Title: One of Us Is Lying
Author: Karen M. McManus
Publisher: Penguin Random House UK Children’s

[Synopsis]

One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.
Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.
Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?
Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

[My Review]

I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this novel – as someone who doesn’t usually read YA novels I wasn’t sure what to expect but this one really sucked me in!
Now don’t get me wrong – I didn’t really identify with the main characters much because sometimes they were such ‘teenagers trying desperately to act like grown ups’ – like a lot of teenagers are I suppose! But they did irritate me at times. This didn’t spoil my enjoyment, though – it only added to the feeling that being at high school must be very like living in a jungle, with everyone trying to be top of the chain and outdoing each other. Must be exhausting!
There were all the ‘usual’ social groups you tend to see in American movies and books, with an element of Gossip Girl thrown in: pure, guilty-pleasure viewing! I haven’t watched Pretty Little Liars but a lot of people compare it to that too.
The story itself is told from various perspectives – Bronwyn, Cooper, Addy, and Nate – and I really liked that. It’s a simple and easy read, but there are still plenty of secrets and half truths floating around, as well as a good dose of suspense. The narrative has various layers and depths as the book continues and you slowly unfurl what’s happened, and I liked trying to work out who was lying and who wasn’t.
I won’t say anymore as I don’t want to ruin anything but I can say that, even if you don’t usually read YA novels, you might well enjoy One Of Us Is Lying – it’s a well-crafted, easy to read and fun novel that kept me guessing until the end!

[Rating: 4/5]

Many thanks to Penguin and Netgalley for providing a copy of this novel on which I chose to write an honest and unbiased review.

One Of Us Is Lying is out in the UK on 1 June.