Review: One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

 Summary from Goodreads:

The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars, One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide. 
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."

Review:


What I Liked:

Audiobook. I needed a book to listen to on my walk and randomly picked up this one. It was a good choice because the narrators did a great job. I will be checking out more from them in the future. 

Characters. The novel follows four different main characters, the people who were in detention when the murder took place. In other novels there is usually a point of view that I don't care for but not with this one. I liked all of the characters that McManus created and loved following there different points of view as the mystery unfolded. 

Writing/Mystery. I was a big fan of McManus's writing style and how she gave each of the characters their own voice. She was able to build up the suspense and had me guessing under the end. 

Pop Culture References. I adored the nod to The Breakfast Club in the first few chapters. But what I loved the most about the novel was that it did not depend solely on pop culture or reused plots instead it had it's own unique story.  

Romance. I usually don't like romance in my mysteries but McManus did a great job with the one in this novel. It did not overshadow the main plot or other characters, instead it added to it. 

I recommend checking out this great young adult thriller. It has to be the best one I've read in years. 

Rating:

4.5 Stars Out of 5 Stars.