One of Us Is Lying: TikTok made me buy it: 1

Set in high school with a heavily clichéd outline of a plot and much of the answer can be guessed early on. But... I loved the characters and cared about the outcome, and Karen has something to say about life on the Internet too. Also the character arc where she comes out of a toxic relationship is a lovely, refreshing read. I loved it, I think it lives up to the hype.

Contemporary YA is not usual my cup of tea - give me fantasy or sci-fi or paranormal any day. But the premise of this intrigued me enough to give it a go, and I wasn't disappointed. Five students are given detention, having possibly been set up by having banned mobile phones places in their bags. One maintains a popular website spreading accurate but vicious gossip about his fellow students. The other four all have something to hide, and are about to be featured on his blog. The first student is poisoned and dies, leading police to assume one of the remaining four must have killed him - after all, they had access and the had a motive. The overall vibe is thus somewhere between an 80s highschool movie and an Agatha Christie movie - think Murder on the Breakfast Club Express. Though the mystery is interesting - and the conclusion interesting, if a little predictable - it's the characters that really drive the story. All four of them are self-referentially introduced as high school stereotypes: a geek, a jock, a bad boy and a popular girl. But as the book progresses, the nuances beneath those labels become clear. It's hard not to like and root for all four of them, and their interactions with and growing friendship with each other is great. The writing is really good and on the whole, the voices are well-differentiated. The book runs through quite a lot of issues such as bullying, coming out, drugs etc, but doesn't feel preachy or like the story is being manipulated to promote a message. Overall, this was a really enjoyable read, nice and light and fun, but with a little stream of darkness running through to give it a bit more edge and interest.

It was really good and it has a lot of suspense, I definitely recommend it It is good for people that like to put puzzle pieces together It is five star so good LOVE IT

I feel like I have been waiting FOREVER for this book and when I finally got my hands on it it turned out to be everything I had hoped! I'm not one for murder mysteries, but this book was just so addictive that I couldn't help but read it within a day whilst my mind spent the entire time trying to think up the answer to who did it! I literally thought of every single answer of who it could be and although at on point I did chose the right answer, it was still a great surprise when all was revealed. "Bronwyn Rojas, I solemnly swear not to murder you today or at any point in the future. Deal?" "You're ridiculous," she mutters, going even redder. "It concerns me you're avoiding a promise not to murder me." At some point or other when reading this book I disliked each of our four main characters. Bronwyn got too up herself, Addy was too dumb, Nate kept making stupid life choices and Cooper was up his own backside! I kept changing my mind on who I wanted the guilty party to be depending on who I disliked at that moment. But then as we got further through the book, and as more of each character was revealed I found myself liking each of them more and more and suddenly I didn't want it to be any of them. "I guess we're almost friends now, or as friendly as you can get when you're not one hundred percent sure the other person isn't framing you for murder." The story is told from the four POVs of our main suspects and really it was the only way it could have been done. The plot progressed at a decent rate, some parts a little slow but as a whole I never felt like the story was dragging. I really liked the mix of normal teenage angst (young love, family problems, popularity etc) mixed in with the tension that comes with being a murder suspect and McManus pulled it off perfectly! "We could be surrounded by walking dead in the zombie apocalypse and she’d look for the bright side."

Loved this so much. Very cleverer

Muito bom o livro

This is my 2nd book by Kare. McManus. I have enjoyed both books. They are obviously young adult. That is not a negative of you want a fun twisty who-done-it. I recommend this for adult and teens alike.

It was a fun read

Absolutely superb. This book kept me on the edge of my seat from the very first page. Five kids enter detention and only four walk back out... and one of them is lying. This is a who-dun-it with a touch of romance, and even though you don’t know who to trust as secret after secret comes out, I was fascinated by the characters and sat up late to keep turning the pages to finally find out the truth. A fantastic story, highly recommend.

This novel is a real success! I was completely addicted and was in a rush to read the story! Well-written, good suspense !!!!