, as it serves more as an extended epilogue to the stories of the characters in One of Us is Lying and One of Us is Next. It takes on a much slower pace, once in a while remembering that there's a mystery going on between moments that work towards wrapping up the crew's plotlines. Despite that, I still enjoyed the book, and would recommend the series as a whole. The One of Us is Lying series is a guilty pleasure for me. I've been following it for around seven years now and, despite its flaws, was a reading experience I'll always hold dear.
It contains pretty much all of McManus's usual tropes that you're likely to recognize if you've read her books before, but this one felt less tied down to the teen drama cheesiness because many of the characters are now halfway through college or about to graduate high school. I found that made the characters seem to have a lot more depth in this installment, and I think that McManus's writing could benefit from writing some more of these older perspective characters. It was very cool to see what characters were chosen to be the perspective characters since the cast has grown so much since the first book, and I was really glad to see more of Addie since she was one of my favorites in the first two books.
Overall, One of Us is Back isn't the most thrilling of mystery novels, as it serves more as an extended epilogue to the stories of the characters in One of Us is Lying and One of Us is Next. It takes on a much slower pace, once in a while remembering that there's a mystery going on between moments that work towards wrapping up the crew's plotlines. Despite that, I still enjoyed the book, and would recommend the series as a whole. The One of Us is Lying series is a guilty pleasure for me. I've been following it for around seven years now and, despite its flaws, was a reading experience I'll always hold dear.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, and Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, and Alcohol
bec_9's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Drug abuse
Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Homophobia, Blood, Vomit, and Alcohol
burnourhistory's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Stalking, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Cancer
luananki's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
this was a perfect ending for the bayview crew, i’m very happy i finally got to read it
although some of the characters felt a little off, i had so much fun with the mystery and the characters’ development and i’m going to miss their little group
although some of the characters felt a little off, i had so much fun with the mystery and the characters’ development and i’m going to miss their little group
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, and Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Stalking, and Death of parent
Minor: Infidelity and Alcohol
beckyyreadss's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
4.0
I wanted to read this book as I really enjoyed this series so far and was intrigued at which member was going to be back. This book was confusing at times, but I'm glad that it got the ending the guys deserved.
This book follows the gang from the last two books who are still in Bayview. Some of these characters are Addy, Nate, Phoebe, Maeve and Cooper. Ever since Simon died in detention, life hasn’t been easy for the Bayview Crew. First the Bayview Four had to prove they weren’t killers. Then a new generation had to outwit a vengeful copycat. Now, it’s happening all over again. At first the mysterious billboard seems like a bad joke: Time for a new game, Bayview. But when a member of the crew disappears, it’s clear this “game” just got serious, and no one knows the rules. Everyone is a target and now that someone unexpected has returned to Bayview, things are getting deadly again. The thing is, Simon was right about secrets – they all will come out, eventually. And Bayview has a lot it’s still hiding.
I love being back in Bayview and seeing how the crew was doing even if there was more stress for them during this book. I love that all my favourite couples are still strong and there was no petty breakups over the situation at hand. My favourite part in any mystery book is when the pieces of the puzzle starts to make sense and the killer is revealed. The chapter where the killer and the motive are revealed is written brilliant and the suspense is nail biting especially because Karen manages to drag it on from several points of view that you are waiting just for the answer and what had just happened. I love the friendships that are in this book and that they all stayed closed. My favourite character will always be Nate, I just wanted to hug him to death during this series as he has not had it easy.
The thing that stopped it from being five stars was Jake. That boy was such a pain in the ass, and I just wanted to punch him in the face. I was also a tad confused when I started this book because I read the second book in 2021 and I couldn’t remember what happened in the second book and some of the side plots from the characters weren’t in my brain, so I was just playing catch up. I would have loved a recap at the beginning of the book.
I would have liked an epilogue with all the crew being happy and successful and how Bayview was doing. Maybe that will be a book in the future, but I want Nate and Bronwyn to be parents, Maeve and Luis traveling, Cooper and Kris being happy and parents. Addy and Keely being happy and just everyone getting the hell out of Bayview.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, and Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Drug use, and Alcohol