Title: One of Us Is Lying
Author: Karen M. McManus
Released: May 30th, 2017 (Hardcover)
Series: One of Us Is Lying
Trigger Warnings: Ableism, bullying, character death, cheating, drug us, drug addiction (parents), emotional abuse, forced outing, homophobia, mental illness, murder, partner abuse, sexual themes (mild), suicide
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Description: On a 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.
Please keep in mind this review contains spoilers for the entire book. Read with caution. If you click the “Read More”, it is under the assumption you either don’t care about spoilers or you’ve already read the book!
Honestly, when I read the title of this book, I just think about the song by ABBA. At least, this would have been more interesting if this was based on the song, even if it’s a little bit. It’s too bad that it’s not because I don’t think YA thrillers are for me if they’re going to be written like this. Perhaps I should just leave it well enough alone to the demographic that it’s actually meant for because I just don’t think it’s for me.
However, I do think while the actual teens reading this might find joy, if there’s any teens wanting to read this for something more than a book like this offers… Then I don’t think this is for you either. Simply put, I hate to agree with the 4Channer that these characters are movie tropes as they are presented in the book. I do think certain writers should even bother writing half-white characters at this point because I don’t think they quite understand certain nuances that come along with that in-between worlds (not that I have any knowledge as I’m not half-white but Christ, I am begging for some nuances in this book).
There are some pretty egregious treatments of one of the character’s mothers who has bi-polar and an addiction to a degree that’s simply childish in today’s representation. This feels like the last vestiges of terrible representation (which is honestly still an uphill battle even in today’s stories) where it’s blatant on how little these characters are thought of and how they’re preferred to be used as tools for the characters’ “development” versus anything meaningful in the characters’ lives. Granted, it is in that character’s point of view but it still didn’t feel right to be as it seemed as though that character was constantly in the right. Which he wasn’t, but the narrative did its best to justify his thoughts and views which felt very weird.
There’s also a forced outing of one of the characters but I can’t help but wonder if they don’t know any other LGBT people besides guys like Cooper or other effeminate men. They’re fine enough, but it’s a lot to be desired. And the forcing out didn’t do anything for me other than made me angry for Cooper because that was so important for his dad to understand. I don’t think a more dramatic outing should have taken place, I just think that more thought should have been put into not just Cooper but all of them. It feels like it was meant to be edgy and surprising but it feels like more of a time capsule of how LGBT+ people are perceived and how outings were handled in media.
I do think that Addie was the favorite because she got the most development and the most ample time to see the more important events. There was much more care and actual nuance to her story than the others got; the others got the typical story beats that you would expect from the “druggie”, the half-non-white character, and the not-straight character. Again, if this is what gets teens and others into reading, then you can ignore my review. But again, if you want more of a substantial YA thriller, I don’t think that this will fulfill that desire for you.
I do have questions about how they found out about Simon’s plot. If the author did actual research into 4Chan, there’s this thing that you can actually buy called the 4Chan pass; you can sign a name on it but it’ll also identify the IP down. Let me tell you, when I saw this plot point, I was heavily confused – do teens in 2021 know how the 4Chan pass worked? Did they still use Tumblr or even know what it is? I’m an oldbie so if I see that, I’m going to be heavily confused why this even showed up. But I think Simon using the 4Chan pass would’ve been both hilarious and it would tie to his need for attention seeking ways. And… wouldn’t the police simply ask the Tumblr headquarters about the IP?
Either way, I’m not planning to continue the series because while I did like the characters enough and cared enough for them, up until a certain point, I just couldn’t anymore by the novel’s end. I just… can’t bring myself to care as much.
Astronomy Of My Dreams 