One Of Us Is Lying Book Review [NO SPOILERS]

One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus was my first read of the year. Usually I would have a book ready to read from the 1st of January, but I took a long time reading my last book 'Battle Field of the Mind by Joyce Meyers. I finished that book somewhere around the 2nd or 3rd, after reading it on and off throughout December. After closing the last page, I created my TBR- See here if you are interested, and ordered my first couple of books. I decided to start with One of us is lying, and it did not disappoint.

Just in case you haven't read my TBR post that I posted last week (which you should), here is what the book is all about:

The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars, 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...

When I first heard about this book, I thought it would be more centred around the actual death of Simon and have me on edge the whole time, but actually it's a very light-hearted and fun read. The book is of course focusing around the idea of a sudden death but once you get into it, you realize that it focuses more on the characters' lives, which I kind of liked. The book follows each characters' perspectives on what happened, what they were going through in their personal lives and their social status at school etc. I really loved the way the author built each character. I think the character development was my favourite thing about the book. 

As the story goes on, you really start to understand each person and almost become attached to them. There were times when I felt really sorry for each of them, annoyed at them and happy for them. With the setting being a high school, it's very easy for young people to relate to and some of the secrets they kept are secrets I am sure many other students have. 

This book covers a lot of ground. It talks about A LOT of things that teenagers have to deal with in their lives. For the sake of not spoiling the book I won't go TOO into it but it discusses identity, relationships, friendships, depression and pressure of making a future for yourself. It was really nice to see how REAL the book was, regardless of it being fictional. 

The book took me 5 days to read, which isn't bad considering I had an exam I was studying for. It was nice to read a couple chapters when I had free time, before bed or in the morning. 

One thing I wasn't too fond of though, was the way it kind of jumped ahead towards the end. There was a section where there was utter chaos and then all of a sudden things just changed out of nowhere. I feel like it didn't follow the rest of the realism the book stuck to, but I really can't complain because it is a fiction book. 

Overall I would give this 4 out of 5 stars. I did really enjoy it, and it's a book that taught you something important in a very subtle way. 

Have you read this book? Let me know in the comments your thoughts, if so. And will you consider reading it if you haven't? 

Thanks for reading, 
Have a great day x