One Of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus
(Format used for this read: Audiobook)
I am just plowing right on thru some audiobooks lately….almost feels like I used to do in the “before time”.
Remember the “before time” yall?
Sigh…..yeah.
Mainly I’ve upped my listening because I went on this end of year purge of our entire house the past couple weeks.
Yall know how some of you utilized all your time at home in the beginning of this pandemic by cleaning out your closets or organizing your pantry or finally getting a handle on your junk drawer?
Yeah….I’m finally getting motivated to deal with all that mess. 🤣
And I have found that listening to books while doing tasks I absolutely DREAD (like cleaning or laundry or cooking or basically anything of the domestic nature) makes them a bit more tolerable.
Plus when I pop my headphones on I can block out my kids, whose level of sibling fighting these days has reached unforeseen heights….and volumes.
The only thing is it’s tough for me to listen to anything SUPER heavy while doing those tasks…my best genre to pick from is YA books.
And let’s be real here…yall KNOW that YA is kinda my go to for ANY type of occasion or mood anyways 😁
It’s one of my things.
I keep seeing this book all over the place right now because I have been trying to find some new reads for my teenage boy for Christmas.
He is a voracious reader and trying to find things he hasn’t already dug into is almost impossible.
I try my best to screen books ahead of time to ensure appropriate content, but usually that just looks like me reading a back cover summary and some Amazon reviews….and he is constantly checking out books at school or on his library app on his phone so there are plenty that fly under my radar.
But when I can, I like to read what he is going to read or even what he has already read….not for the sole purpose of screening for material he ain’t quite ready for yet…. but also when he will ACTUALLY participate in talking to me, it’s fun to have book discussions with him.
So…this one is a bestseller on all kinds of teen reading lists.
I had to check it out.
Here is the official summary:
“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.”
This book had a “Breakfast Club”/ “I Know What You Did Last Summer” /”Heathers” kinda vibe for me.
I have seen it compared to “Pretty Little Liars” as well…but I have never seen that show….if you are a bit younger than I am you may understand that comparison better than the ones I made 😁
Ooooo ALSO…. I gotta add “Gossip Girl” into the mixture…that may also speak to peeps a bit younger than me as well…..this story definitely had a touch of that show too.
(and yes…. I was older than the target audience when that show was released ….but I was a HUGE die hard fan and I am not sorry about it ONE BIT. I pulled for Chuck and Blair until the straight up end)
This book was filled with familiar struggles of the high school world: bullying, gossip, feeling included/excluded, identity discovery, relationships, and familial stressors.
Then a murder of a student gets mixed into the fray too…..
And yall …… my 40 year old self was here for the high school teen drama and suspense shit ALL THE FREAKIN WAY.
This book was SUPER good!
Even though I completely figured out who committed the murder long before the halfway point of the story, I was still 100 percent intrigued to keep on going….
Because of course, the murderer isn’t the only thing that gets revealed.
Secrets unfold each chapter the more you get to know each character….and NOBODY is what they appear to be at first impression.
One thing I remember about my high school days 20+ years ago (OMG….typing that just sent a jolt of aging reality into my veins I was not expecting! 😨), is that you never ever REALLY know what life chaos your peers are experiencing, even when you THINK you totally do.
Admittedly, this book brought all kinds of high school memories back into my brain.
High school was a weird and tough place for me, as I think it is for most people…even the people you think have it made.
We are all walking contradictions.
I was bullied by others…and I was also a bully myself.
Toxic gossip was spread about me…and I spread toxic gossip about others.
I acted and dressed a certain way to be accepted and seen….and I did the same to hide and disappear as well.
The characters in this book all go thru this type of thing…some more than others, but all of them experience it.
I was full of so many deep emotions in my teen years that I had no clue how to deal with…and I had some really dark thoughts going on I had no idea how to process….and now looking back I realize most of the kids around me were fighting their own inner battles not that different than mine….
We just wore different masks.
High school is a messed up place, full of kids trying to act like adults yet still SO DAMN CLUELESS about who they are and how to be in this world.
They need so much encouragement and guidance and positivity…but so often do not receive it….ESPECIALLY from their peers.
The gossip mill that flourishes in every single high school around this country fosters so much division and negativity and toxic behavior….and this book dives into the many layers of how horribly destructive of an enviornment this can create.
I remember how harsh it was back in the late 90’s when shit was spread just by talking on the phone, to your friends at lunch or passing notes in class.
I can NOT EVEN IMAGINE the evolution of this now with the use of cell phones, texting, and social media.
GOOD LAWD….if social media would have existed back then….I shudder to think at what kids these days have to deal with.
(Did I SERIOUSLY just say “kids these days”? Wow. I am SUCH a middle aged mom. This is fine. Everything is fine.)
Anyway, the narrators of this story are the four “suspects”….Bronwyn, Addy, Nate and Cooper. The author jumps back and forth between each of their perspectives so as each chapter unfolds your knowledge of their true selves grows….and your suspicion of the others does too.
Even though I figured things out pretty early on, I still found myself thinking each chapter “Wellllll….hmmmmmm…..maybeeeee I’m wrong now…”
This book dove into some real teen issues pretty hard…..especially how detrimental and damaging other people’s words and actions in real life AND on the Internet can be on people’s real lives.
But mostly it was just an entertaining read.
Would make an EXCELLENT show on the CW too in my opinion. 😁
There is a sequel too called “One Of Us Is Next” which I started immediately today…….thanks for coming thru for me, local library app!
You’ll see those thoughts super soon!
That’s all for now dear readers.
XOXO
(had to throw that in for the “Gossip Girl” fans out there 🤣)