Title: One of us is lying

Author: Karen McManus

Type: Fiction, Mystery

Pages:282

Published: 2017

One of Us is Lying is a teenage-take on themes as dark as murder and depression, and although other writers are unsuccessful in developing such deep plots for a younger audience, Karen M. McManus writes with an enjoyable voice that establishes her story very effectively that, additionally, is targeted well toward a young adult audience. So, if you’re wanting to sit down and unravel a complex and grounded mystery, you should check out One of Us is Lying.

McManus’ debut novel revolves around four common high school tropes—Bronwyn (the brain), Cooper (the jock), Addy (the princess) and Nate (the criminal). These stereotypes, who would never normally intermesh, have to spend detention with each other along with the outcast, Simon. When Simon, who also runs a popular gossip blog in their school, dies suddenly during detention, all four students are made suspects in a confusing and turbulent murder case.

Before detention is over for the day, Simon is dead, and apparently, it wasn’t an accident. It’s not long before investigators discover that the next day, Simon was planning to publish items about Cooper, Bronwyn, Addy, and Nate—items which could potentially destroy all of their lives. Suddenly the four of them are the suspects in Simon’s murder, and are pariahs among their fellow students, most of whom hated Simon until he died, then turned him into a tragic figure.

Suddenly four people who weren’t really friends (or at least since childhood) are brought together. Each claims their innocence—but is one of them lying, or did someone else get involved? And how, when it was just five of them in the classroom that day? Can they clear their names and get their lives back?

It turns out that Bronwyn, Cooper, Addy, and Nate all have secrets they’d prefer to have kept hidden. In some cases, these aren’t even the secrets that Simon threatened to expose. But when the truth is revealed it will impact their relationships with each other and their friends, as well as their futures. Can they handle it?

I especially liked how each perspective of the characters was described in depth so that the audience was not left out of the storytelling. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves murder mysteries and young adult fiction.