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A review by sharada_mohan
One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
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.