Abandoned by Booklikes

Oh the majority of this book was so freaking good! I loved the description of this being "The Breakfast Club Meets Pretty Little Liars." The ending though ruined what came before (IMHO). I think that the author wanted things wrapped up neatly with HEAs, it just didn't make much sense since this whole book had a kind of dark comedy aspect to it at times. I loved all of the characters, the writing, the flow, etc. 

"One of Us is Lying" is about four high schoolers (Bronwyn, Addy, Nate, and Cooper) who witness one of their fellow classmates (Simon) die from an allergic reaction. Things become tense around school though when it appears based on anonymous social media postings that one of the four that were in the room had reasons for wanting Simon dead. When the police and news media descend on the teens, they end up trying to figure out who wanted Simon dead and how they managed to do it. 

What I thought was cleverly done is that McManus has these teen archetypes in this book. Bronwyn is the brain, Addy is the attractive popular girl, Nate is a criminal, and Cooper is a star athlete.  McManus slowly reveals each of these characters and why they had a secret that they would have been willing to kill Simon from revealing.

I did think though that due to the abundance of characters, that not everyone got equal weight in this story. My favorite character was honestly Addy. Her story-line was ridiculously good. I don't want to reveal too much, but Addy and her sister were pretty kick-ass in throughout this book. Too bad we probably will never get a sequel to this book starring these same characters. 

I have to say though I did despise Simon. We find out that he was a gossip and had a blog where he revealed secrets about everyone in his high school. I likened him to a younger Perez Hilton a few times. Simon is nasty and I am glad that some of the characters called out the hypocrisy of anyone out there trying to cry that Simon was a good kid. 

I did find it very realistic though for the police and others to be watching/reading social media and to take their cues from it. The characters in the book a few times even acknowledged how the media at one point is ready to attack them all and the next day cries out about abuse of power by the police. 

The writing was very good and McManus manages to ensure that all four characters have a distinct voice from each other. 

I loved the setting of a high school with everyone being on the top of the suspect list. I was enjoying reading and wondering who did it and why. 

I didn't like the ending though. It seemed way too far-fetched and I actually had to go back and re-read some things.