One of Us Is Lying #BookReview

Karen McManus | pub 2017 | 368pp

In almost every scenario, if the story starts off about a bunch of high school students, Im going to drop it. But, Im pretty sure I hadn’t had my once a year YA scratch itched with Someone Knows, so I guess you could say I was trolling. This was an audible listen as well, in late May, while gardening for sure. While planting, Im typically listening to a book…while harvesting or maintaining, Im usually talking to God. 🤷🏾‍♀️Any gardener will understand. 😂🤣

Differently than Someone Knows, One of Us Is Lying captured my attention early on and kept it. These characters were likable and relatable. Yes, on the surface, all appear young blonde leaders of the universe, but upon closer inspection, and more story telling, you come to understand each is managing their own set of complications and secrets.

These secrets become important after one of there schoolmates, Simon, dies suddenly during a detention session. Simon was messy boots and ran a blog site known for gossiping about teenagers lives, including cheating on test, in relationships and being gay. In real life, im not sure how that would ever be acceptable yet, im never surprised what kids do to one another. This immediate group of frenemies either had a secret told by Simon, or was being targeted by him. Either way, they’re all suspects in old boys death and actively trying to stay out of jail.

Pros: To this day, im surprised how much i enjoyed this book! Im a mood reader so i guess i was in the mood for some high school melodrama. If you’re looking for that as well, this one will give you everything you need: love triangles, first love tingles, a coming out story, murder mystery, and bad guy goes good for the girl…all of it and more! I liked all the characters and wanted to find out what would happen. Lots of action and suspense that keeps the story moving forward.

Cons: Eh, my same gripe with most YA..hard to believe this is a bunch of 16 year olds! They seem to have an unlimited amount of time, money, and lack of supervision. 🤷🏾‍♀️

This is Karen’s first book and she’s written several more since, 1 of which is a direct follow up to this: One of Us Is Next. ‘Lying was purchased for the big screen but instead made it to small screen this month. Im not sure the action would be enough to keep me overwhelmingly interested week to week but…give it a go.

I tried reading One of Us Is Next and The Cousins but DNF’d both pretty quickly. The writing was different and the language was seriously dumbed down. I guess my mood for high school melodrama has passed. C’est la Vie. Good book 28/2021.