I, personally, don’t. Give me darkness and thrills and creeps and gore. Do not give me baseball drama and romantic miscommunication and phones getting taken away, please. I’m not interested. If One of Us Is Lying was a television series, I would binge-watch it wholeheartedly. It's been a while since I've gotten so into a book I've devoured the majority of it in one sitting when I haven't been on a plane. This hooked me completely, and I'm surprised how much I liked it. We have two characters in the story who are cheaters; one is a female character, who does it one time, while drunk; the other is a male character, who carries on an emotional and physical affair for MONTHS. We spend a tremendous portion of the book focusing on the girl's one-night-stand, while the text literally does not ONCE actually name the boy for what he is: a cheater. There's no remorse shown, and there are no consequences whatsoever for him. It also seems kinda gross to me that the girl who's guilty of cheating is a "pretty, vapid, popular girl" type - can we please stop with these cliches?

Even though I predicted the whodunit less than halfway through, I still ended up genuinely enjoying the story. This is definitely the type of book that the more you think of, the more resentment you will have towards it. The more problems that you will think of and the more you will question what you just read. I enjoyed it when I was reading, simply because of how fast I sped through it, but, was it really, truly, actually good? Upon further reflection prior to this review, ok going to have to say no. Mind you this book is so very predictable I figured and saw every twist coming until the very end and I am not lying...no I am not lying !! The Characters. It is a rare day indeed that I find fleshed out, grounded, relatable characters that draw me in to a young adult narrative the way that these did here. My AHA moment may not have come during the big twist, but it certainly came in waves abounding throughout my experience journeying with these various high school kids. I was sure this would be another read with those stereotypical teenagers that give contemporary YA novels a bad rep; for crying out loud the stereotypes are printed on the inside of the book cover in the description! I think this was a clever move by the publisher and author; if other readers pull the same underestimation as I did, they will be more than pleasantly surprised at what they get out of this book. In referral to the wrapping up of characters and not the twist, the ending was one of the best I’ve seen in awhile. There is no gag worthy happily ever after where everyone is perfectly paired up in couples and they ride off into the sunset on their baby unicorns while the sun beats down on their pimple free faces…. No, while there are some upbeats moments, the ending is messy and real and I welcomed it whole heartedly. People made mistakes beyond the central narrative and there were consequences and some things were left open-ended in the way that makes you wonder what their eventual decisions lead to. I’m extremely pleased that the author chose to take some risky leeway with her writing direction and applaud her with a standing ovation. I had high hopes for this book. No I did't I'm lying ! My fifteen year old niece has been urging, cajoling, threatening me ! This is the bestest ever!! she squealed, yelled, gushed. My bf would look at her and then look at me...with that better you than me glance.

This book was a pleasant surprise! It was refreshing and a change from the usual young-adult contemporary. First, kudos to whoever was in charge for finally getting a dang blurb right. This absolutely was “The Breakfast Club Meets Pretty Little Liars.” Per usual, I was not the target audience for this selection, but hey the sun shines on an old dog’s butt every once in a while because I thought it was . . . . Human unpredictability,” she says with a shrug. “People are full of surprises, even when you think you know them.” The ending: Horrible. The last quarter was so bad, and just ruined the entire book. I'm just going to pretend it never happened.

I’m always so hesitant with thrillers bc they’re always a hit or miss for me buT DAMN THIS WAS SO GOOD First, depression is villanized because Simon is portrayed as a terrorist. His main motivation was wanting the infamy of a school shooter. He wanted to cause the same amount of damage, but in a way he deemed better. Problem: Depression does not equal being a terrorist! Mental illness being portrayed as wrong and evil is such a tired depiction.

Retailers:

I really dunno how long “One of Us is Lying” was already on my list but it feels like it’s been on my TBR forever. *lol* Also, can we please NOT make the only queer character in the cast a horrible character who cheats and hurts people? AND can we not make the character's coming-out scene a bigger twist than the actual murderer reveal? This book also does some serious vilifying of mental illness, but I won't get started on that rant. The Prom Queen who has never been able to find herself as a separate person from her long term boyfriend. As the story gets old, the title keeps the reader guessing as the characters are developed with additions of suspense while trust dwindles as the real picture of each is painted. The mystery is filled with suspense creating an urge in the reader to read on and solve them making it a perfect thriller beautiful story with great characterization.

What other bits and pieces were total home runs? Well, I can’t forget to mention the utterly top-notch twist that I absolutely did not see coming. Then there was the *chef’s kiss* redemption arc for villainess Vanessa and the warm and cuddly found family trope that is always a slam dunk for me. So whole this full-circle narrative did leave some pieces uncharacteristically up in the air, the finale did provide the perfect closing scene to be sure. mental illness rep: Nope nope nope. Let's please not use mental illness as a motive or in such a degrading way. _____ is depressed, and using that as something to explain why a person did something horrible, is not something I ever want to read. Villainizing all the characters with mental illnesses and degrading them to just that, is an automatic no for me. Add in the fact that this cast is similar to the stereotypical cast of characters found in The Breakfast Club, one of the best movies EVER created, and you have an equation for a near perfect book for Megs! This wasn’t entirely original, I think I’ve heard of some other handful of stories similar, but it was entertaining nonetheless. Bronwyn, Nate, Cooper, and Addy are suspects for murdering the school's gossiper, Simon. When the 5 of them were in detention, the last thing they expect is for Simon to drop dead... Unless one of them planned the whole thing.This book would make a great movie! Karen M. McManus did a great job for a debut, I'm already looking forward to reading her future books. Beyond all of that... honestly, the writing is just not that good, and the "twist" is so predictable it hurts.

i got to the bottom of this and figured it out pretty easily early on, but that didnt detract from the story in the slightest. initially, i was worried this was going to be too much like the breakfast club meets murder she wrote but, other than the student stereotypes, this wasnt like that at all and i was so glad. The investigations reveal that he had scheduled to disclose a number of secrets for all the four students that were with him in detention. These facts make the four of those that walked out suspects to the murder but pointing out who was responsible becomes the hustle. However, there is a possibility in which the killer could have come from outside. It seems that the motive of the murder could be connected to secrets that Simon was about to release the next day. The students who were together with the slain victim were considered high profile, and each seemed to have heard secrets that would ruin their reputation.But we all know what Bayview’s real game is, right?” she continues. “Revenge. Except they keep doing it wrong. romance: I thought it was tolerable, but instead of being a sub plot, it had a big focus on it and I feel as if it may have taken away from the actual story. Why did I end up caring about this romance more than the main conflict?? Though the way things played out with the romance, I didn't like (see summary). the characters: I liked Bronwyn and Nate enough to stay I didn't hate them. Not Addy and Cooper though. They were laughable and Addy's whole empowering story line was corny. Also, you're not going to catch me uplifting a bunch of cheaters. And everyone else didn't have a prominent personality and I didn't care for them.