One of us may be lying, but I am not lying when I tell you that you have to read this book.
When I read One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus, I couldn't believe it was her debut novel. But it was, and it spent a whopping 63 weeks on the New York Times best sellers list. What makes a book so good that it stays on the list for over a year? (I'll try to keep it brief, but like I've already made clear...I love this book.)
The simplest way to describe this book is that it is like a combination of The Breakfast Club and a murder mystery. Five teens (each one fitting one of the major high school stereotypes: a jock, a popular girl, a nerd, an outcast, and a "bad boy") enter detention and only one comes out. After that, the four surviving teens are thrust into an investigation where accusations are thrown their way from all directions, and while they all claim they are innocent of the murder, they also have secrets of their own that make things very complicated. As the truth comes out piece by piece, it becomes more and more unclear who the murderer really is, and who will end up taking the blame.
There are about a dozen things that make this book impressive, but the first thing I noticed when I started reading was how quick the pace actually is. I don't think I've ever read a book that takes off so quickly. Almost the moment the book begins, this mystery is off and running, and I was hooked by the end of the first two chapters. I felt like the pacing was just right, with new questions arising at just the right moments, keeping me engaged to the very last page...Not to mention that though I tried, I could never figure out who was guilty. McManus's writing kept me guessing all the way through. (And that ending! WOW. Not what I expected to happen...No spoilers, though!)
The thing about One Of Us Is Lying is that it is told from four first-person points of view, one for each of the surviving students in detention that day. While many attempts at four points of view are failed (it is SO difficult to get multiple POVs right), this one was done well, in my opinion. I rarely felt confused about whose voice I was reading. I think this could be attributed to how different each character's personality was, as well as how different their paths became once the story took off.
But the tricky part about this novel is that all four narrators were very unreliable. It didn't take me long to realize that one of these four narrators could be lying to me, the reader, which I am not used to in other books I read. I never knew who was lying and who was telling the truth, and that made it quite difficult to solve the mystery on my own. (To be honest, I started out the book wanting a true mystery, with one of the four narrators being the guilty one, but I grew to love them all so much that ended up wanting all of them to be innocent!...But I'm not telling you who did it. Or who didn't do it. Or who's lying to you.)
Since this book debuted, I've seen several more YA mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels hit the shelves. (There are several I have on my shelf that I'm excited to read, such as Broken Things by Lauren Oliver and See All The Stars by Kit Frick!) But if you're looking for the perfect, plot-twisty, secret-filled YA mystery to start with, One Of Us Is Lying is my recommendation!
Now go pick up a copy and get reading!