One of Us Is Lying- Karen M. McManus BOOK TALK

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This was a murder mystery kind of novel. Five kids walk into detention, four kids walk out. Who's the murderer?
I was a bit underwhelmed with the murderer reveal at the end because I'd considered this person quite early on and it seemed like a bit of a cop-out. It was just an unsatisfying outcome and I wanted the reveal to punch a massive impact on me which... it didn't.

We have our four main characters which I like to fit into little Hogwarts House categories. Each suspect in this novel represents a different house. We have

The nerd, Bronwyn- The Ravenclaw 

The criminal, Nate- The Slytherin

The jock, Cooper- The Gryffindor

The princess, Addy- The Hufflepuff 

Like I said, I was disappointed with the final outcome but it was still an enjoyable read.

GOODREADS

AMAZON

SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD

Straight off the bat, I was sad that Simon was the one to die because I kind of liked him.
It was so interesting to see all the pieces of information come out- the taken epipens, the app stories, the water bottle stolen and the car crash. The murder was planned so well!

I did originally think that the murderer could be Simon but.... I didn't want it to be. As much as I liked our four protagonists, I wanted it to be one of them. I wanted the feeling of betrayal and the gut-wrenching feeling that, I'd trusted them, grown to love them as a character when all along they were the murderer. Simon was a cop-out murderer for me- it had no emotional impact.
Bronwyn was definitely my favourite POV to read, followed by Nate, then Cooper, then Addy.
To begin with, I thought the murderer was Addy because she seemed a bit pathetic and too innocent to actually be innocent.
I never thought it was Nate- he would've been way too obvious to be the killer.
I sometimes suspected Bronwyn- because she'd sure be smart enough to pull it off- but I loved her too much.
And when I began shipping Nate and Bronwyn.... I was desperately hoping it wasn't one of them.
We find out secrets that they all had that they'd want to hide: Bron cheating on a test, Nate dealing drugs, Addy cheating and Cooper being gay. I have to say, this whole murder was very well planned.
But I couldn't help but feel quite annoyed at all the characters for making themselves look extra suspicious!
Bron and Nate have secret phones to call each other... if the police had found those phones, they'd would've looked so guilty!
And Addy does the cliche move of a character under stress and cuts off all her hair.... because the press won't dissect and analyse that dramatic move!
The press began to get very sexist and focus on the boys being the murderers but I had my eyes on the girls!
I hated that the murderer was Simon himself with a mixture of Janae and Jake on the side. The whole book implies that it's one of the four in detention and it stops you from looking at anyone else! I'd previously predicted that Simon was the murderer but hit the thought out of my head because I thought it was definite that it was one of the four. And while I didn't want it to be one of the four, I wanted that feeling of betrayal- the realisation that I'd been reading in the perspective of the murderer and still couldn't figure out who it was.
It was just underwhelming.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment your thoughts. Stay amazing!
Chloe