Title: One of Us is Lying
Genre: YA Contemporary Mystery
Author: Karen M. McManus
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication: May 30th 2017
Cover Rating: 3/5
I love murder/mystery books. I have no idea why, considering I can guess the bad guy nine times out of ten. One of Us is Lying, nope, couldn't guess it. I kept going back and forth in my head and it was starting to drive me crazy. Like WHO DID IT. Arg. Well, now I know who did it and DAMN, I definitely didn't see THAT coming.
Plot:
Simon runs an online Tumblr page where he spews gossip about his fellow classmates. Problem is, all of gossip ends up being true. The other problem? Simon gets a lot of hate for outing his classmates secrets.
He ends up in detention one day with four fellow classmates. All of them had their phone go off in class and that teacher wasn't having any of that crap. Only, something is weird about the cell phones. Something is weird about the entire situation. Then Simon dies and the manner of death wasn't exactly mysterious until people started looking more closely.
Now, everyone who was in detention with Simon is being investigated for murder. Who would want to murder Simon? After all, it's just stupid high school drama, right? But each one of these four kids has a reason to hate Simon and motives to want him out of the picture. Dealing with secrets is a dangerous business. Isn't that right, Finnick Odair?
The four students are told to stay away from each other while the police do their investigation but they do exactly the opposite.Secrets get exposed, hearts get broken and someones life is about to be put on hold and maybe ruined forever if they go to jail. What happens when none of them can figure out which person did it? I guess you will just have to read and find out.
I would also like to add that there are some mental health issues in this book but if I say much else it would be a spoiler.
Characters:
Simon - The Douchey McDouchepants
Nate - The Scapegoat
Bronwyn - The Perfect One That Isn't So Perfect
Cooper - The Cliche Secret Hiding Jock
Addy - The Compliant Girlfriend
There are a few more side characters but none of them, except maybe Simon's best friend and Addy's 'boyfriend', are really important. I connected the most with Nate and then a bit with Bronwyn, the perfectionist side mainly. I didn't like Addy much until the end, what her sister did for her was tear-worthy. Then we have Cooper. I'm still not sure how I feel about him... he needed to stand up for himself a bit more. I can understand his wanting to hide things because the sports world can be very in un-accepting but he still shouldn't have been living a lie.
World Building:
The author did a very good job at capturing the essence that is high school. Aside from that, there wasn't much world building needed as it was a contemporary setting set in the USA.
In the end, I still didn't fully understand what happened with Simon and why he did what he did. I didn't even think of that as a possible outcome and I'm normally great at guessing plot points. This book is about bullying in a completely different light. I want to say the victim became the bully but I don't think any of these kids did anything remotely warranting what Simon tried to pin on them. I did, however, love the way it ended. And I hope the legal outcomes will be harsh but fair especially
Overall, I gave the book 4.5/5 stars.
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