Author: Karen M. McManus
Genre: Mystery, Young Adult
Published on: May 30, 2017 by Delacorte Press
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.
When I picked up One of Us is Lying, it was one of those books I knew would be among my top reads of the year. The synopsis sounded awesome. This is a YA mystery set in a high school in southern California. It has four protagonists who are brought together after a suspicious incident. On a fateful Monday, five senior students show up to detention after school. They are Bronwyn Rojas, Addy Prentiss, Cooper Clay, Nate Macauley, and Simon Kelleher. When it’s over, only four of them leave the classroom alive.
None of the five students run in the same circles. They’re sort-of teen movie clichés, but not boring at all. Simon is the one who’s dead by the end of the school day. After the police look into it, they conclude his death wasn’t an accident. Simon’s role in the book is unclear at first. He’s an outcast at Bayview High School. Simon is semi-respected (read: feared), though, as he’s the creator of a gossip app. Simon has been exposing his peers’ dirty secrets for years. The police discover that Simon was about to publish secrets about the four students he had detention with. This makes them suspects right away.
Bronwyn is one of the four suspects. I’d never heard her first name before, so I thought she was a guy at first. The name combination is also funny: her first name is unmistakably American, and her surname is as Latino as it gets. Anyway, people see Bronwyn as The Brain. She’s Bayview’s most intelligent student and a serious overachiever. Bronwyn belongs to a lot of school clubs and has started a few more. She’s pretty much a shoo-in for valedictorian. Bronwyn is more than smart enough to plan a murder and get away with it. But is she capable?
Another of the suspects is Cooper. In part, he’s a walking cliché: a popular and heartthrob jock. At least he’s not a quarterback; Cooper is a pitcher. And he’s so good that a lot of schools are making offers to him already. Cooper’s hiding a big secret, though. Like Bronwyn, he’s never been featured on Simon’s app. But he was about to, before Simon conveniently died. Could Cooper be the guilty one?
Addy’s the next suspect. She’s sweet and incredibly beautiful, but rather hollow. Addy has a boyfriend, Jake, and she exists only to be his girl. He’s literally been running her life since they started dating three years ago. Jake tells Addy what to wear and decides where they go and what they do. A townie from The Sims has more autonomy than she does. Addy is far too lovesick to realize how much control Jake has over her. Does this mean Addy lacks what it takes to murder someone?
The last of the suspects is Nate. He’s the bad boy of Bayview. Nate makes money by selling weed. He’s currently on probation for it and could land in jail if caught. Nate doesn’t have many friends, although he’s fond of Bronwyn. They’ve known each other since they were little. Nate and Bronwyn do make an odd pair: the shameless criminal and the model student. Due to his bad reputation, Nate seems the most likely suspect.
So who murdered Simon Kelleher? This is the big mystery. I turned page after page, learning more about the Bayview Four (that’s what the suspects are nicknamed). They are brought together due to the extreme situation. The Bayview Four seek to solve the murder they’re being investigated for. Neither of the four have ruled out the others as suspects, though. If they don’t completely trust each other, how are they going to find the real killer?
I’m happy to say I wasn’t wrong about this one. One of Us is Lying was an excellent and riveting book. If you fancy yourself an investigator, this is the mystery for you. The plot is expertly woven, keeping you guessing who really murdered Simon. One of Us is Lying is also told in first-person POV from each of the Bayview Four. That means you get a front-row seat into their minds. This made the book even better in my opinion.
My rating: ★★★★★
5 stars - Absolutely must-read. It's outstanding!!!
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