REVIEW: One of Us Is Lying - Karen M. McManus

• Year first released: 2017
• ISBN of the edition I read: 9781524714680
• Publisher of the edition I read: Random House Children’s Books
• My rating (out of 5): 3

Five high-schoolers are sent to after-school detention. The teacher steps out of the room just long enough for one of the five kids to drop dead. This is going to be a hard semester for the other four, all of whom are suspects in his murder.

One of Us Is Lying has plenty of twists to keep you hooked. Nearly every section includes – or ends with – some sort of new tidbit, factoid, or event, begging you to dive deeper into the mystery of who really killed Simon. It’s certainly an effective approach, and many of the twists were quite unexpected.

In a vacuum, this would be good. When butted up against the point of view(s) in which Lying was written, though, it proved to be a bit more of a challenge than I’d have preferred.

The narrative alternates between the other four kids who were in the room when Simon died: nerdy, overachiever Bronwyn; popular baseball player Cooper; pretty trophy-girl Addy; and troubled delinquent Nate. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more cliché cast of high-schoolers. This isn’t necessarily troublesome or distracting (except in the case of Addy, who is downright annoying for at least half of the book), but McManus certainly won’t win any awards for her characters.

What is distracting, though, is the shifting first-person point of view. We spend a few pages in Bronwyn’s head, getting her take on the situation, adjusting to her personality, etc., before switching over to Cooper. After a few pages with him, realigning ourselves with his viewpoint, we then move into… etc.

In principle, I’m not against this sort of approach in writing. Certainly each of the four characters’ viewpoints added to the intrigue and complexity of the mystery.

And though the book announces whose mind we’re in each time, the shift was often abrupt enough that it took me a good page to readjust to the new character’s mindset. Several times I had to re-read a few paragraphs when I remembered that I was actually in someone else’s mind now.

Wait a second: Why would Nate say this?

- oh, right. He wouldn’t. Now the “I” is Addy.

When you have to work to keep track of this frequent, abruptly-changing viewpoint, then mix it in with the constant twists of the plot, it can be a little overwhelming.

I fear I’m making the book sound bad; I certainly don’t feel that way. The plot was legitimately interesting. I enjoyed the amount of/the level of twists (when I was able to keep them straight, anyway). It took me quite awhile to catch on to the secret behind everything. (I got there a little before McManus directly says it, but not too much before.) And the slow-growing relationship between two of the four characters (I might as well not say which two) was warm to read, and a nice change-up from many of the more screwed up relationships that books so often include.

If you’re going to read Lying – which is recommendable, at least if you’re into twisty YA books – make sure you’re ready to pay close attention. I only wish the book demanded attention for the sake of noticing fine details, as opposed to for the sake of keeping straight who is who.