Saturday, May 6, 2017

Book Review of One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus is an ARC I received from the First In Line VIP program. I was excited to read it as soon as I heard the story compared to The Breakfast Club, Gossip Girl, and PLL. Though I'm not sure I agree with all of those comparisons--it certainly doesn't have the wit or self-awareness of Gossip Girl, or the level of highly-stylized suspense of PLL--I will say that there's plenty to recommend this intricately-plotted novel. ...perhaps nothing more than the fact that this line from the cover is completely true, "Pay close attention and you might solve this." I will say that I'd describe it as Death Joins The Breakfast Club. There were some points where the pacing lagged, and others where things didn't make sense because a question was asked in dialogue right after it was answered in action or narration. But, for all of McManus' shortfalls, she does engage in one of the most difficult things a mystery and suspense writer can achieve: she delivers 100% on the cover's promise of fair play while spinning a compelling yarn.

Speaking of the cover, while I like the general idea for the concept, I hate the (pardon the pun) execution of it. Bronwyn is supposed to be half Colombian, and she looks just like any other white girl with dark hair, which is a super frustrating example of yet again even more cover whitewashing in YA specifically (and publishing, in general). I wonder how McManus feels about such a design choice, considering all of the ultra-aware content she included in the book regarding Bronwyn's racial background and ignorant reactions of people she encounters. As an important sidenote, I was quite impressed with the way Bronwyn's character was written with regard to race. McManus dealt simply with issues of racism and ignorance, and used a light touch while still sending a strong message that these behaviors aren't okay.

Also, the book constantly refers to how perfect Addy's hair is, and its stringy, disheveled appearance bothers me here because it doesn't fit with that description. I think having the suspects' faces covered with notebook paper cutouts is more distracting than it is provocative or chilling (or whatever the cover design team was going for here). And I would've liked to see Simon's picture on the cover as well, especially since he was included in the list of five characters on the back.

The premise of One Of Us Is Lying is simple: five kids (Bronwyn the brain, Addy the beauty, Nate the criminal, Cooper the athlete, and Simon the outcast) are sent to detention after mysterious (and forbidden) burner cells are found in their backpacks during school. While in detention with a Luddite Science teacher who notoriously despises technology, Simon helps himself to a drink of water, and then drops dead. Because Simon maintains an app curating and disseminating the latest gossip about his fellow students, each of the other students has a motive for wanting him dead. The four other students quickly become suspects, and the rest of the book unfolds as they react to Simon's death, and to the investigation regarding who might have caused it, and why.

As regular readers of my blog will probably recall, I'm notorious for guessing the endings of books, and this was no exception. However, McManus did have me hedging my bets with two suspects for the first third of the story. Still, the fact that I was able to accurately guess who killed Simon means that McManus (for all of the plot twists and turns, and red herrings she included... and there were many), played fair, and I also doubt that the ending would be easy for other readers to predict.

Simon was found to have died from exposure to peanut oil, as he had a severe anaphylactic allergy to peanuts. As someone who has several anaphylactic allergies and has to carry EPI pens everywhere, I appreciated the realism with which McManus included details about this plot point. (So often, when authors include a plot point about a medical problem I share, I'm distracted because they got the details blatantly wrong!) For example, she accounted for the EPI pens in Simon's bag and in the Nurse's office. She also explained the type of peanut oil that would've had to have been in Simon's water, and how someone would know what kind to use. Obviously, though, since Simon's death is the inciting incident for the book, readers don't get to see much about his allergies from his perspective.

Speaking of perspective, one of the most interesting things about One Of Us Is Lying was the narrative style. The narration rotated amongst Bronwyn, Addy, Nate, and Cooper, giving readers four pleasingly unique perspectives on the story, and allowing for more clues to be dropped without being obvious or absurd.

One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus comes out May 30th, and is currently available for preorder. Though I recommend this book to those who love to read mysteries and play along in an attempt to solve them, I caution book buyers that this is a story they may only find enjoyable once, so borrowing it from the library may be a wiser choice than making a purchase in this case.

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