This book is best described as The Breakfast Club with added murder and the twists of Pretty Little Liars.
One of us is Lying is a book about five students who go into a dentition and only four walk out alive. Throughout the book, we get to see the different point of views of the four remaining kids while trying to work out what and who killed Simon. At the surface, the Bayview Four look like complete stereotypes but as the book goes on we learn that they are a bunch of diverse teens with secrets they would do anything to hide.
One of my favourite things about this book is how the story is told. Throughout, the point of view switches back and forth from each of the four meaning, we get to hear each one's personal stories and feelings about the whole situation. This makes it's particularly interesting when trying to figure out who killed Simon as we see each character struggling with the death.
The first half of this book was quite boring, apart from Simon dying not much interesting happened. The second half of the book is where things start to get interesting. Secrets and motives are revealed and the pieces really start to come together. Seeing how everything comes together at the end is quite satisfying and really makes sitting through the typical teen angst at the beginning worth while.
However, the murderer is predictable and I guessed it about half way through. This being said, I liked how we got there. Little seeds were sprinkled throughout the book and it really allowed the reader to piece it together. Although, towards the very end things move too fast and we get a lot of exposition handed to us all at once.
The idea of this book is great. The thing that really ruined it for me is that the Bayview Four weren't particularly memorable. You may have noticed that I keep referring to the main characters as "the four" and that's because for the life of me I can't remember their names and this was a constant problem for me reading. Everyone kind of blurred into one character.
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| Red Pages!! |
One of Us Is Lying has an interesting plot but doesn't have the characters to support it. This book has a slow start and a predictable outcome but has a nice ending that rounds everything up leaving no unanswered questions. This book would have been a lot better if it had stuck to the murder mystery it is. Some of the plot twists and shocking secrets revealed really saved this book. If you like a good murder story I would recommend it.
★★★☆☆
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