Agatha Christie Meets the Breakfast Club: Review of One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus
My Review of One of Us Is Lying, an ingenious YA thriller that’s one part Breakfast Club and one part Agatha Christie. Let’s explore this fun YA mystery!
Review of One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus
To be published on May 30, 2017 by Delacorte
Source: e-ARC for review from the publisher
What is One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus About?
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.
- Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.
Before the end of detention Simon’s dead. And the next day, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile detention buddies. Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.
What I Loved About One of Us is Lying
I love mysteries, and thought One of Us Is Lying presented a fun locked room inspired puzzle.
Five high school students are tricked into thinking they have afterschool detention. All five show up at the assigned detention room, full of questions.
Before long, one of the five is dead. As questions swirl, they start banding together to try to figure out what happened and who was responsible for the murder.
As the victim was a dirt-digging student blogger who knew secrets about each one of them, they all theoretically had a motive.
I had two theories about the killer, and one of them was correct.
It was an ending I’d seen before, but I still found this an enjoyable and suspenseful read.
I also liked the fact that none of the characters was quite what he or she seemed to be at the outset. As each character confronts the secret that the murder victim knew, he or she has to do some serious soul-searching about what will happen when the secret comes out.
This is a fun summer read, perfect for your beach or pool or airplane tote!
Love YA Mysteries and Thrillers? Check out this list of the best of them here!
You can also check out these other Agatha Christie-inspired YA mysteries:
Liar’s Beach by Katie Cotugno
The Agathas series by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson
Ooooh! I've been looking forward to this one! It's always a good feeling when you guess correctly, especially when it hasn't been too obvious.
I loved this one, especially as an audiobook!I literally had NO theories about who the killer was so I was pleasantly surprised. 🙂
Great review. I'll be listening to this one on audiobook, so I'm definitely interested to see how it works out!
This sounds like such a fun mystery but it sucks that you knew the outcome. I mean, I love it when I'm right but on the other hand I want to be wrong so bad because I want that shock factor.
I didn't give this one a second glance but everyone seems to be loving it.
(love your pic)
For What It's Worth
I started this and got sidetracked by this thing called work 🙁 BUT I need to get back to it. I was only like 2 chapters in.
I can't wait to read this one!
I have seen a lot of good things in reviews for this novel and because I love the title and cover a lot as well I am sure I will read this one myself at some point too. I hope it's not the kind of ending I am familiar with because I like the unknown suspense in a mystery!