Reviews with content warning for Drug use - One of Us Is Lying

Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

237 reviews

moriartyarchons's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

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

1.5

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lisa_m's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

I will start this off by saying I am not the target audience for this book and that is a big reason for my rating. Even though I personally didn't like it, I do see the appeal, especially for younger people. I know this book often gets read in school classes and I understand why.

Now for my personal opinion:
I thought the book was fine, but I was bored for big parts of it. I don't even have really strong opinions about it either way. The characters were interesting but I didn't feel connected to any of them. The story wasn't very captivating, even though it's about secrets being revealed and a murder being solved.

I didn't like that it turned out to not have been a murder at all (even though it was the only thing that makes sense). That Jake was involved too was fine..? I really disliked him from the start and I kind of thought his character felt very exaggerated towards the end. Bronwyn and Nate were cute and it's a trope I will always fall for but like everything else it didn't really capture me.

I love multiple POVs in books but I think for this one it was its downfall. Because off all the different stories and perspectives I was just overwhelmed with all of it and that kept me from caring much either way.

So my final opinion is that the book was fine but not great. I don't think I will read the next books in the series because the story felt finished enough for me and I don't need more.

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mahi_nad's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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

2.75

2.75 stars

REVIEW:
This was a marvelous, delectable read. There was something incredibly addicting about this book; to the point where I read it in one day (granted, I didn't have anything else to do). But that being said, there are a couple of issues that I had with it. Namely the harmful depiction of sexuality and depression.

The rest of this is going to be labeled as "spoilers", since these are major reveals and are crucial to the plot. I personally don't think of these as spoilers, but this is how the book depicts them so this is how I'm writing this review.

As I said before, there are incredibly harmful depictions of sexuality and depression to people in the real world. I would have LOVED to rate this at least 4 stars, but by the end, I felt it shouldn't have been published as it's ignorant and damaging.
All the characters in this book have secrets that eventually come to light, and the first red flag that arose was Cooper's sexuality. It was written as though the author expected us to be scandalized and join right alongside the other students in the book jeering and treating it as a HUGE scandal. The icing on the cake? The twisted reasoning for this is that we were led to believe he had been flirting and going out with girls.
As I'm saying this, I feel it necessary to point out that I'm not gay. I have no experience with this whatsoever, and so you should take my words with a grain of salt. But, the way the author revealed Cooper's sexuality was absolutely mind-blowing. And not in a good way. Cooper's reasoning for wanting to stay closeted is completely valid and realistic, and might even connect with some readers. It's not as though I think that his storyline and character is useless to the story, I just think that the "shocking revelation" of sexuality should be used as a plot twist.
What makes this even worse is that Cooper was FORECFULLY outed. This could DEFINITELY cause anxiety and fear within those who are closeted or have been through the same experiences.

If you feel differently and think this is fine, that's ok. I just wanted to warn people who this MAY harm.

Secondly, depression. The way mental illness is handled in this book is... just not it. There are a couple of characters who are said to be depressed, and Simon, the boy that was killed, was one of them. The finale to this book is the revelation that Simon wasn't murdered, but rather killed himself. Once again, I definitely think Simon's death could be relatable to teenagers, but I had some issues as to how his depression was portrayed. The main problem I had was how depression was essentially villainized in this book. Simon is portrayed as terrorist. His main motivation for his elaborate plan is wanting the infamy of a school shooter and cause the same amount of damage, but wanting to do it more creatively and "better". Heres the problem: depression does not equal terrorist acts. Mental illness being portrayed as evil and the driving "villain" for everything is such a tired depiction. A side character was also depicted to have mental illness. Guess what she did? Helped Simon and framed the Bayview Four. Once again, DEPRESSION IS VILLAINIZED.
I'm not saying that horrible mental health can't lead someone to do these things. But it being the driving motive? It reinforces harmful stereotypes about depression and other mental health issues, implying that they can lead to violent or malicious behavior. And that can lead to REAL LIFE PEOPLE never finding help, burying it inside just because they have the stereotypical thinking running through their head that "Oh! Depression is bad? It's looked down upon? I'll just hide it away and never deal with it cause boy, I sure don't want to end up like Simon".
Also. Stop treating suicide as if it's a mystery that needs to be solved. Don't use it as a basis for your book. It just adds to the harmful and WRONG reputation of mental illness that we have today.

So yeah, there's that.

Also, did anyone else think that they REALLY leaned heavily into the "drug-dealing bad boy" stereotype?

And Bronwyn and Nate? It felt so... forced.

BOTTOM LINE:
Horrible portrayals of depression and sexuality, would not recommend unless not affected

AGE RATING:
15+

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ajg022's review

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dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

An enjoyable page-turner, with enough variance of character perspectives to keep me hooked. The plot itself is a little predictable, but isn't necessarily the focus of the story as much as the characters and their relations to others.

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