“I know what it’s like to tell yourself a lie so often that it becomes the truth.”

Rating: 4/5 stars

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Synopsis

The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars, 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.

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The Verdict

LISTEN. TO. THE. AUDIO BOOK.
You won’t regret it.
Trust me.

I truly can’t remember the last time I read/listened to a book in under 24 hours. One of Us Is Lying, was a highly addictive, fast-paced read that had my mind swirling with possibilites up until the very end.  I really owe it all to the audio book though, it was the bomb dot com. I stumbled across the audio book through my library’s app and figured I would give it a go, not knowing how AMAZING it was about to be. The audio book has not one, but FOUR narrators who bring so much life to the story and characters. The main reason that I picked this up is because back in the day I was a huge fan of the show Pretty Little Liars, so when I read that this was pitched as The Breakfast Club meets PLL I knew I needed to get my hands on it sooner rather than later. However, the real pitch should have been The Breakfast Club meets PLL meets Gossip Girl. .

The premise of the story is this: five kids get sent to detention, but only four come out. The police suspect foul play surrounding Simon’s death and suddenly the four kids turn into murder suspects. Each of the four has their own deep dark secrets that they never wanted anyone to find out, and Simon was planning on revealing them the next day. When I say deep, I mean so deep that one of the four’s secret was basically a bigger plot twist than who the killer was (I’m still trying to decide how I feel about that). But each secret just made this web if lies and deception even more and more tangled.

Now the moment you’re all probably waiting for… did I guess the killer?

Yes, I did.  However, it did take me a little longer than usual to piece all of it together because of all the lies and deception, but once I figured it out it made perfect sense. And this did story provide A LOT more of an explanation on who the killer was compared to the last murder mystery I read. With that being said, the reason behind the killing can be triggering for some but at the same time I don’t want to disclose why because it will literally spoil everything. If you have concerns we can always speak privately!

I’m not going to tell you who I was originally going with as the killer because I don’t want to give away any of the four’s secrets. But I will tell you that my favorite character was Addy. In the beginning of this, Addy, started out as that annoying “queen bee” type who would do anything her boyfriend says. And by the end of this Addy was almost unrecognizable, her character growth was off the charts. I also LOVED Nate and Bronwyn’s relationship, it was also what kept this story alive and going for me.

For all the things that I enjoyed about One of Us Is Lying, there were a few things I also had issues with. For starters, slut-shaming is OFF THE CHARTS in this book, and it’s not challenged as much as I would have liked it to be (basically every single time). I’m still on the fence about the “twist” of the story. Did I like it? Was it too much? I’m not really sure, maybe one day I’ll figure it out. I think I was slightly put off because of the other plot twists that out shined the reveal of the killer. And the reason for the killing is nothing that should ever be taken lightly. So yeah, still on the fence.

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Favorite Quotes

“She’s a princess and you’re a jock,” he says. He thrusts his chin toward Bronwyn, then at Nate. “And you’re a brain. And you’re a criminal. You’re all walking teen-movie stereotypes.” 

“That’s the kind of person you can get away with killing: someone everybody else wants dead.”

“These murder club meetings are becoming a regular thing. We need a new name, though.”

All in all, if you’re looking for a fast-paced, hard to put down type of read then look no further. I can’t guarantee I would have enjoyed the physical copy of this as much as I did the audio book, so if you have access to the audio book then I would tell you to listen to it as soon as you can! Hands down, the best audio book I’ve listened to so far.

Until next time,