Book Review
Title: One of Us is Lying (One of Us is Lying Book 1) by Karen M. McManus
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: 5 Stars
After reading and loving A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder I was recommended One of Us is Lying and McManus’ books have been on my radar for a while but this is the first one I am picking up. The opening to One of Us is Lying was interesting as we are introduced to five students at Bayview High that all have detention. The students are Bronwyn – the nerd, Addy – the Princess, Nate – the criminal, Copper – the jock and Simon. Simon is the most interesting of the five as he runs an app called About That which exposes the latest gossip about the students and everyone knows that everything Simon posts is true and all of the other students have something to hide. Around 15 minutes into the detention Simon collapses due to an allergic reaction, he has a peanut allergy but he hasn’t eaten anything just drunk a cup of water. While help arrives it isn’t in time for Simon and he dies just after reaching the hospital but there are some interesting things to remember. Each of the students had a phone planted on them that wasn’t theirs which is why they are in detention in the first place and Simon alludes to some juicy gossip he will be posting soon and it’s going to centre around these four students and of that I am sure.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, things are certainly getting interesting as we learn more about the four remaining students. We learn that Cooper is cheating on his girlfriend, Keely and Addy has also cheated on Jake with his friend TJ. By the time Simon’s memorial and funeral roles around there are Tumblr posts being put up and someone claiming to have killed Simon. The first is dismissed but the second reads like the person was in the room with Simon as he died and there were only four people there. Nate is stunned by this but no one is giving anything away at the moment, we also the budding romance between Nate and Bronwyn when he subconsciously turns to her for help. I sympathise with Bronwyn as her sister Maeve had cancer when she was a child and this greatly affected the family. The four are questioned a few times by the police since they have learned that peanut oil was found in Simon’s cup and the only way it could have gotten there is if someone put it there. To be honest a lot of people are happy Simon is gone as we see through Leah who almost killed herself because Simon exposed the fact she was sleeping with a lot of people. However, one thing stands out during this time and it is Addy lying about going to nurse’s office which she seems nervous about especially with the missing Epi-pens which were there in the morning but vanished before Simon died. Addy also seems in a very controlling and possessive relationship with Jake which her sister doesn’t like and she seems to have some reservations about it too especially after sleeping with TJ. All four are called in by the police but this time they have found a post that Simon was intending to post the day after detention about the four of them. It turns out Bronwyn cheated on a key test, Cooper is doping to make his baseball performance better, Addy’s cheating and Nate’s return to drug dealing are also in there and they suddenly know there are suspects in his death. I have initially ruled out Addy as the murderer since she has the least to lose which leaves Nate, Cooper and Bronwyn.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, the four are questioned by the police but none of them give anything away as they are there voluntarily and afterwards everyone besides Nate lawyers up because they have the money for it. Nate is already being made into the scapegoat given his criminal record and he has his house searched when the others don’t but there is definitely a connection between him and Bronwyn but I haven’t ruled out Bronwyn or Cooper as the killer. I have completely ruled out Addy as the killer because her secret is out as she tells Jake what she has done and pretty soon the whole school knows about it and it doesn’t seem that she has anything else to hide. As time passes after Simon’s death, the four are warned to stay away from each other and get their stories straight since the police don’t seem to have much evidence but I think if they go digging in Simon’s blog they might find more than they bargained for. Right now the potential killer is standing out to me as Bronwyn or Cooper since they have the most to lose and they are clearly hiding something that we haven’t seen yet but I also have the feeling it could be completely outlier like Leah or Mr. Avery. While One of Us is Lying isn’t on the same level as books like A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder it is definitely shaping up to be an interesting book as long as the reveal at the end is interesting and makes sense given the information we already have and I can’t wait for the tension to rise.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, the case is beginning to get both local and national news coverage meaning the lives of the Bayview Four as they are being called is torn apart for the entertainment of everyone. Addy seems to be coping with this better than the others since she left Jake’s controlling influence as she rediscovers her hobbies like bike riding, improves her relationship with her sister and cuts her hair which made me wince but I understood her reasoning behind it. There is also a lot of development on the relationship between Nate and Bronwyn which is adorable and I don’t think any of these had something to do with Simon’s death. However, people are beginning to question why the police aren’t looking at other suspects that clearly had a grudge against Simon like Leah or the possibility that someone could have edited the posts and Maeve has hacking experience as she is currently hacking into About That. There she finds an encrypted file with Cooper’s name on it which she hasn’t been able to access yet but I have a feeling she will and the secrets it contains will be exposed. I am sure Cooper is cheating on Keely but I think it might be more than that, it could be a boy and that Cooper is gay and wanted to cover it up by dating Keely and maybe he had something with Simon or Simon caught him with someone which is what is in the encrypted file but I need way more hints dropped about the killer’s identity but I am going to have to wait and see what happens in the second half of the novel.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, the case is attracting even more attention and the four students find themselves under a microscope almost constantly but they are still living their lives. Addy has become close to Janae and Bronwyn in the aftermath of learning she wasn’t the popular one but Jake was and she is learning to distance herself from him into her own person. Bronwyn and Nate’s relationship is also picking up speed but when his mother returns it gets complicated since Nate told everyone his mother was dead. He ends up telling her the truth and they become closer for it deciding to be together although secretly for now with all the media and police attention but both hope that something good can come of it when it all blows over. Bronwyn has also been singled out because of his comments on Simon’s posts about her sister years before but deals with it and it helps her understand how Nate has been feeling since everyone has been focused on him. The only one who holds themselves apart from the group is Cooper but it eventually comes out that he is gay and seeing a man named Kris who he is in love with. He ends up breaking up with his girlfriend but he can’t come clean about his sexuality since there aren’t many gay professional baseball players and he knows that his father won’t accept him as a gay man. I am sure now the encrypted file contains this information and maybe the reason Simon never posted it was because he himself was gay and wasn’t comfortable doing that to someone else and might have even had a small crush on Cooper from one interaction Cooper remembers before Simon’s death. At this point I still have no idea who is responsible for Simon’s death but I am leaning towards someone outside of these four students since I don’t think any of them have it in them to kill and if they do I will be very surprised.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, the four are getting a lot closer even meeting up to discuss who else could have had a reason to want Simon dead and Bronwyn voices her distrust of Janae. Janae was Simon’s best friend and possibly in love with him so it doesn’t make sense for her to be hanging out with the people that might have killed him unless she is digging for information of some sort which might be the case given the strange situation that occurred at Addy’s house. However, the public opinion on them changes when the police basically out Cooper as being gay and one of the reporter runs with it because he is a gay man and was outed in a similar way which completely turns the tide. The opinion on Simon changes as well as he goes from being a victim to being a horrible person as the truth about the app and his previously comments on school shooting emerge. At this point I was beginning to believe that Janae is behind everything since she was the closest to Simon and would have been aware of the things he was planning to post but this is overshadowed when Nate is arrested for the murder. Bronwyn goes into overdrive trying to get him a good lawyer and tells her mother about their relationship to cover her own ass in the media storm that is going to come but the question is now whether or not Nate is really behind it. I don’t see Nate as a callous person since he tries to help Simon when he was dying, he has treated Bronwyn and Addy with nothing but respect and when people were bullying Cooper after it came out that he was gay he stuck up for him without even really knowing the guy that well which tells me that Nate is a good person but I can’t wait to see how this novel ends and to jump into the sequel as soon as I can.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, everything comes out in the end and when we get to see the true murderer and the mastermind plan behind it, I was left absolutely stunned. Seeing the people responsible finally brought to justice and the reasons why Cooper, Addy, Bronwyn and Nate were targeted was so masterful that I genuinely didn’t see that ending coming. I absolutely adored this book while it was a much slower burn that A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder the end result was the same as these books are both going on my favourites of the year. I loved the relationship aspects and how they were worked subtly into the plot Bronwyn and Nate were obviously my favourite but Cooper and Kris come in close second and I hope we get to see more of them in the sequel or at least make an appearance if we aren’t following the same cast of characters. I can’t believe I’ve been sleeping on this series and author for so long and I can’t wait to read more from McManus very soon.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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