Book Review of One of Us is Lying and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Exploring two gripping murder mysteries - twists, suspense, and secrets unravel

Writer: Kaylee Thompson

Editor: Alyah Li

Publishing Date: 03/10/2025

One of Us is Lying is arguably one of the most successful young adult mystery books and includes my favourite book of all time, the first book in the series. Today, I will be giving a review of the second and third book in the One of Us is Lying trilogy, which begins with Brownyn, Nate, Cooper, and Addy trying to clear their name after they are framed for the murder of Simon Kelleher. I will also give a review of one of my favourite book series: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. It looks at Pippa Fitz-Amobi trying to uncover the closed case of Andie Bell’s murder.

Review of One of Us Is Lying

One of Us is Lying (the first book) by Karen McMannon is one of the best Young Adult mystery novels of the decade since it came out in 2017. It follows the story of 5 teenagers in detention for having their phones out in class. When only 4 of them come out, they are accused of murder and the mystery of who killed Simon Kelleher, the fifth student begins. The 4 students, or as named by the fictional news sites as, “The Bayview Four,” by the fictional news sites, must clear their name and find the actual killer.

The second book, One of Us Is Next, follows Maeve Rojas, the sister of Bronwyn, one of the main characters in the first book, and her friends Knox and Phoebe. The villain is someone who admired Simon’s work to frame the “Bayview Four” in the original book and seeks to replicate this by forcing everyone in the school to play a truth-or-dare-esque game. If they don’t do what they chose, a secret would be revealed to everyone in the school.

The final and third book, One of Us is Back, follows the entire cast and side characters from previous books. One person in their group goes missing, and they, once again, have to team up to solve the mystery. Slowly, they realize that someone is coming for them while exposing secrets on the way.

What I Enjoyed

One thing that I enjoyed in the One of Us is Lying Trilogy was getting to see more of Maeve’s perspective. Despite initially not liking Maeve at the beginning of the first book, I found that both the second and third books made me really love her as a character. She cares deeply about her family and friends and does what needs to be done.

Seeing old characters come back in the later books was also very nice since it was my main motivator for reading them. In these last two books, I saw Addy, a character from the first book that shows up throughout the series, grow even more as a character in the later books and in the final few chapters of One of Us Is Back, she takes charge and saves the group.

What I Did Not Enjoy

Despite there being good aspects to the series, there were more parts that I found to not be so enjoyable. For example, the second book’s main conflict, the Simon copy-cat. I found it fairly superficial and felt it lacked consequences since only one secret is revealed to the reader for the main cast of only three characters, ending the suspense very early, even though the secrets were the biggest part of the book. In addition, the only character with a secret that had a significant impact was Phoebe. Knox’s secret does not have a major impact on his relationship with Maeve since he still forgives her, and Maeve’s secret was simply about her having cancer, something that the reader and the characters in the book already knew. As a result, it was not shocking or especially interesting to read about.

Additionally, new characters were very boring, Knox didn’t have an impact on the plot and Phoebe, although not a badly written character, since she was mostly uninvolved, making her forgettable. As a result, the romance between Knox and Phoebe felt uneventful and boring.

Finally, I found the ending of the second book unsatisfying since one of the culprits ends up being Phoebe’s little brother after she noticed a simple spelling mistake he made in both the text messages and around her in the exposition. The way this was revealed made the ending feel too mundane and like it was not a great accomplishment for Phoebe to uncover. Furthermore, the culprits do not get into much trouble since Phoebe hides the truth of her brother’s involvement. Otherwise, it was unclear what happens to the other culprit, Jared, who helped Pheobe’s brother and if he faces true consequences. Due to this, the ending did not feel clean and well-executed.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder follows Pippa Fitz-Amobi, a teenage girl with the task of doing her senior Capstone project, a project to demonstrate a student’s skill over the years. She decides to do it on the closed murder of Andie Bell to prove that the murderer, Sal Singh, was actually innocent.

One part of this book I really loved were the characters and the romance between them. Pippa is a smart and interesting character, although far from perfect as she sleuths and tricks people to uncover the truth. Ravi Singh, the investigation partner, “murderer’s” brother, and later boyfriend, is very funny, sweet, and willing to do anything to protect the memory of Sal. Their connection that forms from trying to Ravi’s Brother ends up being very endearing to read about and the chemistry between them was well developed.

I also loved the addition of news articles and text messages in a way that felt very natural. It helped to enhance the story and make it seem more realistic while not seeming like a caricature of real world teenagers and media.

Conclusion

Overall, despite my lessened enjoyment for the second and third book in the One of Us is Lying series, the first book is still amazing and I would recommend anyone interested in a mystery to go pick up One of Is Is Lying or the entire A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

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