ARC Review: One of Us Is Lying (One of Us Is Lying #1) by Karen M. McManus

10:00

One of Us Is Lying
Series: One of Us Is Lying #1
Author: Karen M. McManus
Published June 1st 2017 by Penguin

Goodreads Synopsis
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.

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.
Goodreads

Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

For most high-school students, getting a Monday afternoon detention would be an inconvenience, but not too big an issue. However, this Monday detention finds 4 unlikely students bound together by the death of gossip and outcast, Simon. Addy, Nate, Cooper, and Bronwyn all have secrets to hide, and it seems that Simon was about to publish a post which would ruin them all. They definitely had reasons to wish Simon dead, but did any of them actually go through with it, and is one of them lying?

I'm going to hold my hands up and admit that this book has been on my NG shelf for over 5 years. I really wanted to read it when it was first announced, and especially when all the early reviews came out. But then I think the hype got to me, and I wasn't really that fussed about it any more. I decided that enough was enough, and considering I'm trying to clear my NG shelf, it was time to read it. And I will say I'm glad I did. This book is definitely a thriller/mystery version of The Breakfast Club, one of my favourite 80's films, and though it was a little slow to start, I was soon hooked, and wanted to know more about the characters, especially Bronwyn and Nate. I had a feeling that I was right about the involvement of the four of them, but when the truth came out, I was still shocked. I was hooked until right at the very end, and can't believe this was a debut novel, it was that good! I'm going to look at getting copies of Karen's other books, and reading them.

Dates Read:
November 6-7 2021

Rating
4 Stars

You Might Also Like

0 comments