Review | One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M McManus

One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M McManus
Published On: May 30, 2017/June 1, 2017 (UK)
Published By: Penguin
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 368
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
Rating: ★★★½

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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.

*A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

The synopsis of this book had me intrigued from the minute I read it, however it turned out to be nothing like I had expected. I think I was expecting some kind of The Breakfast Club meets murder mystery, which it was in a way, but with detention being more of the setting. In reality, it was your average high school setting mystery. It was good, but it didn’t blow me away, perhaps because I had expected something different.

I think my Breakfast Club vibe came from the cast of characters. The characters in this book are great, and they are all so different. I really liked the fact these incredibly different people were all thrown into this situation, and the fact it brought them together.

While the characters were an important aspect of the book, the mystery surrounding Simon’s death is obviously the main theme of the book. I was so intrigued by the mystery. It completely pulled me in and I just had to know what happened, I couldn’t stop reading. There were so many parts to the mystery and the fact it was more than just who was responsible for the death really added to the intrigue.

The way the mystery was resolved was not what I was expecting. I liked the way what had happened and those involved were revealed, especially as it was far more action-packed than I had anticipated. I was expecting mystery going into this book, but the thriller aspect was a shock. What wasn’t a shock, though, was the reveal of who was responsible.

I was curious going into this book about how the story would be told considering we had essentially four main characters. The way this book was written from all four perspectives was very well done and the addition of the date/time stamp was very helpful. I did find it a little confusing when the time jumped several days between characters’ perspectives and I often struggled to work out where the story was in terms of timing.

The one thing I didn’t really like within this book was the romance. I usually love a relationship forming alongside the main story but not in this case. The romance just seemed unnecessary and I didn’t feel it add anything to the story. I liked both characters and didn’t dislike them together in general, however it seemed to me like it was added in just for the sake of having a romance aspect to the story.

Overall, I did enjoy this book but it didn’t blow me away. I really liked the mystery aspect, which intrigued me enough to keep me turning the pages, and the great cast of characters, who each brought something different to the story. I would recommend this book to mystery fans, as the mystery aspect of the book is really what impressed me the most.