Book Review - One Of Us Is Lying

Title: One of Us is Lying

Author: Karen McManus

Series: One of Us is Lying (Book 1)

Publisher: Penguin

Release Date: 1 Jun. 2017

ISBN-13: 978-0141375632

Synopsis

Yale hopeful Bronwyn has never publicly broken a rule.
Sports star Cooper only knows what he's doing in the baseball diamond.
Bad boy Nate is one misstep away from a life of crime.
Prom queen Addy is holding together the cracks in her perfect life.
And outsider Simon, creator of the notorious gossip app at Bayview High, won't ever talk about any of them again.
He dies 24 hours before he could post their deepest secrets online. Investigators conclude it's no accident. All of them are suspects.
Everyone has secrets, right?
What really matters is how far you'll go to protect them.

My Review

I'd heard a lot of good things about this book but wasn't sure that it would be my sort of read. Then sometime last year I went to buy a book and there was a deal, not sure what else to pick I decided to go with this one. But as usual its sat on my shelves ever since and not been touched.

Once again I have had more time to read during lockdown so I decided to pick this one up. I wasn't really sure what to expect so was pretty open to reading it.

At first I found it quite hard to differentiate between the characters. We have 4 main narrators - the suspects in Simon's murder who were all present in detention. When I first started reading I had to really take focus of the name at the start of the chapter and struggled to tell them apart. However by the 5th or 6th chapter I was able to tell them apart better and as the book progressed they developed more of their own personalities and characteristics.

I enjoyed the set up of the story and was intrigued by who might have done it, I couldn't see any obvious way but was prepared to be surprised. I am usually quite good with figuring out who is responsible for crimes but with this book I just couldn't decide. The more I read, the more I was convinced it wasn't any of the four of them but was ready to be shocked at a reveal. I decided to look wider and had a couple of suspicions - one of which was actually involved, just not in the way I expected. But the actual reveal did surprise me and I was annoyed I couldn't figure it out.

I really liked that the book is a sort of crime mystery, but also crosses as a high school drama, you get to know the characters and the troubles they face in wider life, their backgrounds and their hopes for the future. I found myself coming to like the characters, especially Nate and Addy who I feel grow the most throughout the story.

The story is fast paced and keeps you hooked and wanting to read on. I finished this book in one sitting and didn't want to put it down at all, I had to pause briefly to eat dinner and was desperate to pick it back up. I'd finished it later that evening.

I am excited to read the follow on book, I'm not sure where they can go with this now, but I certainly want to find out.

My Rating