Review | One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus

One of Us is Lying - Karen M. McManus
Publisher : Delacorte Press
Release Date : May 30th 2017
Genres : YA, Thriller
Pages :  370
Rating : ★★☆☆☆

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

I anticipated the release of One of us is Lying as soon as I heard about that book. Simon Kelleher owner of an app called « About That » similar to Gossip Girl (basically an app where everyone's secrets are revealed) is poisoned during detention. We follow the perspectives of the four other students – and therefore suspects - present during the murder.

I expected a lot. The premise of the book screamed « Secrets ! Betrayals ! Revelations ! Thrill ! I mean that's the point of a thriller, right ? But this book didn't make me feel anything beside frustration. 

One of Us is Lying turned out to be a huge disappointment. The title is misleading and I hate when that happens. A title is supposed to be catchy and attract innocent bookworms who didn't know any better but please. 

I can't say too much about that without giving anything away so I'm going to talk about the character and their – very predictable – secrets.

We have :

• the « know-it-all », the girl with a bright future ahead of her and too much pressure on her shoulders.
• The jock who (guess what?) is very popular and dates the most beautiful girl in the school.
• The popular girl whose world gravitates around her – controlling - boyfriend.
• And finally the drug dealer who's on probation.

Have you guessed their secrets yet ?

Usually, when I'm able to sum up characters in one sentence it's not a good sign. They're complete clichés and because of that I didn't feel any connection to them. We've all seen those type of characters and they just don't work for me now. I know the premise made it clear but I was expecting more.

It's a character driven story but the lack of nuances made the whole thing shallow and at times boring especially when it comes to the vilain. A story is only as good as its vilain, right ? But unfotunately, that didn't work for me either because the vilain is so evil for no real reason. I mean, sure, a reason is explained but really ? Going that far for that ?

However, even though I didn't like the book, I liked the author's writing. I liked how fluid it was and the length of the chapters (short but efficient).  That's why I give it 2 stars and not 1.