One of us is lying by Karen McManus was an intriguing book I was wanting to read for some time. When I finally got my hands on it I read it straight away, and enjoyed it at that! I was constantly wanting to find out answers to questions and I felt like I was a detective whilst reading the book, as I was learning who to trust and who not to.
The story of the novel started when five kids are told to go in to detention. Only four kids leave. After a severe peanut allergy, Simon, dies. The case is classed as a murder and all of the other four kids are suspects. The book takes you through twists and turns of the case.
What I really loved about the book was the book was in all the four kid’s different perspectives. This meant you could find out their perspective on the situation and it meant you really saw the characters develop, and slowly you learned about their secrets.
At the beginning of the novel you learn that all the characters have something to hide, and it made the book so intriguing wondering what their secrets were. When you finally found out (after a lot of guess work!) you saw how everything fitted together and how clever the ending was, something that was in a way so obvious but you had to chance of guessing.
You also learnt about different types of people in the novel. The five most different people were in the detention room and the way you read about their perspectives every chapter made you feel like you were reading four books instead of one. All the character’s stories and secrets multiplied the number of stories you were reading about in the book. This meant it was so much more interesting and had much more depth.
The language used fit the situation of the book, which I thought was clever. It mostly used words that teenagers would use, which made the reader empathise with all the characters more.
Another aspect of the book which I thought was really clever is some of the characters developed relationships, which both the reader and the characters themselves didn’t expect. This gave the book more messages that people from different crowds, can become so close and its so easy to judge but not so easy to understand that how you judge people is never what they are really like. You also watched the characters open up towards each other more and it made me, as the reader understand what makes someone trust another person, so it gave lessons on good and bad ways to behave, especially to someone who’s going through hard and complicated times.
All the other characters in the novel were developed so well, and you got to know all the characters through the different perspectives of the four main kids, so you saw how there are so many opinions for the same people.
The only negative thing I would say was sometimes at times the book was a little slow paced, which I really wasn’t expecting and I know some people would disagree with me. I just found at times I wasn’t exited to pick up the book and read it, like I am with other books. Having said that, most of the time, and when I got into it, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and I was always so intrigued what the ending would be, and I wasn’t disappointed!
Overall, it was a great young adult read which I will be recommending to people who love a bit of everything: a thriller; romance; and sometimes even horror, all in one book! I would recommend it to ages 13-17.
Buy it:
https://www.waterstones.com/book/one-of-us-is-lying/karen-mcmanus/9780141375632
or
https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Us-Lying-Karen-McManus/dp/0141375639/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503164842&sr=8-1&keywords=one+of+us+is+lying