One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus is a mystery thriller book. 5 classmates at Bayview
High walk into detention. Bronwyn, Addy, Nate, Cooper, and Simon. Only 4 come out alive. By
the end of detention, Simon is dead. The five students in the classroom don’t know what
happened, all they know is Simon drank a glass of water then fainted. The investigators say
Simon’s death wasn’t an accident. A little background on Simon: He wasn’t the best person,
when he was alive he created a gossip app which exposes secrets. Before Simon died, he
planned on revealing terrible secrets about the other 4 students that were in detention. This
makes all four students suspects in the murder. Did one of them plan the murder, or was it
someone else entirely?
I thought this book was pretty good. My friend recommended this book to me because I enjoy
reading murder mysteries, and this book was one you couldn’t put down until you’ve finished it. I
would highly recommend this book because it allows us to see each character's point of view
and their lifestyles. It was surprising to find out the secrets each character had that they would
do anything to hide. I sort of guessed who the killer was in the start of the book but I didn’t know
the whole story. Towards the end of the book, I got a hint of what might have happened. It was
still very interesting to see the whole story unfold. I give this book a 4/5.
SPOILERS:
Honestly, even if I got a hint that Simon might have killed himself, it was still very
shocking. Simon seemed like the confident type who wouldn’t hesitate to tell everyone about
someone else’s secrets, but we find out that he’s depressed and wanted to bring the other
character’s down too. I thought Jake was a good person but I was very disappointed when I
found out who he really was. It was astonishing to find out that Simon and Jake worked together
in this murder.