auroraskyes's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
sharada_mohan's review against another edition
3.0
It was great fun to read along with all these lovely gals. I think reading together was what made the book much more exciting than what it actually was.
The book has the perfect recipe for a brilliant mystery thriller. But somehow, I didn’t experience the ‘punching’ effect that I expected from this hugely popular one which was all over booksta. It might be because, we had multiple perspectives during our buddy chats and all of us were taking all these wild guesses and I should say one of us actually managed to nail the secret.
It’s a detention class in Bayview, 5 students are held by their teacher for the possession of cell phones in their bags. Simon, the inventor of the school’s infamous gossip app is one of them. The others involve – Bronwyn - the Yale bound studios girl, Addy - the beauty queen, Cooper - the star baseball player and Nate - accused of drug peddling now on probation. Simon dies due to an allergic reaction during class. The other four are now top suspects for the alleged murder of Simon.
McManus delves into the lives of these 4 teenagers and gives us a peek into their teenage worlds. Police investigations, media’s involvement, the gossip app and certain mysterious online revelations, all wreak havoc on the reputation of these four. Having to deal with parental pressures, boyfriend obsessions, alcoholic/drug addict parents none of them have it easy. All of them have committed certain blunders and have things to hide. Certain friendships get tested, boundaries are crossed and each of them are stretched beyond what they are capable of handling. But can they solve the puzzle of Simon’s murder?
McManus indeed does a wonderful job of taking the reader on a wild adventure of guess work and theories around these suspects until the very end. The writing is done from the point of views of all the four protagonists and the curiosity piques at the end of each of their narrations. However, the ending did not manage to blow my mind off like one might think. It seemed a bit too over the top and unrealistic.
The book has the perfect recipe for a brilliant mystery thriller. But somehow, I didn’t experience the ‘punching’ effect that I expected from this hugely popular one which was all over booksta. It might be because, we had multiple perspectives during our buddy chats and all of us were taking all these wild guesses and I should say one of us actually managed to nail the secret.
It’s a detention class in Bayview, 5 students are held by their teacher for the possession of cell phones in their bags. Simon, the inventor of the school’s infamous gossip app is one of them. The others involve – Bronwyn - the Yale bound studios girl, Addy - the beauty queen, Cooper - the star baseball player and Nate - accused of drug peddling now on probation. Simon dies due to an allergic reaction during class. The other four are now top suspects for the alleged murder of Simon.
McManus delves into the lives of these 4 teenagers and gives us a peek into their teenage worlds. Police investigations, media’s involvement, the gossip app and certain mysterious online revelations, all wreak havoc on the reputation of these four. Having to deal with parental pressures, boyfriend obsessions, alcoholic/drug addict parents none of them have it easy. All of them have committed certain blunders and have things to hide. Certain friendships get tested, boundaries are crossed and each of them are stretched beyond what they are capable of handling. But can they solve the puzzle of Simon’s murder?
McManus indeed does a wonderful job of taking the reader on a wild adventure of guess work and theories around these suspects until the very end. The writing is done from the point of views of all the four protagonists and the curiosity piques at the end of each of their narrations. However, the ending did not manage to blow my mind off like one might think. It seemed a bit too over the top and unrealistic.
whitneycypert's review against another edition
5.0
This was so good!! One of my favorites that I’ve read in awhile. This book kind of gives The Breakfast Club x Pretty Little Liars x Gossip Girl vibes and I love all three of those! I loved the suspense, the characters were interesting and believable, the ending tied everything up and made sense. This is a book I never wanted to put down and thoroughly enjoyed reading.
rabhya07's review against another edition
5.0
Addictive, flew through the book! Can't wait to read the sequel!
literaryspice's review against another edition
5.0
Holy crap this book was great! I absolutely LOVED it! I woke up on Saturday and decided I wanted to read a book, cover to cover. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump since the pandemic started and I was ready to be over it. I’m so happy I chose One of Us is Lying for this task. I could not put it down.
One of Us is Lying is a Young Adult murder mystery, written by Karen M McManus. The story follows five teens in detention. Things get interesting when only 4 of them walk out alive. This Breakfast Club quickly meets Pretty Little Liars as secrets are revealed and the investigation begins. This book has so many strengths.
I personally love short chapters and chapters that switch character POV. One of Us is Lying delivered on both accounts. Additionally, the story is easy to follow but not completely predictable. It does have its predicable moments. I suspected one particular characters involvement from the very beginning (chapter 1) and was correct. However, as the story unraveled, I realized their involvement was in a completely different capacity than I had envisioned.
One of this books greatest strengths is its attention to detail in character development. McManus does a superb job developing her characters throughout the story. Further, she does this while seamlessly moving the story forward. When I tell you I couldn’t bring myself to put this book down, I mean it in a literal sense. I don’t think I’ve stayed up til 4 in the morning telling myself “just one more chapter” for hours since I read Chamber of Secrets during summer break in middle school.
There’s not a whole lot that I can say about this book that isn’t positive. If I had to choose one thing to get nit-picky about, it would be the social issues within the book. There are two main social issues ( I won’t get into here on account of spoilers) that I feel could have been explored a bit more. I would have liked some sort of discussion surrounding how these issues impacted certain characters and what events could have taken place to prevent other negative events from transpiring. This, however is something that could have added to the novel. I don’t necessarily feel that the absence took away from the story.
This isn’t to say there are not other prevalent social issues present. There are, and McManus does a nice job highlighting the consequences of such issues. A clear cut example is bullying. The story McManus tells illustrates the effects of bullying on different individuals and cliques throughout Bayview High. It’s one of the things I love most about One of Us is Lying. SO MANY writers get this wrong in books, TV series, and movies. It’s never black and white, and it’s never just the band geeks and Chess Club. But, that’s the stereotype. It was refreshing to see this issue encompass the lives of students of different backgrounds and popularity levels. All-in-all, One of Us is Dying is everything I needed it to be.
At the end of the day, I cannot recommend this book enough! This is especially true if you enjoy YA fiction with a little mystery and thrill. This book is a page turner. I didn’t want to put it down. So I didn’t! It made for a great Saturday Read!
I will be picking up the sequel, One of Us is Next this week, so stay tuned for that review.
My star rating for One of Us is Lying is, without hesitancy, 5 stars. I would give bonus stars if I could!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
One of Us is Lying is a Young Adult murder mystery, written by Karen M McManus. The story follows five teens in detention. Things get interesting when only 4 of them walk out alive. This Breakfast Club quickly meets Pretty Little Liars as secrets are revealed and the investigation begins. This book has so many strengths.
I personally love short chapters and chapters that switch character POV. One of Us is Lying delivered on both accounts. Additionally, the story is easy to follow but not completely predictable. It does have its predicable moments. I suspected one particular characters involvement from the very beginning (chapter 1) and was correct. However, as the story unraveled, I realized their involvement was in a completely different capacity than I had envisioned.
One of this books greatest strengths is its attention to detail in character development. McManus does a superb job developing her characters throughout the story. Further, she does this while seamlessly moving the story forward. When I tell you I couldn’t bring myself to put this book down, I mean it in a literal sense. I don’t think I’ve stayed up til 4 in the morning telling myself “just one more chapter” for hours since I read Chamber of Secrets during summer break in middle school.
There’s not a whole lot that I can say about this book that isn’t positive. If I had to choose one thing to get nit-picky about, it would be the social issues within the book. There are two main social issues ( I won’t get into here on account of spoilers) that I feel could have been explored a bit more. I would have liked some sort of discussion surrounding how these issues impacted certain characters and what events could have taken place to prevent other negative events from transpiring. This, however is something that could have added to the novel. I don’t necessarily feel that the absence took away from the story.
This isn’t to say there are not other prevalent social issues present. There are, and McManus does a nice job highlighting the consequences of such issues. A clear cut example is bullying. The story McManus tells illustrates the effects of bullying on different individuals and cliques throughout Bayview High. It’s one of the things I love most about One of Us is Lying. SO MANY writers get this wrong in books, TV series, and movies. It’s never black and white, and it’s never just the band geeks and Chess Club. But, that’s the stereotype. It was refreshing to see this issue encompass the lives of students of different backgrounds and popularity levels. All-in-all, One of Us is Dying is everything I needed it to be.
At the end of the day, I cannot recommend this book enough! This is especially true if you enjoy YA fiction with a little mystery and thrill. This book is a page turner. I didn’t want to put it down. So I didn’t! It made for a great Saturday Read!
I will be picking up the sequel, One of Us is Next this week, so stay tuned for that review.
My star rating for One of Us is Lying is, without hesitancy, 5 stars. I would give bonus stars if I could!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
graceburts's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars
As soon as I saw the title of this book I knew I would love it. Then I read the synopsis and I was even more convinced. Lying and murder are two of my favourite topics to read about so this was a recipe for success from the moment I found out about it. It was love at first page.
One of Us Is Lying is about a group of 5 teenagers that go into detention together but only 4 come out. The remaining 4 become suspects in the murder of the 5th and the rest of the book alternates in between the perspective of the 4 of them, revolving around the investigation of the murder. This novel is intriguing and fast paced and with the changing points of view, there is never a lull in the action.
The characters start off exactly like the typical high school cliches they're expected to be. Using these stereotypes the author takes your expectations and completely flips them. It is a perfect representation of perception vs. reality and every time the character's strayed from the trope they represented I was filled with satisfaction.
Also, speaking of the characters, I grew soooooo attached to them. I couldn't possibly imagine any of them actually being the murderer, which made me all the more invested in who it actually ended up being. I really really really do love all these characters, even Bronwyn(admittedly the most annoying) grew on me, but my favourite was Addy. At the beginning of the book, I expected to hate her just based on what I knew of the stereotype of her characters but let me tell you how wrong I was--- her character's development was beautiful.
I would've rated this book 5 stars. I wish I could've because this book was honestly amazing, entertaining, clearly and concisely written and for the most part well done. There were two major things that kept me from giving this book a perfect rating though :
1. Sexuality used as a plot twist
2.
Though Simon being the "murderer" was super cheap, I don't believe McManus was villainizing depression (if I thought that were the case this would be 2 stars) as many have said. I don't think she was saying all depressed/mentally ill people are terrorists but that all terrorists are mentally ill, which is true.
Despite these two things I still do love this book. There is no perfect book in the world and I don't ever expect the books I read to be perfect. We can enjoy books with flaws, we simply just have to be aware of them. All in all, this is a highly entertaining take on a tropey murder mystery with wonderful characterization and development. I definitely recommend if it seems like something you would be interested in.
Trigger warning for suicide and one of the characters being outed.
Side note: The audiobook for this features a full cast and the acting is astounding. In my opinion, audio is the best way to consume this book. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
As soon as I saw the title of this book I knew I would love it. Then I read the synopsis and I was even more convinced. Lying and murder are two of my favourite topics to read about so this was a recipe for success from the moment I found out about it. It was love at first page.
One of Us Is Lying is about a group of 5 teenagers that go into detention together but only 4 come out. The remaining 4 become suspects in the murder of the 5th and the rest of the book alternates in between the perspective of the 4 of them, revolving around the investigation of the murder. This novel is intriguing and fast paced and with the changing points of view, there is never a lull in the action.
The characters start off exactly like the typical high school cliches they're expected to be. Using these stereotypes the author takes your expectations and completely flips them. It is a perfect representation of perception vs. reality and every time the character's strayed from the trope they represented I was filled with satisfaction.
Also, speaking of the characters, I grew soooooo attached to them. I couldn't possibly imagine any of them actually being the murderer, which made me all the more invested in who it actually ended up being. I really really really do love all these characters, even Bronwyn(admittedly the most annoying) grew on me, but my favourite was Addy. At the beginning of the book, I expected to hate her just based on what I knew of the stereotype of her characters but let me tell you how wrong I was--- her character's development was beautiful.
I would've rated this book 5 stars. I wish I could've because this book was honestly amazing, entertaining, clearly and concisely written and for the most part well done. There were two major things that kept me from giving this book a perfect rating though :
1. Sexuality used as a plot twist
2.
Spoiler
Simon's suicide - like how trivializing can you getThough Simon being the "murderer" was super cheap, I don't believe McManus was villainizing depression (if I thought that were the case this would be 2 stars) as many have said. I don't think she was saying all depressed/mentally ill people are terrorists but that all terrorists are mentally ill, which is true.
Despite these two things I still do love this book. There is no perfect book in the world and I don't ever expect the books I read to be perfect. We can enjoy books with flaws, we simply just have to be aware of them. All in all, this is a highly entertaining take on a tropey murder mystery with wonderful characterization and development. I definitely recommend if it seems like something you would be interested in.
Trigger warning for suicide and one of the characters being outed.
Side note: The audiobook for this features a full cast and the acting is astounding. In my opinion, audio is the best way to consume this book. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
latelykelsey's review against another edition
4.0
So, I've been wanting to read this since I heard it was a like of Breakfast Club and PLL had a book baby. I had very high expectations for this book. And for the most part it lived up to my expectations. It wasn't the greatest book I've ever read, but it wasn't bad either. The suspense was really good I have to admit, I didn't see the twist in the end. There is some classic YA love fest, which I don't mind. This was a book specifically geared toward 14 to 19 year olds I'd say so that is something to keep in mind. But the pace of the book is quite good and I like the various POV the book gave. It was a quick read, about 2 or 3 days.
hoperied's review against another edition
3.0
2.5/5
the only liars r the people who say this book is good
the only liars r the people who say this book is good