Introduction
One Of Us Is Lying is the award nominated young adult murder mystery written by Karen M McManus, published 29th May 2017, this fictional, small town, highschool mystery has been loved by young teens and adults worldwide. This book is especially popular within the BookTok community for its gripping plot as well as its subtle romance within it. This book has captured many with the author soon after releasing a sequel “One Of Us Is Next” with a third book to the series being released in July 2023.
Storyline/ plot
This book follows four highschool students in the town of Bayview, all from different stereotypical “cliques” we are introduced to Bronwyn Rojas, smart, successful academic with a bright future ahead, Addy Prentiss, pretty, popular, prom queen hopeful. We also have Nate MaCauley rough childhood, with a probation officer more involved in his life than either parents, used to being in trouble, and finally; Cooper Clay, sports star, working hard to earn a sports scholarship to cover his college career.
The only thing this group has in common: they all have secrets that school blog holder Simon Kelleher was threatening to expose. The group all end up in detention on the same day with Simon, coincidentally the same detention Simon would pass away in, making the four of them high interest in his murder case.
We follow the group throughout the case, through every piece of evidence and all connections that come up, with this we see relationships between them blossom as well as all of their secrets being revealed throughout the book to their families and to each other. Some coming out naturally others being pushed out by the media who are covering the case bit by bit for everyone to see.
Throughout the book we are introduced to multiple side characters who, at first, seem to be harmless, until their connections to the Bayview Four and Simon begin to unfold, making them more involved in his murder than the police think. Will the Bayview Four be able to figure out who really committed this Murder against a fellow classmate before the police reach a verdict on them?
Writing Style
Karen M McManus creates some of the best young adult mysteries on the market, her way of writing with constant suspense makes her books enjoyable for most people even outside of her YA demographic. Her mysteries are great because we are finding out every twist and turn alongside the characters so that the shock element is much more impactful than a lot of other thrillers I have read. She also uses sub plots to her advantage creating a much deeper and impactful story, I also really enjoy her character building which enables such a better connection to the book and the story.
In this book we also get all four of the main characters’ perspectives so we really do see how each character handles this case, as well as the implications within their lives at home, work, amongst their own personal lives. It really adds so much to the story due to how in depth we see into everyone’s minds throughout the whole process.
Pros/ cons
This book is so popular for a reason, it’s fast paced, incredibly throughout with a fantastic plot twist that is almost impossible to guess. I felt like I could not put this book down the entire time. It was gripping, intense and I loved the relationship between the characters and how they could put their differences aside to try to figure out what really happened that day. I personally do not have any cons, the entire book was so good it would be difficult to critique.
Conclusion
Overall I gave this book a 4.5 star review as it really had me glued to it the entire way through, it was fast paced, easy to read, I didn’t feel as though there were any gaps to be filled within the story line.
I would 100% recommend this book to anyone. It was great for young adults but fantastic for any adults who perhaps want something a bit different but do not want to read a really intense mystery. This was an incredible book with a really good opening into the sequel but, you would also be fully satisfied reading this as a standalone too.