One of Us Is Lying

3.75/5 stars “I guess we're almost friends now, or as friendly as you can get when you're not one hundred percent sure the other person isn't framing you for murder.”
So I actually predicted the ending well all except Jake had something to do with it and I'm so incredibly proud of myself, I'm thinking of throwing away all future career plans I may have and becoming a detective because obviously, I'm a prodigy.



And for once in my life, I'm not overwhelmed by a rush of disappointment after finishing this book. I knew this wasn't a type of book I was going to be all heart-eyes over, so my expectations was a three star book and that's what I got. Thanks @disappointment for leaving me along for once.

One Of Us Is Lying is about The Breakfast Club four stereotypical high school students who witness a murder during detention one day, and after some Tumblr posts, they are all the main suspects in the murder.

There's Bronwyn, the “brains”
And Nate, the “criminal”
Then Addy the “beauty”
Lastly, Cooper, the “athlete”

Sounds just like The Breakfast Club right? Except one's a classic movie and the other has murder...

I think one of the most tragic things about this book is Simon, the guy who was murdered, died in detention. Poor guy. Nobody deserves that. If I was to die, I would want to be doing something I loved, like while reading a book or six episodes deep into a Toddlers & Tiaras marathon. But Simon was unfortunate enough to be murdered during the worst part of high school. I don't care if he's some huge gossiper, no one deserves to die, and no one deserves to die in detention. Even with the twist at the ending, no one deserves it.That plot twist at the ending, the one I correctly predicted, where it was actually all an elaborate suicide left me incredibly disappointed. I felt like it was thrown in there just as a plot twist,instead of using this as a way to talk about mental health.Also, let's talk about the misleading title. None of the four characters were lying, while at the same time all of them were.

This book really wasn't anything outstanding to me, but the read was so freaking fun that I don't even care. I became so invested in wanting to know what happened, that I read the entire thing in mostly one sitting.

If ya wanna fun, ya thriller that's more addicting than thrilling then this is the read for you.

The story was really good. I liked how everyone has secrets and how they grew together as a group. The ending was also really good with focussing on Simon being a fucking dick and doing it to himself. Although the way Cooper's story was told took me off this book.

Everyone's secret became clear pretty quickly in their inner monologue and many also just told people pretty quick. You also got a great glimpse into their lives that gave the characters depth. Except in Cooper's case. His boyfriend was used as a plot twist that came after 200 pages and his life and chapters before that were bland and one-dimensional. Many of the characters had major character development before we even found out Cooper was gay. Making sexuality a plot twist in itself is bad in my opinion. It made the book unbalanced and less good. 

Real rating: 3,5* stars

I was completely ready to give this book 3 stars, but then the part where Nate got arrested pulled up and everything got way more fast-paced, exciting and mysterious. The others were rushing to found the truth at last now that one of them is behind bars and that is what really got me absorbed into the pages.

Everything before that part I liked, especially Bronwyn and Nate, but not that much.
The POV's were often short and in the beginning I even found them a little confusing cause they switched a lot and their personalities didn't seem as defined (because of the shortness and switching of the pov's).

What also annoyed me was the way Janae defended Simon. His behavior was gross and even got more gross as he continued down his spiral. Yet she kept defending him even when she started to back down from Simon and Jake's plan.
And god, Jake is such an a**hole.

I don't read much YA. I read this because my daughter had it on her shelf and I decided to read it because I like shifting narrators. It was super fast. Typical short sentences common in YA. My only handicap early on was keeping the characters straight. I enjoyed the unfolding of the characters' different plot lines and of course their lies that slowly catch up to them. Some endings were improbable- no spoiler but the Yale bit- and some were on trend- the athlete- but overall it was a fun read. Well worth my time.

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.

I enjoyed it but I wasn't very surprised by the ending. The build up to figuring out who was the murderer felt a little flat and when it ended I just didn't care much because I already predicted it. All the hype made me expect a lot more from this story.
The characters were likable and I was definitely rooting for all 4.
Overall, enjoyable and entertaining. I just think I wanted a shocking twist. A bang. And it didn't happen at least for me.

I just don't think this author is for me. This is a reread from when it first came out because I wanted to give it another try. I found all of the characters unlikeable and one-dimensional. I didn't like the writing style, and the ending and big reveal was just meh to me. Many of the characters also read the same to me, and multiple times I had to go back to remind myself who I was reading about. The best part of the book was the gossip blog, and there wasn't nearly enough snippets to keep me interested. I think I wanted (and expected) it to be more like Pretty Little Liars, and if more secrets were revealed, or even some flashback chapters were incorporated, I think I would have liked it better. 

“You find out who your real friends are when stuff like this happens.”

Finished this a few weeks ago and I have no thoughts on it. I don't hate it and at the same time, I don't love it. It's such a complicated feeling coz whenever I think of the book my mind goes completely blank.
So giving this a neutral rating.
Halfway through I wanted to stop, but at the same time, I wanted to see who the killer was.
Ans even though the reveal was kind of unexpected it wasn't a ‘wow' factor.