This book was a pleasant surprise! It was refreshing and a change from the usual young-adult contemporary. Jacob, Meredith (August 5, 2021). " One of Us Is Lying Rounds Out the Recurring Cast Around the Murder Suspects". TV Insider. Archived from the original on October 5, 2021 . Retrieved October 5, 2021.

As dictated by the premise, the characters, of course, have a somewhat stereotypical aspect to their personalities. However, McManus does a good job of poking and prodding their stereotypical molds into fuller characters than that. They’ve each got their own set of concerns and have discrete character arcs as the story progresses. I listened to the audiobook and was pleased that it had different narrators for each of the main characters. This book is so problematic and most of it is NEVER challenged. First of all, can we talk about the immense amounts of slut-shaming? I could handle it if it was coming just from the characters and/or was actually being challenged consistently, but 1) it isn't challenged every time in the dialogue, and 2) the author contributes to the slut-shaming narrative regarding women cheating. Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the suspects, one of the four kids left alive after detention, and each chapter ended in a revelation of incriminating facts related to that character. I felt that format really pushed the narrative along at a nice, steady pace. This was a great read. And let's put it this way: only for a novel as skillfully written as One of Us Is Lying would make me willing to relive memories of some of the angst, emotions, drama, and insecurities of high school. (And since you know so many books have me singing a particular song, for no reason whatsoever, this book had me singing "One of Us" by ABBA. But this was an easy one: the song actually has the lyric "One of us is lying.")First, kudos to whoever was in charge for finally getting a dang blurb right. This absolutely was “The Breakfast Club Meets Pretty Little Liars.” Per usual, I was not the target audience for this selection, but hey the sun shines on an old dog’s butt every once in a while because I thought it was . . . .

First, depression is villanized because Simon is portrayed as a terrorist. His main motivation was wanting the infamy of a school shooter. He wanted to cause the same amount of damage, but in a way he deemed better. Problem: Depression does not equal being a terrorist! Mental illness being portrayed as wrong and evil is such a tired depiction.

Maeve Rojas: Bronwyn's younger sister. She is an intellect and takes a proactive role alongside Bronwyn in trying to solve the murder. She has also been featured in a post by Simon. She suffered from leukemia at the age of seven. i loved how entertaining this was. i appreciated the little twists and turns, here and there, that kept me on my toes whilst i was so focused on the big end reveal. i also thought this was especially impressive for a debut - stories like this are pretty common, so it quite ambitious to try to make it your own, but i thought mcmanus nailed this. it had great pacing, solid writing, an engaging plot, and interesting characters. and i also now have a new book boyfriend in the form of nate, so thats always a bonus! Bronwyn, Nate, Cooper, and Addy are suspects for murdering the school's gossiper, Simon. When the 5 of them were in detention, the last thing they expect is for Simon to drop dead... Unless one of them planned the whole thing.