One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus

Published:  May 2017

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Pages: 368

Copy Provided by NetGalley:

Summary: Goodreads

Summary:

The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars, One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide. 

Pay close attention and you might solve this.

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.

Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. 

Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. 

Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.

Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.

And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High s notorious gossip app. 

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who s still on the loose? 

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them."

Review:

This definitely had elements of the Breakfast Club and Pretty Little Liars + perhaps 13 Reasons Why sprinkled throughout the story.  The novel begins with a murder and then sets off to see who was the murderer amongst a group of teens caught in detention.  If you liked Summer Girls by Abigail Haas, you might like this one. it had an interesting twist at the end. 

Every blurb is in the first person narrative of one of the teens in detention at the time of the murder.  Of course, everyone also has different motives for disliking Simon or having something against him. I guess when you run a blog that threatens to reveal your innermost secrets, you either have a lot of fake friends or tons of enemies.

One thing I found difficult at the beginning were the number of characters in the book. I actually found it helpful to write them all down as the chapters started skipping from person to person.  Of course I had the list memorized by the middle of the novel but it was still a challenge.

I enjoyed reading throughout its entirety and I liked how the relationships within the novel changed but I did feel like the ending was a teeny bit flat.  I can't quite put my finger on how so but I was hoping for something a little bit more dynamic.  Overall it was a decent read. I would not have been in favor of a second book and the end was just what I needed to close the book and not look back.  I would look for more books by this author and it was a good step outside of my comfort zone.

 - Christinabean