One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

(Source: Kelsey Darling)

You know what sold me on One of Us Is Lying before I knew anything else? On the front flap, in red letters, it says "The Brain," "The Beauty," "The Criminal," and "The Athlete." Any lover of 80s films knows this reference. Okay, so technically it's "Princess" and not "Beauty" and we're missing the Basket Case (it's replaced with "The Outcast), but come on! It's The Breakfast Club!!! This is my number one all time favorite movie! It didn't matter what came after that, I was sold. The fact that the book is really good makes it even better.

(Source: Kelsey Darling)

So, one afternoon, Bronwyn (Brain), Addy (Beauty), Nate
(Criminal), and Cooper (Athlete) find themselves in detention. The 5th person is Simon, the outcast, or as he likes to say "the omniscient narrator." They're all in a fuss because they are in detention for a bogus reason-their teacher, Mr. Avery, found them with cell phones. That's not the bogus part; the part that has them all questioning is they all know they left their phones in their locker because they know better to leave their phones on them when they go to Mr. Avery's class. Suddenly, there's an accident in the parking lot, and Mr. Avery decides he better go down and check it out. While he's out of the room, Simon gets a glass of water, and within seconds, Simon is on the floor in anaphylactic shock and his Epi pen is nowhere to be found. The nurses office is also out of Epi pens. By the time Simon gets to the hospital, he's dead.

At first, there doesn't seem to be an issue, it was just an accident. But Simon knew everybody's secrets, and as the police dig deeper into the "accident," the guiltier the four witnesses are looking. One of these students is lying to protect themselves and may take the rest of them down with them.

So like in The Breakfast Club, these students have a lot more in common than meets the eye. As the police circle the group, and they all lawyer up (except Nate), they are all forced to admit the secrets they've been hiding and figure out what really happened to Simon before one of them ends up in prison for murder.

(Source: Giphy)

Bronwyn is a straight A student set for Yale. She is the apple of her parents eyes. She can do no wrong. But what would happen if she cheated?

Addy is beautiful and has the most perfect boyfriend. She will do anything to please him because she doesn't want to lose him. And yet she slept with someone else.

Nate is on probation for selling drugs. He's not supposed to be selling drugs anymore, but if he doesn't, he can't rely on his alcoholic father to pay the bills. So he has to risk it, right?

Cooper is the star baseball athlete and dating the most perfect girl ever. He has a chance to either get a college scholarship or go straight to the Majors. He would never do anything jeopardize that. But he'd never ruin anything with the perfect girl either.

I played around with so many suspects in this novel. I was 95% sure it wasn't one of the kids in the room. The only one I thought it could have been would be Addy. She was so in love with her boyfriend, Jake, and completely regrets cheating on him. She seemed the most desperate out of the kids. I also thought about the teacher, Mr. Avery. I didn't have a reason, but I could have seen it happening. But also, Simon is hated by a lot of kids. The way I saw it, it was committed by anyone except for the kids in the room.

Although I changed my mind a few times, I kept coming back to Simon. Until the end, I didn't put together all of the pieces, but the more I learned about Simon, the more I could see him doing this to himself. Maybe he thought he'd get to the hospital on time and was just looking for a shock factor. But Simon was depressed, and he hated these people and wanted to take these 4 down for various reasons. Simon was also a sociopath.

But the part that I love the most is that Nate ends up Bronwyn. That is a total spoiler, I know, but Karen McManus really left you hanging until the very end and I probably would have thrown the book away if there had been any other ending. The Criminal has to get the girl.

(Source: Giphy)

Rating: 9/10
Author: Karen M. McManus
Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Contemporary