Reviews with content warning for Addiction - One of Us is Lying

The book heavily plays on teenage stereotypes and stereotypical drama ... exept it cranks it up to 100 by involving a murder mystery.

I really loved reading this as all the new revelations came to light, and you could really feel the characters reacting to them (seriously, even the second read-through was sincerely awesome for me)
More than anything, I liked all the details of the characters' personalities and lives and how each of them were written to be lovable. I truly felt myself rooting for them each time I started a new chapter (or read-through for that matter), and I can not recommend this book enough to anyone who is even slightly interested in this book!

Content Warnings

nenah_elizabeth's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense 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

Content Warnings

slimepuppy's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

The book starts out wrong just by how unrealistic it is that a kid would run that sort of app for years without ever getting any repercussion. The app would get taken down after the first post made anyone get hurt, or Simon would have gotten the whooping of his life and that would be IT.

If you manage to suspend your disbelief past that start, the book still doesn’t make it worth your time. The main characters are flat - them having made mistakes in the past doesn't change the fact that they're still the only nice, normal people in a school filled with assholes.

So, one main character is experiencing prejudice and the only person in the entire school willing to stand up for him is ANOTHER main character? Great. No character is allowed nuance, not our heroes or our villains. Simon was the only one who could have been three dimensional, and he was in it for a second, never to return, not even through flashbacks, which would have been a great way to explore his psyche and his motivations for the terrible things he did.

He's our killer and we barely get to meet him.

The pacing was... exquisite. Halfway through the book Addy's arc is basically concluded while Cooper's is just starting to unravel. It makes for a bumpy, uneven read, when you go from reading a character that kind of has nowhere left to grow to one just starting his journey, then to a hamfisted romance between two of the least interesting main characters.

Finally, the ending felt very rushed. The final confrontation was fun! The resolution of the mystery was well done and there was even an important detail that had been foreshadowed earlier, which was satisfying to see coming back. But following that scene, the book seems to be dying to be over.

We don't get to see Nate face life outside of jail and him reconnecting with his mom, we don't get to ever see Cooper interact with his family again, nothing. We're just told things are happening, all so we can have more time devoted to a stupid break up that makes no sense and feels extremely forced. So you spent the entire book telling me that Bronwyn is headstrong and willing to fight tooth and nail for what she wants, and at the first cold shoulder she just gives up? Great characterization, LOL.

Ok, so to mention the things I actually liked for posterity: Cooper was a good character. He was consistent and his actions made sense with what he was going through. He had internal and external conflicts to deal with - you very much get the sense that Cooper could lose his chances of being a pro player because of the scandal, while Browwyn never gets so much as a glare from a teacher for having cheated on multiple tests for an entire semester (?!).

Anyways, Cooper's outing made me feel genuinely sick - the police station scene was well written, I could feel the dread that Cooper was feeling as he realized what was being done to him.

A lot of it had to do with their inner lives - Cooper's friends and family felt the most realistic of the four, people with flaws and qualities and their own lives going on - Bronwyn's parents were just like every other YA parent. Her two friends might as well be cardboard cutouts. Addy's mom is an ugly caricature that fails to ever develop a single trait that might make her seem like a real person. Nate's mom is not flat, but she's barely there - we could have gotten so much more out of their relationship.

That's the basic TLDR of this book, I guess: it could have been waay better, but the author was just not interested in fleshing out characters or situations beyond the the surface level.

Also, the synopsis is just kind of misleading!

The Bayview 4 don't really join forces to try and solve the case until 70% of the book.

"One Of Us Is Lying?" Yeah, whoever wrote that blurb.

Content Warnings

jessanicolesingh's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

I would describe this thriller as a breakfast club turned murder mystery, centering on a modge podge of stereotypes in detention; a brain, beauty, criminal, athlete and an outcast who ends up dead! The victim had plenty of enemies, as he ran the school’s infamous gossip blog, and was prepared to out the aforementioned classmates on some pretty juicy stuff before his untimely death.

The book was written in multiple POVs, giving you a glimpse into each of the main characters' high school lives throughout the investigation. I actually kept notes on all suspects, determined to figure it out. I had to put the book down and tell my husband my guess at who the killer was around the 75% mark, and I was right!!! That's not to say the book wasn't good enough to surprise me, I'm just really proud of myself for figuring it out AND not skipping to the end to spoil it for myself (I have admittedly very little self control sometimes).

Albeit this book is about murder, be warned there are some additionally heavy triggers with some warnings at the expense of ruining the ending, so keep that in mind if you decide to pick this one up!

Content Warnings