You know those books you want to read, you buy them, but in the process, you never get to learn what the story is about? Do you know the ones? Well, One of Us is Lying by Karen M McManus is one of those books for me. I don’t even remember the first time I saw this book. It was years ago! I knew it was a YA murder mystery, and that was enough to put it on my wishlist. It took me a while to finally read it (as usual), but now that I did, the story was… unexpected.

Author: Karen M McManus Pages: 360 Genre: Mystery, Drama Publication: 2017

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Synopsis:

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.

My review:

I’m disappointed.

This was the helpful note past me left to start writing this review. And it sums up perfectly what I thought about this book. Three perfect words. Although my feelings encapsulate a lot more than what meets the eye.

When I first heard about One of Us is Lying, the title sparked my interest. Some people are drawn to covers. Apparently, I’m drawn to titles. I didn’t know much about the book other than being a YA murder mystery, and one of them is lying. I was expecting to have an unreliable narrator or multiple. I wanted to be confused. To reach a point in the story where any character could be the culprit. But that was far from what I got.

This book is a drama at its core. It’s not a thriller, not even what I would consider a murder mystery. It’s a story about high school drama with a dead kid. There is a mystery to solve, but it’s not the story’s priority. Also, while closely following the four main characters, it became clear that none of them was the murderer. Every character was presented for the reader to empathise with them. And none of them showed a personality that would carry out a murder to hide some little secret.

I clearly remember a point in the story when everything happening was uncovering secrets and doing damage control. After involving the police, there’s a big chunk of the story when they are trying to protect each other, which becomes the focus of the story. So much time is spent on relationships, gossip, uncovering secrets, dealing with the police, and only a small portion is dedicated to the actual murder.

Despite my disappointment, the story was fun. I loved the drama! I had a great time, and I flew by the pages. Although it wasn’t the book I wanted to read. Not even the one I was expecting. When I opened the first page, I was signing up for a murder mystery, not a spill secrets club. And that’s why my three words perfectly describe my experience. Apparently, the liar was the book!

And so whenever I’m in the mood for a good gossip session, I know I can go back to Bayview High and delight myself with the drama. Until then, I probably won’t pick up any Karen M McManus. If her murder mysteries are like One of Us is Lying, then it won’t satisfy my craving. Despite that, I recommend this book. It was fun and easy to fly through, just not very focused on the murder.

Goodreads | The Storygraph