One of Us Is Lying
by Karen M. McManus

Quotes:

“Things'll get worse before they get better.”

“I stand and hold out my hand. She gives me a skeptical look, but takes it and lets me pull her to her feet. I put my other hand in the air. 'Bronwyn Rojas, I solemnly swear not to murder you today or at any point in the future. Deal?'

'You're ridiculous,' she mutters, going even redder.

'It concerns me you're avoiding a promise not to murder me.'”

“I know what it's like to tell yourself a lie so often that it becomes the truth.”

Synopsis:

One of Us Is Lying centers around five students, who have nothing much in common, but wind up together in detention. The students are Bronwyn, who is smart and Yale-bound; Addy, who is pretty and popular; Nate, who is already on probation for dealing drugs; Cooper, the popular and all-star baseball player; Simon, the outcast who runs the school's gossip app that he designed- the app that exposes students throughout his high school. Of the five of them, only four make it out. The student that enters, but never leaves detention, is Simon. That's because Simon died before the detention was up. The death was seemingly an accident though. That is, until evidence surfaces that may indicate the whole situation wasn't fully accidental. Simon died on Monday, but on Tuesday he was going to post secrets about the other four students he was in detention with. Secrets none of them would want getting out, immediately making them all suspects in the murder of Simon. But, are some or all of them just pawns in somebody else's game and is Simon's killer still out there? They all claim they didn't kill Simon, but is one or more of them lying?

Review:

Since its release in 2017, One of Us Is Lying has become a YA classic. I had seen it all over bookstores when I was younger, and even then it had peaked my interest. It wasn't until recently that I finally got ahold of it though.

This book's intent was meant to be a more modern-day Breakfast Club-esque YA murder mystery, and I overall think it achieved that as well as achieving being an intriguing mystery story in general. The characters were within their own little cliche cliques, and while this is annoying in most books, I thought the element actually worked well for this book. Plus, the book is divided into four perspectives (the four students who walked out of detention alive), so you kind of get into the mind, and can understand the emotions, of each character in equal measure.

Overall, this was a pretty good YA mystery that I would recommend for those wanting an intriguing story with a murder at the center of it all.

Genres (Taken From Goodreads):

Young Adult; Mystery; Contemporary; Fiction; Thriller; Mystery Thriller; Romance; Crime; LGBT

*Although the One of Us Is Lying is an older book, Karen M. McManus recently came out with a new book to the series entitled One of Us Is Next so I feel that with the presence of this new book, the series is once again relevant in terms of "newness." I decided to read and rate the first book in the series, as this would be a great time to start the series and maybe pick up that new book eventually