One Of Us Is Lying By Karen M. McManus

[amazon_link id=”0141375639″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link] ‘One Of Us Is Lying’ is the latest book by Karen M. McManus.

Five students go to detention. Only four leave alive. 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.

This is Karen’s debut book and it’s an addictive read filled with secrecy, bitchiness and lies.

The story starts just as the five students all arrive for detention and then is seen through the four remaining narratives as they all become the suspects in the investigation when Simon, the fifth student suddenly dies in suspicious circumstances.

The four students all come from completely different sides of track and in a different situation, they may never have forged friendships. But, in the surreal situation that they are experiencing, they are all there for each other, trying to piece together the mystery of Simon’s death.

Simon, who tragically died was a bit of hated character, he was an antagonistic boy, who liked to spread humours and make people uncomfortable with the creation of his gossip app ‘About That’, which shared tales of speculation and lies. Bronwyn is a serious and studious girl who finds herself attracted to social outcast, Nate, a bad boy that trouble seems to follow. Whilst Addy is the prom queen of the high school, with the perfect boyfriend and star of baseball team. But her life is far from perfect with her boyfriend’s controlling ways and her mothers pressuring ways of wanting to settle down. Finally Cooper, is the boy that the girls want and the boys admire.

All four of the students, had something to hide, that they didn’t want other people to know, but Simon knew more than he let on and that’s why they are all suspects in the case. As the story progresses, their secrets are revealed and they all have motives to kill Simon.

This book is great, it’s similar to ‘The Breakfast Club’ which is one of my all time favourite films, which is also set in detention and has similar characters. But that’s were the similarities end, as with the normal everyday issues that young adults have to face, there is the added fear of being a suspect of murder.

Cleverly written, this dark story is seen through the narratives of the characters and this gives quite vivid insights into each of their minds and all the problems they face.

Riddled with twists and turns, this suspenseful story is engaging from the start. With relatable characters and situations, this fantastic murder mystery is a must read.

You can buy [amazon_link id=”0141375639″ target=”_blank” ]One Of Us Is Lying from Amazon [/amazon_link] and is available to buy from good bookshops.