Tag: Karen M. McManus

Book Review: Kim’s Thoughts on One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus

One of Us is Lying
Series: Book one of One of Us is Lying series

Author: Karen M. McManus
Published: May 30, 2017
360 Pages

Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 4 stars

Book Description:

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.

**Kim has FINALLY read One of Us is Lying!  Jessica has previously read it and loved it.  In fact she gave it 5 stars. Jessica’s review is here.

Kim’s Review:

Jessica has been after me for months to read this book. She was definitely right! My neighborhood book club picked this book so I finally sat down to read it. Thankfully it was much better than 13 Reasons Why. It seemed to accomplish what 13 Reasons was trying to do, but failed because we were all too pissed off with what’s-her-booty who left the tapes. The mystery was looping and kept me guessing. My gut was wrong once again, but I enjoyed trying to work everything out. Apparently finally watching Saw didn’t help my behavioral analysis at all.

I liked all the characters and enjoyed watching them grow and learn. Everything was going really well, until the mystery was solved . . . and guess what. Teenagers are stupid. And that’s literally what the entire driving force of the book was. Teenagers are stupid and they do stupid things and then they have to deal with the stupid things that they do and they respond with more stupid things. The end was so anti-climactic and it dropped my rating to 4 stars.

I don’t want to give anything else away but I do recommend this book, but far more for the reading and the journey and less for the resolution. Great story, great characters, great mystery, sucky ending. But I still want to continue with the series, so that should tell you something too!

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

Two Can Keep a Secret

Author: Karen M. McManus
Published: January 8, 2019
Audiobook

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: April 1-8, 2019
Jessica’s Rating: 3 stars

Book Description:

Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery’s never been there, but she’s heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.

The town is picture-perfect, but it’s hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone’s declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.

Ellery knows all about secrets. Her mother has them; her grandmother does too. And the longer she’s in Echo Ridge, the clearer it becomes that everyone there is hiding something. The thing is, secrets are dangerous–and most people aren’t good at keeping them. Which is why in Echo Ridge, it’s safest to keep your secrets to yourself.

Jessica’s Review:

I absolutely loved McManus’ debut Novel One of Us is Lying, so I was looking forward to Two Can Keep a Secret. The covers match perfectly and with similar titles, you think Two is a sequel to One, but it is not. But we do have the sequel to look forward to: It is supposed to be released next year! 

Unfortunately, Two was is not up to the expectations that One set. Yes, we have another murder mystery and have many unknowns, but I was not attached to the characters. I was curious with what was going to happen as the description of the novel is intriguing, but it fell flat for me.  We even have two narrators, which by now you know I love multiple povs.  Our two narrators are Ellery and Malcolm, and Ellery even has a twin brother! And all of these characters are connected in some way.  Usually those things all put together equals a guaranteed enjoyable read. I continued the story as I wanted to know the ending, but by the time I got to the end I really didn’t care about it. 

Maybe reading One first set me up with failure for Two as my expectations were very high.  If you want to give both books a try, I say read Two then One. **Remember the books are NOT connected so they can be read either way.  I would read McManus again and I am still looking forward to the sequel to One

My review to One of Us is Lying is here.

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

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One of Us is Lying

Author: Karen M. McManus
Published: May 30, 2017
Audiobook

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: February 25- March 1, 2019
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars

Book Description:

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.

Jessica’s Review:

One of Us is Lying (to be referred to OOUIL for the rest of this review) was quite the debut for Karen McManus.  The mystery of who killed Simon never drags and you take turns suspecting each student that was in the room. They all had reasons to kill Simon, but so did most of the school…. This has a similar feel to the movie The Breakfast Club, and we have characters that you grow to like. 

This is one that you do not want to put down. You want to keep reading (or in my case listening)!  These characters start out as the clichés they represent and they grow out of that by the end of the novel.  I did not figure out each student’s secret (one secret I was not surprised about) or who killed Simon (OMG!) until all was revealed.

I listened to the audiobook, which had four different actors narrating for Bronwyn, Addy, Nate, and Cooper. This helped with the narration as it was a little difficult keeping each student straight.  I did have a post-it note in my car with the names and the stereotype they represented. 

This novel has been a popular one and McManus has written a second book I will be reading (Two Can Keep a Secret).  Two is not a sequel to OOUIL but McManus will have a sequel coming out in 2020. I cannot wait to read it to see what happens next.  According to McMannus’ website, here is a little about the upcoming sequel:

 Bronwyn’s sister Maeve gets main character treatment when Bayview High’s newest gossip game turns deadly. Bronwyn, Cooper, Addy, and Nate aren’t POV characters, but you’ll see plenty of them. As of now the book is scheduled for release in January 2020, but subject to change of course.

 

OOUIL is highly recommended.

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

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