Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - One of Us is Lying

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.

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abbyreadsbigbooks123's review against another edition

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2.0

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kalefactory'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? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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melissaslibraryy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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sophiebastow's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-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? No

5.0

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kirstencholewa's review against another edition

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emotional 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? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This story draws you in and keeps your attention to the last page!
At times it did feel a bit forced from a diversity perspective.

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azileotulp's review against another edition

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dark funny 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? Yes

4.75

I'm gonna say right now that this was soooooo close to being a 5-star read for me. In all honesty, it probably should be because I only had one minor issue that is totally petty and that no one else probably cares about, but I personally can't overlook it. (I'll be discussing that under the spoiler tag later though.)

I do have to say that this was such an engaging mystery. Sadly, I did have part of the ending spoiled for me because one of the reviewers here doesn't know how to use spoiler warnings, but even with that spoiler, I was still able to enjoy it. It was just as much fun to try to figure out why the person responsible did what they did.

I also loved the characters so much. Usually in books with multiple perspectives, there's always that one character's POV that I'm just trying to get through before I can get back to the more interesting characters. This book wasn't like that at all. Even the characters I originally didn't like at first (who I did grow to love throughout the story, by the way) had such compelling perspectives that I was always excited to read them. And I have to say, I am such a Bronwyn and Nate fan...

Which brings me to my only problem with this book. Like I said... it's petty, but I don't even care. Yes, Bronwyn and Nate do end up together in the end, which I'm so happy about, don't get me wrong. But that little period of time at the end when it seemed like they went their separate ways? That hurt. Especially when I started reading the epilogue set 3 months later and saw that Bronwyn was dating Evan??? I actually bursted into tears. That period of uncertainty just went on too long for me, especially after having read another mystery novel where the protagonist and her love interest do actually go their separate ways. I won't say which book that was, but it genuinely made me sick, and I was so scared it was going to happen again. So, like I said, petty reason for not giving the book 5 stars, but amazing author should have thought about that before scaring me like that.

I do also want to talk a bit about my baby boy Cooper.

I had no idea this book had a prominent LGBTQ+ character, but now I'm happy I decided to read it during Pride Month. Y'all, I feel so connected to Cooper and I'm going to be thinking about him for months. We're both southern gays with homophobic fathers, and we have such similar queer experiences. What really got me was that ride home with his father before he came out to his family. When I came out to my mother, I was also fretting over it while in the car with her, and as soon as we parked, I told her. His story just resonated so deeply with me, and I'm so sorry I was hating on him at the beginning for being a cheater. (Yes, he did still cheat, but I favor gay people and his ex seemed to forgive him by the end. Leave me alone.) I love you, Cooper, and I'm sorry I ever doubted your good nature.

All in all, I truly adored this book. I was captivated the entire time I was reading, but especially those last seventy or so pages. I was gasping, shrieking, throwing up (okay, slightly exaggerated on that last one, but I did gag once). I can't recommend it more.

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thequiltyreader's review against another edition

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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? Yes

3.5

It was OK. Typical YA high school book and it felt a little immature at times - using language and sexual references that didn't add to the overall story, or at least I didn't feel like it did.

It had the stereotypical characters and in a stereotypical manner they are thrust together into a situation they have to work through. I did however find myself playing along with the story and trying to unpick what had happened as the story developed.

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