One of Us Is Lying: TikTok made me buy it: 1

Set in high school with a heavily clichéd outline of a plot and much of the answer can be guessed early on. But... I loved the characters and cared about the outcome, and Karen has something to say about life on the Internet too. Also the character arc where she comes out of a toxic relationship is a lovely, refreshing read. I loved it, I think it lives up to the hype.

Contemporary YA is not usual my cup of tea - give me fantasy or sci-fi or paranormal any day. But the premise of this intrigued me enough to give it a go, and I wasn't disappointed. Five students are given detention, having possibly been set up by having banned mobile phones places in their bags. One maintains a popular website spreading accurate but vicious gossip about his fellow students. The other four all have something to hide, and are about to be featured on his blog. The first student is poisoned and dies, leading police to assume one of the remaining four must have killed him - after all, they had access and the had a motive. The overall vibe is thus somewhere between an 80s highschool movie and an Agatha Christie movie - think Murder on the Breakfast Club Express. Though the mystery is interesting - and the conclusion interesting, if a little predictable - it's the characters that really drive the story. All four of them are self-referentially introduced as high school stereotypes: a geek, a jock, a bad boy and a popular girl. But as the book progresses, the nuances beneath those labels become clear. It's hard not to like and root for all four of them, and their interactions with and growing friendship with each other is great. The writing is really good and on the whole, the voices are well-differentiated. The book runs through quite a lot of issues such as bullying, coming out, drugs etc, but doesn't feel preachy or like the story is being manipulated to promote a message. Overall, this was a really enjoyable read, nice and light and fun, but with a little stream of darkness running through to give it a bit more edge and interest.

It was really good and it has a lot of suspense, I definitely recommend it It is good for people that like to put puzzle pieces together It is five star so good LOVE IT

Karen M. McManus’ debut novel and book one of the bestselling Bayview series, One Of Us Is Lying, follows the mystery and criminal investigation of the death of Simon Kelleher, nerdy and unpopular gossip mogul who was pretty much hated by everyone. But there’s only four suspects, the four students who were in detention with him when he died: valedictorian to be Bronwyn, star baseball player Cooper, bad boy Nate, and popular Addy. Of course, they all claim they’re innocent, so which one of them is lying? My favourite characters, or at least the ones I find myself relating to and supporting the decisions of, are Bronwyn and Addy. There are so many more people to dislike in the book than the show, including Cooper’s dad, and then the obvious choices like Simon and Jake. I recommend this book because I absolutely loved the show and I’ve been wanting to start reading this series for ages. I’m so glad I finally did. I think the show did a good job of enhancing the story and also making sure there was still some mystery for those who had previously read the books. ‘For the first time in a long time, I feel free.’

Loved this so much. Very cleverer

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand it gripped me from the beginning and wouldn't let go until I read all the way to the end and found out who actually killed Simon. Once I figured that out, there were more questions, like how the police only focused their investigation on the four suspects in the room. It was fairly obvious that there were plenty more people who wanted Simon dead. It was the Bronwyn and Addy (two of the suspects) who unravelled the biggest clues. The police didn't even consider anyone else, which I thought was a bit pathetic. I was worried when I realised there were four point of view characters. I don't normally like multiple point of views as I find them distracting, but in this book they worked. Not only did we have the mystery of who killed Simon, we had the mystery surrounding each character and their supposed motive. While three of the four were obvious, Cooper's motive was something I didn't see coming, and I loved it. My one problem with the different point of views were that the characters voices all sounded the same. There was no way of telling who was 'speaking' without reading the name at the beginning of their chapter. Since all the characters were different with different experiences and different driving forces, I found this odd. One small tidbit that threw me was when Bronwyn (who was supposed to be the smartest girl in school) said she hadn't spoken to another character in 'light years'. For someone that smart, I would have expected her to know that light years is a measure of distance and not time. She was saying this to her sister (who she described as smarter than her) and the sister didn't pick up on this either. There was no irony in the statement, or anything to suggest they were poking fun at the term since a lot of people do get this confused. I know most people wouldn't be bothered by this, but I was, and it really destroyed Bronwyn's character. Being smart was who she was, and she showed she wasn't smart. I do think this was an interesting read, but if you're looking for crime fiction, I would stick to David Baldacci and James Patterson. This was more high school drama with a bit of mystery thrown in.

Muito bom o livro

This is my 2nd book by Kare. McManus. I have enjoyed both books. They are obviously young adult. That is not a negative of you want a fun twisty who-done-it. I recommend this for adult and teens alike.

It was a fun read

Absolutely superb. This book kept me on the edge of my seat from the very first page. Five kids enter detention and only four walk back out... and one of them is lying. This is a who-dun-it with a touch of romance, and even though you don’t know who to trust as secret after secret comes out, I was fascinated by the characters and sat up late to keep turning the pages to finally find out the truth. A fantastic story, highly recommend.

This novel is a real success! I was completely addicted and was in a rush to read the story! Well-written, good suspense !!!!