One of Us Is Lying Book Review – When Secrets Turn Deadly

5 characters, 4 involved in a murder investigation, murder of the 5^th. One of Us Is Lying consists of five carefree high school students, whose biggest worry should have been college applications, well, maybe not Nate, the school bad boy, but suddenly their biggest worry becomes how to keep themselves out of jail.

One of Us Is Lying – Blurb

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.

15 minutes was all it took for their life to turn upside down. Where they were supposed to mourn their deceased classmate, they were being interrogated for his death. Was the interrogation needed? Did the four have any reason to harm their peer? Were they mourning his death? Hard to say when the deceased used to run a gossip app that has destroyed the lives and relationships of many students of the school. They were just rumors, you might think—but no gossip ever posted on ‘About That’ turned out to be false.

Character aesthetics:

A great read, keeps the reader hooked to the story till the end. All the characters of One of Us Is Lying were greatly introduced and carried throughout the book by the author. The different backgrounds of each student, their character growth in the book, and the different problem-solving methods portrayed by each character make the reader feel connected to one or the other; there is a character to connect to for every reader.

The story perfectly portrays the murky waters that are high schools for every teen, though let’s be honest—most of our high schools would look saintly compared to Bayview. The author has incorporated all the different high school lives: the athletes, the popular, the geeks, the smart, the bad boys, and the not socially accepted types.

Despite having a vast majority of characters in the book, it is a very finely written story that works its magic, creating the perfect high school scenario in our heads.

With four suspects, the police had their hands full, relying only on circumstantial evidence. But what happens when new entries are posted online, including anonymous confessions? Is one of them lying when they say they didn’t do it? Or is there someone else pulling strings from the background?

Spice? Romance?

Speaking of romance, all the characters have a love interest, so the book being a murder mystery has its share of romance in the mix, just don’t expect smut, people, someone just died!

Content Warning: Bullying, Character death, Cheating, Drug addiction, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Murder, Partner abuse

The Takeaway – One of Us Is Lying

A very nice high school murder mystery where the trust and survival instincts of students were tested. One of Us Is Lying also showed the darker side of high school, its bullying, and how it instills self-doubt and social insecurities. It is a perfect blend of real-life drama, murder mystery, and a touch of romance. All in all, I like the book and would heavily recommend it, especially to all my ‘Pretty Little Liars’ fans and ‘Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ fans.

⭐ 4.9/5 stars: Love it!