One of Us Is Lying
Ratings484
Average rating3.7
This book is mysterious, funny, romantic, and very charming. Its everything I'd want in a book! The romance between Nate and Bronwen is adorable and I think all of the characters are super well rounded.
This book won awards for YA Mysteries and it was great. Lots of suspects, good characters, great mystery and big surprise at the end. Just the way I like my books. I'm 72 years old and thought I'd try a YA mystery and I felt like I was in high school again while reading it! 280 Pages and there is a sequel that I will be reading soon! David N.
That was fun. A solid detective story with fleshed out characters, this book was very exciting and i enjoyed it immensely.
3.5. A good, fast-paced high school thriller. It was twisty and messed up but also felt timely and relevant, both technology-wise and motive-wise. I enjoyed spending time with these characters; none of them were perfect people, and it was interesting how friendships formed between these four people who really had no interaction with each other, except that they were all being investigated for murder.
I liked it a lot. I don't know that it'll stick with me ... half an hour after I finished the audiobook and I had to look up the name of one of the main characters, but it was fun to listen to while I did boring spreadsheets at work and putzed around the house.
SPOILERS AHEAD:
I really can't write reviews without talking about plot or characters so ya. I really enjoyed Addys character because I thought she developed the most from feeling worthless to being a badass and realizing she doesn't need a man to show her her worth. Also, I liked the plot twist about Cooper being gay because it wasn't hinted at throughout but u just thought it was another girl. It didn't feel like a PR stunt but genuine and fit with his character. Plus, Kris is a vital character at the end who helps fit the pieces together.
I did, however, guess that Simon was the one who orchestrated everything. I'm not saying this to brag or say it's bad writing, but that it has been done before. The whole plot with the gossip and emerging felt very Pretty Little Liars-Esque to me. Although I did enjoy it a lot.
I feel like they should have pieced things together sooner given all the evidence they had but that's just me being picky. I highly recommend this book for YA readers and mystery lovers.
Ooooo yes. I honestly couldn't put it down. Great suspense, the characters felt real, the plot twists were surprising. I had a little trouble in the beginning keeping tack of the shifting perspectives, but once I got to know the characters better I appreciated that I got to hear from all of them. Also, this is a book that is self-aware of the character tropes its plays into before totally dismantling those tropes in the interests of character development. Super fast, darkly entertaining read.
Spannend, goede opbouw, origineel en leuke twist (ook al had ik hem min of meer geraden).
Mira, me ha gustado porque sí. Hay tensión, intriga y dolor de barriga... Y me ha gustado la resolución
Foi bem ok. Não há uma louca profundidade mas foi melhor que eu esperava: não adivinhei super tds os envolvidos e os personagens eram ok.
Actual rating: 4.5 starsI devoured this book in two days. I tend to do this with mystery books because I needed to know who did it. The circumstances were just so... strange.Although this book is called One of Us is Lying, I couldn't help but believe each character during their respective perspectives. When Addy said “Unless one of us is lying. That's always a possibility.” I was like OH DAMN CAN'T TRUST ANYONE EVERYONE IS SUS NOWI liked that this book read more like a traditional young adult book than a mystery. That being said, I thought it was lacking the thrill and suspense aspect of a mystery (to which I recommend [b:Dangerous Girls 16074758 Dangerous Girls Abigail Haas https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1356513050s/16074758.jpg 21869436] by [a:Abigail Haas 6551240 Abigail Haas https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1377257031p2/6551240.jpg] because damn, that book was a RIDE).Ultimately, this was a really, really good read. I felt the ending was really satisfying and tied up all loose ends. Turns out there's going to be a sequel, so I'm excited to see what McManus decides is next for these characters.
This was pretty good. Some of it was predictable, some of it wasn't. Enough wasn't though, that I wanted to know what would happen next.
(Oddness- the book starts on Monday, September 24, the day I started listening to it. Also, the first character POV is Bronwyn.)
3.5. For once a quick synopsis did the book justice: Breakfast Club: Murder Edition. Not the newest concept but well done and a quick and engaging read.
There were parts of this book that I got really into. Overall, however, I don't think it was that great. I grew to really like the characters (even though they bugged me at first) but I've definitely read much better books that have had me more hooked than this. I wouldn't be quick to recommend it. I also guessed correctly about how Simon dies (not a spoiler, it's what the entire book is about), so I guess it's somewhat predictable. It definitely gets better as you read but didn't really do it f
Kalo mempertimbangkan novel ini sebagai genre misteri/thriller memang payah. Tapi jika mempertimbangkan sebagai genre YA contemporary menurutku bagus.
Suka bagaimana suatu hal yg buruk bisa membawa kebaikan bagi Addy, Nate & Bronwyn. Kebaikan bagi Cooper adlh mengetahui mana teman sejati, krn teman sejatibakan terlihat ketika kita terkena masalah. Yg paling manis sbnrnya kisah Nate & Bronwyn. Addy akhirnya bisa menjadi diri sdr tanpa didikte oleh org lain.
It was okay but there was zero excitement or action happening at all, and that made the storyline a bit slow. The idea was a good one, though.
Having spent quite a bit of time recently reading Fantasy novels I decided to try and take a different turn and squeeze in a little Young Adult Thriller between my Fantasy novels of choice that I have on my To Be Read shelf. Being a child of the 70's I have seen and loved the brat pack movie The Breakfast Club and as I'd heard that One of Us Is Lying by Karen M McManus had somewhat of a vibe of that movie about it as well as a mystery aspect I decided I would give it a try.
This is the story of 5 teens who are sent to after-school detention together. Bronwyn, the high achieving student with an Ivy League future ahead of her. Cooper, the school's baseball star, who is being scouted for the minors and offered lucrative scholarships for when he leaves school. There's Addy, the popular prom princess who has a long-standing relationship with the most popular boy in school. Nate is the delinquent, serving probation for drug charges he's a misfit from a difficult home life who's reputation proceeds him. Finally, there is Simon, the guy who runs the school gossip mill on an online app where he posts rumours about things from pregnancies to who's cheating on who and the scary thing is how accurate these rumours prove to be.
During their time in detention, Simon collapses after a drink of water and dies shortly thereafter after an allergic reaction. Suddenly the police are questioning whether it was an accident, after all the following day's online post Simon was due to release contained damning stories about all of the people who were in the room with Simon at the time. For Addy, Bronwyn, Cooper, and Nate their worlds are thrown into chaos as their secrets are spilled and people begin to question which one of them is responsible for Simon's death.
The premise of this book sounded excellent. It contained enough mystery on the blurb of the book to really grab my attention and so I delved in expecting to be hooked by the story pretty quickly. The story got moving really quickly as we join the story immediately as the said detention begins and we are treated to different character perspectives from the 4 suspects throughout the book as we get narration from them all individually. It doesn't give a long lead into the events of Simon's death and therefore most of the book is focused on the events following the incident as opposed to what happened in the room during Simon's death.
I didn't find myself as hooked in the story as I had anticipated with this book. I liked the characters and found that whilst their relationships with each other were wonderful to read about I truly did not care enough about finding out who had killed Simon to really engage with the story. This is because Simon was a horrible person, truly not a nice guy at all. We find out information about him throughout and read about the effects of his gossip mongering on the people he left behind and it is very difficult to find empathy with him. Had I really cared who did it I think I would have found this more suspenseful but instead I just wanted to shake the hand of the person who put an end to his ongoing destruction of people's lives.
I also didn't find the book built the suspense well at all. It read less as a mystery novel and instead focused more on the teen angst of the 4 suspects and their lives and the dirt that Simon had on them all at the time of his death. It isn't done in a way that leads us to suspect anyone more than another but instead leaves you thinking that these are decent kinds with nothing to hide and you root for them. You don't want to suspect anyone as they are all good at heart and have made mistakes but don't deserve the wrath brought upon them as a result. As the book progressed I began to have an inkling about what had actually happened and therefore the ending did not come as a big shock for me. It kind of made sense in context of the characterisation throughout the book and meant all the loose ends were tied up a little too neatly.
I couldn't say I loved One of Us Is Lying, it was an okay read. I could only give it 3 out of 5 stars though as it lacked a little bit of the real tension that I like in a thriller.
an okay read. The plottwist was really obvious and therefore pretty annoying to me 😅
but yea. i liked Nate and Addy!
This is one of those books that you will not be able to put down. I started this book at breakfast, planning on reading it slowly, but ended up not being able to do anything else until I finished. The writing was just that good, gripping and compelling. It all seemed rather believable too.
The plot pretty straight-forward, the mystery of Simon's death being solved. At the same time, figuring out the killer, is a wild ride. It is made even more interesting by the fact that we are told the story through Addy, Cooper, Bronwyn, and Nate's perspectives. So, as the plot moves forward the reader is feeling more attached to the characters, and less likely that these characters are killers.
The characters themselves are quite distinct from each other, making them easy to tell apart and giving the reader different people to connect to. The characters are not just one dimensional though, because as the book progresses we learn more about them while they also grow. Even the side characters, at least some of them like Janae, even are more than decoration or plot tools and feel real too. While the characters do start out stereotypes (jock, nerd, criminal, popular kid, outcast), they all can connect to different types of readers and then as they grow and become more, I feel this can help the readers too.
I would recommend this book to more than just young adults, to all people who enjoy a good mystery that gets their heart pounding.