Reviews tagging 'Violence'

One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

164 reviews

mazreadssometimes's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.25

Romance: 2/5 wrinkly bell peppers

I don’t have any strong feelings about his book. I thought the comradery between the four of them was cute, and I was able to read it relatively fast, but I just wanted to know who did it. 

It was written through the four’s perspectives as they deal with the things that have been told about them on a vlog post before the person in charge of their vlog suddenly keels over in the detention they were all forced to attend under mysterious circumstances. 

I was semi-bored, semi-entertained

I don’t think I’ll be continuing to read the series. 

 

The whodunnit was pretty easy to pick out, even though the author tried to distract with various teaser phrases. 

I kind of felt like it would turn out with Simon having been the one to unalive himself the whole time, but I almost didn’t want it to be like that. I do admit the twist with Janae and Jake got me, I think that was neatly done—did I want the twist to happen in the last 60 pages or so? no. Do I love that Jake ended up getting arrested and jailed? absolutely. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Abandonment, and Violence

Moderate: Outing

tearstoflowers's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Sexism, Addiction, Bullying, Death, Alcoholism, Violence, and Toxic friendship

alinapth's review against another edition

emotional inspiring mysterious relaxing medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Gaslighting, Drug abuse, Outing, Drug use, Violence, Hate crime, and Homophobia

Minor: Emotional abuse

wild_mustang's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.25

It was fine.
Pretty much just teen drama - sex, drugs, alcohol and depression. Oh, and trying to stay out of jail - but to be honest there wasn’t heaps of focus on the murder mystery. At least there wasn’t until the last 100 pages or so.

Personally, I didn’t really care for the romance sub-plots either.

The writing was also in a more juvenile voice than what I normally read, which makes sense because it’s first person perspectives from teenagers, but it took me a little while to get used to. Additionally, many of the plots were very trope heavy and painfully stereotypical at times

However, if was a very easy read and only took like 7hrs so it gets an average 3 star rating. The extra quarter of a star is an appreciation of some of the authors writing choices and the execution of perspective narrations to reveal relevant things in the intended literary light and at the right narrative time.

I recently studied Reader-Response Theory and I think, in this light, McManus did a very good job at writing for the implied reader (so the rating is bumped up), however, I really don’t think that I am the implied or intended reader (so it’s still a fairly average rating).

To take a strategic leaf from Simon’s tumblr…
JT recommended this to me and I’m not mad I read it but I certainly don’t care to continue the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Outing

Moderate: Alcoholism, Violence, Cursing, and Homophobia

Minor: Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Vomit, Abandonment, Sexual content, Cancer, Car accident, Sexual assault, Mass/school shootings, and Self harm

jasmineslibraryy's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

i was very intrigued, but the book was pretty predictable ngl. still enjoyable though! i liked the characters, and the intertwining storylines, but i think there should've been more to this book for everything to be so carefully intricated, and so that they all had more time to grow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Violence, Death, Outing, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Homophobia

honestrabbit's review

adventurous challenging emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Death

hadams_1003's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcohol, Suicide, Bullying, Death, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Murder, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Mass/school shootings

gingerbread_candel's review against another edition

mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

My third time reading this book and it has become somewhat of a comfort read for me. The mystery isn’t very difficult to solve but the book is just some fun escapism. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Homophobia and Violence

katerinamckenna's review

mysterious medium-paced

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

0.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Violence, Cancer, and Toxic relationship

lifeonasofa's review against another edition

mysterious 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? N/A

3.5

“That's the kind of person you can get away with killing: someone everybody else wants dead” Karen M McManus 💀

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 3.5 Stars 

I can see why this book is so loved. It’s a lot of fun. Teens will love this book, it’s very Breakfast Club. Really well written and a nice range of characters ✍🏻

I loved the mystery, the first half was really intriguing. But I did feel like I lost interest and wasn’t surprised by the twists. 😮 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Toxic friendship, Violence, Outing, Death, Suicide, and Toxic relationship