Series: One of us is Lying

No. of books in the series: 2 (second one to be released in 2020)

Author: Karen M. McManus
Sequence of Books: One of us is lying 

Genre: Crime, Thriller, Mystery, Young Adult, Teen, High School, Psychological thriller

Synopsis:

The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars, One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide. 

Pay close attention and you might solve this.

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 Thoughts: 

The book starts off with 5 students getting detention. Cooper is a rising star, football player - a golden boy; Bronwyn is an Ivy League, valedictorian class student; Addy is a home coming princess; Nate, the bad boy of the school yet handsome and attractive and lastly Simon, a despised and mocked creep who is the writer of a school gossip blog "About that". All 5 of them receive detention for something they did not do. Before the detention ends, Simon dies and it turns out his death was no accident, it was a pre planned murder. Obviously the suspects of murder are people present in the room at that time; Cooper, Bronwyn, Addy and Nate. The teacher, Mr. Avery for some reason is not a suspect. 

Before you know it, all four of them are murder suspects and investigators start investigating them due to strange circumstances involving Simon's death. All of them claim to be innocent but if it wasn't them, then who? Four people who were studying together in the same vicinity, but never really friends, come together due to the situation. They start to get to know each other better, drawing closer. But can they trust each other? Is one of them actually a murderer? Will they be able to prove their innocence? 

What I liked about the book was, depth of characters which started to unfold along with the story. After the investigation begins, the author has made a very good effort of explaining each person's character. Unlike the other thrillers I have read, where only the lead gets to remain under the spotlight and character building, Karen has done a good job of character building for all suspects. Some more than others, but its there. You get insight about all suspects; what their thought process is, what their personalities are like. 

As the investigation unfolds, it turns out, Bronwyn, Nate, Addy and Cooper all had secrets they wanted to keep hidden. These secrets if exposed could have cost them their future. Simon somehow came to know about these secrets and was going to post about them on his blog "About that". Someone changed and encrypted the post before Simon could post it and was killed the very next day. However, even after Simon's death, the post still got out and the sympathies the "Bayview Four" (titled due to murder allegations) were gaining for being suspects turned into hatred and suspicions after the secrets leaked. I loved how Karen kept on building the suspense by throwing off suspicion from one person to another and kept me guessing till the end. The plot twist is very interesting, at least I did not see it coming. To find out who turns out to be the murderer, read the book. 

Despite being a young adult, high school story, the book kept me engaged till the end. Even the ending was realistic unlike the all lived happily ever after type. Though I did not guess there would be a sequel to this book but turns out there is one planned and expected to be released in 2020. I am already on the look out and have added it to my "to read" list. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and would read the sequel as well. Karen's writing may not have the depth most suspense/thriller writers have but she knows how to keep your interest. I totally recommend reading the book if you are a thriller fan. 

Hope you liked the review. Stay healthy and beautiful. xoxo!!!