ARC Review | One Of Us Is Lying By Karen M. McManus

Title: One Of Us Is Lying

Author: Karen M. McManus

Publisher: Penguin

Publication Date: June 1st 2017

Rating: 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

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Yale hopeful Bronwyn has never publicly broken a rule.

Sports star Cooper only knows what he’s doing in the baseball diamond.

Bad body Nate is one misstep away from a life of crime.

Prom queen Addy is holding together the cracks in her perfect life.

And outsider Simon, creator of the notorious gossip app at Bayview High, won’t ever talk about any of them again.

He dies 24 hours before he could post their deepest secrets online. Investigators conclude it’s no accident. All of them are suspects.

Everyone has secrets, right?

What really matters is how far you’ll go to protect them.

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Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review!

One Of Us Is Lying has been on my TBR since I read the synopsis. Five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. For someone who enjoys murder mysteries, I don’t read nearly enough of it. This book did not disappoint.

The story is told from four perspectives – Bronwyn, Nate, Addy and Cooper. At first, I found it really difficult to distinguish between them to the point where I kept forgetting who was narrating. Whilst the writing is easy to follow, the four voices aren’t distinct enough. That being said, as I got to know the characters better there was much less confusion.

The main characters were all likeable, relatable and realistic. I adored Bronwyn and Nate, both individually and together. What’s that famous quote? A couple that watches the Divergent movies together, stays together? Yeah, that’s it.

Aside from the little romance, I also loved the friendship that blossoms between the four. From the murder club meetings to sitting on the same table at lunch, the dynamic was unusual and unexpected but it actually worked. It doesn’t matter that there’s a brain, a beauty, a criminal and an athlete. At the end of the day, they’re just Bronwyn, Addy, Nate and Cooper.

The plot itself is cleverly written. Much like How To Get Away With Murder and Broadchurch, which are two of my favourite shows, everyone is considered a suspect. Personally, I thought it was too obvious for the murderer to be one of the Bayview Four, but I still doubted them at times. I tried to think outside the box and came up with multiple theories, and one of those theories just happened to be correct. Despite this, it still managed to have the shock factor when I found out how all the puzzle pieces fit together.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and I’d definitely recommend.

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