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One of Us Is Lying (One of Us is Lying, #1)

Karen M. McManus

Start date: January 1, 2020

Finish date: January 31, 2020

Discussion: Group Books of the Month (BotM)

Why we're reading this: Chosen as our mystery themed BotM for January 2020.
[close] Chosen as our mystery themed BotM for January 2020.

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What Members Thought

Oct 20, 2017 Michael rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, read-in-2017, fall-reading-2017

A quintet of stereotypes from a John Hughes movie walk into detention one fateful Monday afternoon, but only four make it out alive.

Each of the survivors -- the athlete, the cheerleader, the academic, and the drug dealer -- had good reason to want to see the victim silenced. Simon Kelleher runs Bayview High's infamous gossip blog app and his next post contained juicy details that could cause grief and heartache to each of the survivors. But was that post enough of a motive to kill Simon? And if A quintet of stereotypes from a John Hughes movie walk into detention one fateful Monday afternoon, but only four make it out alive.

Each of the survivors -- the athlete, the cheerleader, the academic, and the drug dealer -- had good reason to want to see the victim silenced. Simon Kelleher runs Bayview High's infamous gossip blog app and his next post contained juicy details that could cause grief and heartache to each of the survivors. But was that post enough of a motive to kill Simon? And if it was, which one of these four is guilty of the crime?

The central mystery of who killed Simon and why drives Karen M. McManus' debut novel One of Us Is Lying. And the story starts with teenage stereotypes, each of the characters doesn't remain a stereotype for long. One of the highlights of the story is watching McManus build each of the characters through shifting point of view segments while both validating and challenging our initial assumption of each character. Whether it's the academic, Bronwyn who was presented with a chance to keep her collegiate dreams of going to Yale alive or Jake, the drug dealer who is trying to overcome his family's dysfunctional history, McManus' narrative weaves the lives of the so-called Murder Club into something more than just your standard murder mystery.

The two highlights of the novel are Cooper, the star pitcher who is accused of steroid abuse but hides a larger secret and Addy, the cheerleader with the seemingly perfect boyfriend. McManus hits all the right notes with these two characters (especially Addy) and even resists the temptation to give them complete "happily ever after" endings when the novel comes to a close.

It's a shame really that she doesn't resist that temptation with Bronywn and Jake. A tacked-on epilogue allows us to see what becomes of each character after the central mystery is solved, but I couldn't help but feel a bit unsatisfied by where McManus takes Bronwyn and Jake in the stories closing moments. But I get the feeling that many in McManus' target audience will swoon at where she leaves these two when the final page is turned.

And while the mystery of who killed Simon and why serves as a driving focus for the narrative, it also serves as the biggest frustration with the narrative. In typical Scooby Doo fashion, the police are completely incompetent, focusing solely on the four characters at the heart of this story and not entertaining any other potential suspects or lines of investigation for much of the novel. Perhaps this is intended to help us get inside the heads of Bronywn, Jake, Addy, and Cooper as they face allegations of murder. But when the four band together to begin trying to solve the crime themselves, I couldn't help but feel like it was a bit out of the ending of an episode of Scooby Doo and that the murderer's entire plan would have gone off without a hitch if "not for you darn kids."

It was these two things that really took me out of the story and keeps One of Us Is Lying from being a completely satisfying experience.

Now, onto the SPOILER-filled part of the review. Stop reading if you don't want to know or haven't read it yet but plan to do so.
(view spoiler) ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Sep 28, 2021 Christie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: library, ya, audio

I enjoyed this book. I listened to this as I have been doing lately. I liked that each character had their own narrator. Five students go into detention and only four come out in less than 30 minutes. There are lies, depression, angst, love, finding oneself, figuring out who is really there for you, friendship old and new. It is really a run through high school. I thought I figured it all, either I am getting worse at this or the writer was that good. I feel that the book was a good read. Can’t ...more

Like · see review