FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR, KAREN McMANUS
“Pretty Little Liars meets The Breakfast Club” (EW.com)in this “flat-out addictive” (RT Book Reviews) story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive.
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.
AndSimon, 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.
And don’t miss the sequel, One of Us is Next!
Praise for One of Us Is Lying An EW.com Best YA Book of the Year Selection A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of the Year Selection A Popcrush Best Young Adult Book of the Year Selection A New York Public Library's Best Book for Teens Selection
A CBC Teen Choice Book Award Nominee A Bustle Best Young Adult Book of May 2017 A Goodreads Best Young Adult Book of the Year Nominee
A YALSA Best Fiction Book Nominee A YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
“You’ll tear through this juicy, super-fun (if murder can ever be fun?) thriller."—Bustle
"A whodunit with a Breakfast Club twist...following four unique voices on a chase to find the killer, this one will keep you guessing until the very, very end."—Popcrush
"Twisty plotting, breakneck pacing and intriguing characterisation add up to an exciting, single-sitting thrillerish treat."—The Guardian
"This is no ordinary whodunit…surprising and relevant."—USA Today
“An addictive, devour-in-one-sitting thriller.”—Kara Thomas, author of The Darkest Corners, Little Monsters, and The Cheerleaders
★"[As] McManus's intense mystery unfolds...each character becomes more complex and nuanced, adding richness and depth to the suspense." —VOYA, Starred Review
I thought this was really great, which should be evident by how quickly I read it (3 days). It starts out with five students serving detention one evening, but then one of them dies in a way that can't quite be accidental.
The characters start out rooted in their stereotypes -- the smart one, the pretty one, the bad boy, the jock, and the outcast. But with the exception of Simon, who dies, there is good growth for each character. No one stays stagnant in this story, and everyone comes out of it changed for the better. The book gives you the story from each main character's point of view, and the character voices are different enough that I really didn't have to look back to remember who was talking.
The mystery itself was quite good, with a lot of twists and turns. Everyone is a suspect, and the author does a good job of keeping you guessing until the end. I don't read a ton of YA, but I look forward to the next book by this author!
