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

Publication Date: May 30th, 2017
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Thriller, Mystery 
Amazon ~ Goodreads ~ TBD

Synopsis: 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."

My Rating

5/5 stars

My Review

One of Us Is Lying will probably be my favourite book of 2017. It has diverse main characters, a great romance and a mystery that will make you stay up reading till the AM.

Simons dead, but who did it? Was it Bronwyn the brain, Addy the princess, Cooper the athlete or Nate the criminal? Is it a coincidence that the four of them were in the room when Simon was killed? Especially since he planned to expose their secrets the next day. Which one of their secrets was so important that they killed the boy who was going to tell the rest of the school.

I've always been a huge fan of The Breakfast Club, so when I read the synopsis I knew I had to read this book. I was a little disappointed that the only similarity from The Breakfast Club was about their personalities and that they were all in detention, but the book itself was so amazing that this little thing didn't influence my rating what so ever.

Right away, we dive into the four main character's lives, their secrets, home life and what they think about the situation. Every single character was so different, yet they all had something that you could love about them. Abby has been the girl her boyfriend has always wanted her to be, she dresses like he wants, agrees with everything he says and follows him around like a lost dog. Without him, Abby would be nothing, and what Simon has on Abby could end her relationship for good. While I wasn't a huge fan of Abby in the beginning, she really redeemed herself near the end and I ended up cheering her on. Cooper is the all star athlete, he's popular, extremely nice and is dating one of the prettiest girls in high school, but he's also hiding a big secret, one that could tear his family apart and end his baseball career before it even starts. Nate comes from a bad home, an alcoholic dad and a bipolar mother who ran away and left them behind. Nate is an open book and could care less if anyone knows his secret, but if the parole officers find out that Nate is dealing weed again, he could be trifled as an adult. Bronwyn (my favourite) is focused on getting into Yale, with perfect attendance, perfect grades and lots of extracurricular she's a shoe-in to get in, the last thing she needs is Simon spilling her secrets and ruining her chances of getting in to the university of her dreams.

I finished this book in two days, but if I had the time, I probably would have finished it in one sitting. This book is definitely addicting. It has tons of action in every chapter, take my word when I say you wont be bored. The suspense and mystery of this book will keep you reading until you find out who the murderer is, and the romance in this story will have you swooning. I loved every single aspect of this book.

My favourite thing about this book, was that it wasn't predictable at all. In every mystery book, you always have a feeling of who did it, and when you find out that it was who you suspected, you either have the "I knew it" moment or the "dang it, that was too easy" moment. The amount of times I changed my mind about who the killer was, is too many to count. Yet none of the people I suspected killed Simon. The ending was such a nice surprise which I never saw coming. It was extremely well written and I'm really impressed with the amazing job Karen did.

If you love Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl, The Breakfast Club or Thirteen Reasons Why, you will absolutely love this book. I highly recommend it to everyone who loves a good mystery and is prepared to stay up all night reading this book. I can't wait to see what this author writes next.

Happy Reading,
Aneta