One of Us Is Lying

Let me just start off by saying that if I would have read this book before finding my passion and true love for reading and mystery, suspense books of all kind, I would have without a doubt given this book five stars because it is a good, entertaining read. However, because I've read a bunch of mystery suspense novels before this one, this one just falls flat in comparison. It's kind of like watching a very entertaining, however not quite moving chick flick, you enjoy it at the moment but it doesn't stay with you past that. Also, because I did enjoy it nonetheless, I will be reading the other book in the series, just maybe not right away.

This novel is about a group of high school students who find themselves in detention together and after some things happen, one of them ends up dead. The rest of the story is trying to figure out who did it and why. It was an interesting plot, even if the characters were a bit cookie-cutter and the setting of it taking place in highschool just further proved to me that I have somewhat outgrown those kinds of stories. I did like how we get to the solution, it wasn't revealed all at once and it was gradual, even if I knew who the bad guy was from very early on. I'm not usually one to ever guess the ending but it was rather predictable and pretty obvious, even to me.

Further on, the characters were probably my favorite part of this novel. Even though they were kind of on the surface and pretty stereotypical, I still grew to care about them because of the things they went through together and the way their relationships formed and developed with each other. I think that is the strongest part of this novel, the relations the characters formed with each other throughout the novel. I also loved the amount of development the characters underwent and how they transformed all throughout the novel. For this reason I will be reading McManus' other novels and the rest in this series.

Finally, the writing style was simple but it worked for the setting and the overall vibe of this story. It got the story across without any problems and made for a well laid out and paced novel. I think it also helped with the characterization because even though the kids were in high school, we were able to see them progress and mature and develop without the writing style taking away from it. The characterization spoke for itself and the writing style did it's job at getting that across.

In conclusion, I would recommend this to the younger readers or to those just starting out with the mystery suspense genre. I wish I would have read it back in school because than I would have loved it for sure. All in all, not bad but not memorable either.