A review by literaryspice
One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
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!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️