Ratings48
Average rating3.5
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying comes your next obsession. You'll never feel the same about family again. Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story are cousins, but they barely know each another, and they've never even met their grandmother. Rich and reclusive, she disinherited their parents before they were born. So when they each receive a letter inviting them to work at her island resort for the summer, they're surprised . . . and curious. Their parents are all clear on one point--not going is not an option. This could be the opportunity to get back into Grandmother's good graces. But when the cousins arrive on the island, it's immediately clear that she has different plans for them. And the longer they stay, the more they realize how mysterious--and dark--their family's past is. The entire Story family has secrets. Whatever pulled them apart years ago isn't over--and this summer, the cousins will learn everything. Fans of the hit thriller that started it all can watch the secrets of the Bayview Four be revealed in the One of Us is Lying TV series now streaming on NBC's Peacock!
Reviews with the most likes.
I've never read a contemporary YA mystery-thriller before, and I was curious about this one. It definitely kept my attention, but I also don't feel eager to continue reading the genre. Still, it was a real page-turner. I'm definitely not the target audience for this book, though, so please take my review in that spirit. I listened to the audiobook and it was very well done, with several different narrators.
About halfway through, I had a guess about the ending which turned out to be totally wrong. So there were some good red herrings, or good to me, anyway. The ending was satisfying, although I didn't predict much about it. I always felt like there was enough detail to make things believable.
There was not a ton of depth to any of the three cousins, but that's okay, because it's more of a plot-driven book. There are also chapters from the PoV of Millie's mother as a teenager. Because of the nature of the book, these kids trying to figure out what happened when their parents were young, her chapters were the ones I was most interested in. So those were the most gripping, but she was the least interesting character of the four. Also, all the leads are hetero but there's an important gay side character who turns out to be pretty saintly, and I don't know, but his saintliness just hit me wrong.
Overall, my experience was somewhere between “okay” and “good.” Perfectly fine but nothing I'm excited about. I wanted something with a fast pace, and this book delivered on that front.
i mean...i liked it and i didn't??? it did follow a lot of typical thriller tropes as KMM's books often do and I didn't find this particularly thrilling but it was still good. it won't go down in history as the best thriller to ever grace the ya genre though and the big reveal was really underwhelming. but i have to say i do like KMM's humor a lot. and the characters were cute. it is definitely unconventional in its own way. i really didn't see the point of the allison pov & think that it took away from the story but if you like character focused thrillers (aubrey was my favorite), you can give this a try. don't really have a lot to say about this one other than that.
3.5 stars.
The mystery was good, the characters not so much. While I liked the three cousins, their parents were horrible. And while we got the backstory for all three, I never felt connected or even remotely interested in any of them. All I kept thinking was how emotionless everyone was and how badly they treated their kids.
Everyone should just go to therapy and talk about the parent issues they have.
I feel like the first book ‘One of Us Lying' was the pinnacle. All the others keep falling a little short.
3.75/5 stars
Karen M. McManus books make me never want to trust anyone ever again.