ARC Review: One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus

Title: One of Us is Lying Written by: Karen M. McManus Published: May 30, 2017 by Delacorte (RandomHouse) (Amazon / Goodreads) Synopsis: 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.

*** I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This fact has not changed my opinion. ***

Now this is the kind of YA mystery I have been wanting to read. It an engaging plot development, a mystery with plenty of surprises, and characters who were pretty complex.

I have been reading a lot of mysteries lately that were just not what I was hoping they would be. But this one was totally engaging. It's thrilling, it's interesting, it's got plenty of surprises, and it keeps you guessing until the very end when it hits you with the truth bomb. I usually prefer my mysteries to be solvable with clues along the way, and this wasn't really that kind of mystery. But it was interesting. It was one of those mysteries where I was suspicious of everything and everyone. And even better was that my harebrained theory was the closest to being right. All in all it was a great mystery.

But there was more to the plot development than that. It also had a lot of drama to it. I've read a few books recently that were meant to play up the drama of high school and secrets coming out. In his case the drama was interesting, engaging, and not at all forced. It added something to the plot which slowly built to an exciting conclusion.

However, the drama didn't extend as much as I would have liked to the character development. Each of the characters were hiding something and it definitely made then pretty complex, some more than others. As the book went on and the secrets came out I definitely liked them more. However it did kind of take awhile to connect to them. At the beginning of this book they all kind of blended together. This is a book with that Breakfast Club vibe where unlikely characters come together. I think it tried to ensure that the characters were not caricatures and instead made them a little bland.

I really enjoyed this book. I do wish the characterization had been a little more complex but the drama around he characters and the plot development made up for it a little bit. It's got a great mystery that I think fans of YA mysteries will really enjoy.

I give One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus 9 out of 10 stars

Buy/Borrow/Bypass: Buy/Borrow. I definitely think if you are a fan of YA mysteries you will enjoy this book. It's not perfect but it is a really good story with an engaging mystery.

Have you read One of Us is Lying? What did you think? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!