This book surprised me! I’m not an avid reader of mystery/suspense novels, but I was able to dive into this novel easily. It’s been awhile since I was so invested in a book that I physically could not put it down. The plot is interesting and the characters are all multi-faceted. So what is One of Us is Lying about? It’s basically the Breakfast Club with murder. Five students, your usual stereotypes, walk into detention and only four walk out. Simon dies in that room from drinking water that had peanut oil in it, that he is deathly allergic to. Not many mourn the loss of Simon, though. Simon was an outcast who always wanted to be popular, so he started a gossip app of the high school that exposes everything from who’s sleeping with who to who’s back to selling drugs. No one is safe from Simon’s exploits. The four students in detention with Simon were all going to have their secrets exposed by Simon on his website on Tuesday. He died on Monday, making all of the four students in that room suspects of murder.

Whodunnit? Read to find out who killed Simon. Photo by Delacorte Press.

If you’ve read my reviews before, you know that I love character driven stories, and One of Us is Lying has fantastic characters. They all grew past their stereotypes and I came to care about each one. So much so, that I couldn’t believe that any of them killed Simon. The book kept me on my toes though, and my confidence in each character wavered at some point.

I think everyone who reads this book will find at least one aspect of each character that they can relate to. I found myself personally sympathizing with Bronwyn and the immense pressure that was placed on her, much like I did with the character of Brian from the Breakfast Club. Bronwyn’s secret would ruin her chances of getting into Yale if it gets out, so that gives her a motive to kill Simon. On top of that, Simon has posted Bronwyn’s sister’s secrets as well, and she never forgave him for that. I found Bronwyn to be incredibly human and although it is quite a cliche, her relationship with bad boy Nate was very cute. Their relationship was also realistic and far from perfect.

Nate, the criminal in the group, has been well acquainted with detention over the years. His dad is almost always passed out drunk when he gets home and when he’s not, he’s vomiting in the sink. Nate’s mom has been out of the picture for awhile, and now Nate’s on probation for dealing drugs. Nate surprisingly took charge as soon as Simon when into shock and instructed everyone else in the room on what to do. I got frustrated at Nate’s actions at times, but I understand why he does what he does.

Cooper is the athlete of the group and a southern sweetheart. Cooper sticks by Addy when things fall apart, he’s the star of the baseball team, and he actually has two secrets to hide. One, the one that Simon was supposedly going to release, would hurt his baseball career, but not completely destroy it. The other, would change his relationship with his family and his friends forever, especially his father. I understood and related to wanting to crumble under the pressure put upon you as an athlete, especially from your parents. You don’t want to let your team down or disappoint your parents. I found Cooper to be one of the least likely culprits because he’s just an overall great guy.              

Now onto picture perfect Addy. Addy has a great boyfriend, gorgeous hair, and is the homecoming princess. Her life is pretty great, or so it seems. Addy’s secret would destroy her relationship if it got out. Addy’s boyfriend isn’t all that great though. He does very possessive and manipulative things to control Addy throughout their relationship. He tells Addy to change when she wears more comfy clothes, he gets angry when she doesn’t do exactly what he wants, and so on. At first, I dreaded reading Addy’s chapters because I thought she was very one dimensional and I didn’t really like her. She was pretty useless when Simon went into shock and just stood around in horror as everyone else helped. However, as the book continues, Addy becomes stronger and much more independent. Addy’s hair has always been the one thing that she’s very proud of. Her boyfriend always tells her how beautiful it is and she feels like it’s the one thing that makes her pretty. Addy gets a pixie cut though, much to the surprise of everyone. Her boyfriend thinks it looks ugly, but Addy learns not to care. Once things start to fall apart with her boyfriend, Addy learns how much she relied on her boyfriend and how much of her life he controlled. Addy doesn’t even remember what she likes to do. Addy’s recovery is slow and painful, but Addy does learn to live for herself. I loved seeing Addy develop and her chapters actually became some of my favorites.

Breakfast Club Meets Murder; Which of the four is the killer? Photo by Delacorte Press.

The line in the opening flap of the book is true, you can figure out who killed Simon, if you pay close attention. However, even though I had a pretty good idea of who done it, Karen M. McManus rattled my confidence throughout the book. She had me thinking it was a group job, it was Simon’s best friend, and so on. I actually turned out to be right in my guess, but I couldn’t put down the book to see if I was right. Overall, this is one of the most engaging books I have read in a long time. I give this book 9/10 stars. I recommend that everyone heads over to Spellbinder Books to get a copy ASAP. Thanks for reading! Let me know if you’ve read One of Us is Lying and what your thoughts are.