One of Us is Lying Review

After a certain point, I just decided there was no reason to hold on to this when I had no idea when I was going to finally have this book club. As it is I decided to go ahead and put this out there. If I ever get my book club thoughts, I may add those later.

Customary warning: This is a reminder that these are my personal opinions. My thoughts and feelings are not your thoughts and feelings. I may not always be the target  audience for a book; sometimes I am. If I do not like a book, that doesn’t mean you’ll dislike it. If I love a book or simply like a book, you may hate it. Take everything I say with this knowledge. If it sounds interesting to you despite what I’ve said, then go ahead and read it. You’ll only know you like something if you read it yourself.

That being said… Spoilers ahead.

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One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManns

Synopsis From The Book

Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
    Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
    Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
    Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
    Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
    AndSimon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

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Mystery – Who Dun It | YA – PW |Suicide, Assault, Homophobia | Masks and Lies, Identity, Self Preservation, Friendship

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Initial Thoughts Before Reading:

So, I have book club tomorrow, and I need to get this book done. Which is to say its not close to being done. AKA I haven’t started. AKA I’m still like MEH about reading just in general. However, I will finish because I need to finish. Because book club is tomorrow.

Initial Thoughts After Reading:

 WOW I actually did it. However, for the first time in a very long time, I’m not sure I can really claim I read this. I reread the same section something like three times. I am not sure I even got all the details. Typically, when I read, I am able to reference most of the book, specific sections, and even direct quotes. I’ll be lucky if I can do that for this book. If I ever want to go further in, I will have to reread this book. For certain.

Plot Overview:

The novel begins with the four main characters being put into detention. They are in detention with a boy named Simon. All four of them had a phone in their backpacks, for one of their classes, a class that they could not have a phone in the classroom. None of the phones were their’s. Simon drinks a cup of water and goes into an allergic reaction. Everyone snaps into action, trying to get him an Epipen, but the Epipens are all gone from the health office. Simon dies at the hospital. 

At first, the four students are only witnesses but when a post goes out on Simon’s gossip blog, the police start to treat them as suspects. It is revealed that Bronwyn cheated to become Valedictorian. That Addy cheated on her boyfriend. That Cooper was doping to get his baseball scores. And that Nate was selling drugs again, going against his parole. The two points about Nate and Cooper were lies. At first the four are apart trying to figure out how to deal with this death and also talking to the police on what happened.

Addy breaks up with her boyfriend Jake and realizes she really didn’t have any friends. She becomes closer to Simon’s friend, and cuts off all her hair. Bronwyn and Nate become friends and more. Nate is revealed to still have his mother, who he claimed was dead. Cooper breaks up with his girlfriend and is outed by Simon’s blog as gay, his actual secret. Cooper, Addy, Bronwyn, and Nate become closer and start to figure things on their own.

Nate is then arrested, and the three realize a few things about the blog posts that don’t add up. Addy is the one to realize that Jake is the one posting one, if not all of the posts. They also realize that if none of them killed Simon, and their teacher did not then the only person who could have was Simon. As they confront Simon’s friend, they find out that he did kill himself and then, with Jake’s help, was going to frame the other four. All for different reasons. Addy is sent to the hospital when Jake attacks her and Nate is released. Jake is sent to jail and everything seems as if it is going to be okay.

What I Liked:

Bronwyn; The valedictorian good girl who cheated. I did like reading her perspectives the best at first, until I started to care about all four of the main characters.

Cooper; Ultimately I liked reading his perspectives the most by the end. I always like reading of characters at the top who realize how two faced their friends were before. 

Addy; She was nice, and yes, she made a mistake. However, Jake was horrible. Calling her names was horrible, because I don’t actually think she was a bad person. Especially not after she, too, realized how horrible everyone was around her.

Nate; The misunderstood bad boy. I’m really happy that he didn’t take the fall for something that he did not do. After Cooper, I liked reading his perspectives the most.

Who did it; Despite how fast I read this book, I did like the way everything panned out. I was not surprised that Jake was involved, considering how sketchy he was, but finding out that Simon was involved was interesting to me.

What I Would Have Liked or Changed:

Not on the book, because I don’t think the book is bad, but I wish I had not rushed myself, so quickly, to read this book. I feel that I would have really liked the characters more.

Rating: 4/5

Notable Quotes:

None

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