This book review will be on “One of Us is Lying” by Karen M. McManus which is a mystery suspense novel! This story is the first book which has a sequel “One of Us is Next” which I will review shortly after this one!

Our main characters are Nate Macauley, Cooper Clay, Bronwyn Rojas, and Addy Prentiss. Nate is a bad boy who doesn’t really follow rules and has a dark past. Bronwyn is a preppy girl who enjoys studying, following the rules, and not going to any parties. Cooper is a sporty who plays baseball in hope to get signed to a major league team. Finally Addy, the popular prom queen whose life seems to be all pitch, pink, and perfect! As you can see, the characters all have very different lives and personalities which actually makes the story more interesting!

Now for the plot of the story, the 4 main characters are seen as suspects in the murder of Simon Kelleher, who is the creator of the major gossip app “About That”. The main scene takes place in the detention room with the Bayview 4 and Simon all in the same room, after Simon died, police suspected and interrogated each of the 4 in hope to get some answers. Each of the high school students have secrets that they would risk everything for to protect from getting to other people. But how far will they go to keep their secrets safe AND prove their innocence? Well that’s the whole point of the story, to read along with each of the characters and try to figure out the murderer behind the mask. 

Now a little bit of information on the victim, Simon, he was super popular after he launched his website with thousands of students to see. He had an absurd talent of finding out other people’s darkest secrets or just secrets in general. He exposed multiple kids which ended up with them hating him but it increased his popularity and his site so he didn’t care. But once he died, his murder was a mystery until the end. 

Parts I truly enjoyed were when the story plot was super consistent and led me to wanting to read more and more of the book which is bonus points for the author. Parts I didn’t enjoy as much were when some times in the story were a bit confusing and mixed up.

Now do I recommend this to other teen readers? Yes I do, I think that many would enjoy this mystery novel. Although I would refrain readers from 10 or below reading this for it is quite a mature book with a pinch of romance and scary mystery. I personally loved the book and am so excited for other teen readers to read and review it just like I did!

Check out One of Us is Lying from the Newport Beach Public Library!