Welcome back to another week of BookTok, the blog where I, an avid book reader, give you my review on which books on-trend are worth the read and which you can skip. This blog will go over recent book trends on TikTok and feature creators of all representations that have created book-related content that put specific titles in the spotlight.
Some important triggers to watch out for:
- Mental Illness
- Suicide
- Homophobia
- Abuse
SUMMARY
The third book featured is “One of Us Is Lying” by Karen M. McManus. Similar to the book “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder,” “One of Us Is Lying” follows a murder mystery at Bayview High. It contains elements from “The Breakfast Club,” “Gossip Girl” and “Pretty Little Liars” as we read about the story of five students going to detention and only four coming out alive. The characters we follow are Bronwyn, the nerd; Nate, the bad boy; Cooper, the jock and Addy, the homecoming princess as they all try to find out who is running the school’s gossip app “About That.” Before it was Simon, the outcast who was the fifth person that day, yet, since Simon’s death, a mysterious figure has been running the gossip app revealing juicy secrets that put the other four at risk. With the investigation, ongoing Bayview High’s most suspicious suspects are those four who left detention alive, and the question is, how far would they go to protect their secrets?
TIKTOK GOSSIP
From the Peacock TV release, everyone can tell “One of Us Is Lying” has become a popular book on TikTok. While some found the story predictable, its murder mystery elements have everyone on edge and want to know who killed Simon and who has been running “About That.” Popular TikTokers raved about the “One of Us Is Lying” as @jennajustreads said it was a book that’s worth the hype, and @vrittibooks called the plot twist “masterful.”
A booktoker who guessed the story’s plot twist early on was @under_thebelljar but said, “I don’t think that took away from the fun.” She instead focused on the “Breakfast Club” feel of it and said, “all of the switching points of view kept it interesting.” Her overall rating was 4/5 stars, but she didn’t recommend the sequel as it was “boring.”
The booktoker @meghansbooks even had something to say as she rated the book 3/5 stars. She first compliments the book and its murder mystery element, saying she “zoomed right through it” and couldn’t guess the final plot twist. However, we see why she labels “One of Us Is Lying” 3/5 stars when continuing the review. Meghan goes on to say, “It felt very Breakfast Club-y with a side of murder.” She even calls the characters “stereotypical” and “transparent.” Highschool characters being stereotypical? How can we blame her for disliking the cliches?
When searching the book’s hashtag, you will find it associated with the words “murder mystery,” “Bronwyn” and “Nate.”
MY REVIEW
This review will try to be as spoiler-free as possible!
“One of Us is Lying” was almost a DNF (did not finish) for me. The book reminded me of every single high school story you see in tv shows, and this book didn’t really do anything different. It just brought in the mix of a “murder mystery concept” in the form of social media. However, to keep this review as honest as possible, I’ll be going over the things I did like from the book.
First was the actual plot twist. I didn’t see it coming as it was a twist that has never been done before. Granted, I haven’t read too many mystery books, but I’ve read enough to know the murderer is closely related to the victim. Yet, Karen McManus did a complete turnaround in this novel and kept me on my toes as I constantly doubted myself after “predicting” the killer.
Another aspect I enjoyed was the relationship of one pairing, Bronwyn and Nate. While they were the epitome of bad boy meets nerdy girl, I enjoyed their characters and the development of their relationship. The author did a fantastic job at giving these characters different dimensions. We saw how Bronwyn’s expectations and Nate’s reputation ruined their mental health and kept them within their pre-breakfast club stereotypes. Still, as they spend more time with each other and with Addy and Cooper, both Bronwyn and Nate start to develop their own sense of self and decide what they want for their futures. Now, most nerdy girl and bad boy pairings can be one-dimensional, so I was happy that wasn’t the case in McManus’ book.
However, despite a good plot twist and character development, this book has some faults. Like a lot. The representation of mental illness and sexuality seemed to be demonized, which knocked down my overall rating for the book.
I can’t go into much detail about what I hated about the book as a lot of it contains spoilers. Still, I was disappointed in what McManus did regarding one character’s mental state and another character’s sexuality. I’m a bit surprised this book became a New York Times bestseller because the one thing no author should do is take mental illness and write it into something to be villanized.
My overall rating is 2/5 stars, and BookTok disappointed me with this one. I recommend you skip this one or take it out of your TBR (to be read) because this book isn’t worth the read despite the good twist and character development. However, we at Her Campus don’t ban books, so if you choose to read it, you can buy “One of Us is Lying” at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Books-A-Million or any local book store.
P.S. If you would rather watch the show, it’s available on PeacockTV.