One of Us Is Lying - Spoilery Book Rant

One of Us Is Lying
by Karen M. McManus

What is it about:
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.

What did I think about it:
Warning: I will spoil the heck out of this book!!!


So I picked this book up because it sounded like it might be a cool murder mystery. It even pretends to be a surprising murder mystery by using the tagline "A Geek, A Jock, A Criminal, A Princess. A Murder. Who would you believe?", as if we actually might be surprised by who did it and it's not going to be stereotypical...

Yeah...

I got my suspicions about where this story would lead when it was revealed that the best friend of the murder victim was - wait for it! - a Goth!

Still I kept reading in hope I was being too cynical, but all the pieces fit with my idea of what happened.

Along the way there is a big 'shocking' reveal that our jock is gay, the princess is a doormat, but due to all the events she grows a backbone, and geek and criminal fall in love.

And finally: I was right! The outcast with the Goth best friend committed suicide in such a way that the people who he sees as the ones who made things the most difficult for him are the ones to get blamed for his death...

Yup, surprising reveal: The Goths and Alternative outsiders get demonized once again.

The author tries to soften things by making the Goth a reluctant participant and the possessive boyfriend of one of our 'heroes' the vengeful lackey, but to no avail in my opinion. Once again prejudice against Goths prevails.

Blegh! I hate that I saw this coming from miles away and still kept hoping I would be wrong.

What you should go read instead:
Violent Ends


But if you really want to read this one:
Buy from bookdepository