This was so much better than I thought it was going to be! And I don’t even care that I guessed most of the ending about halfway through. I ended up liking the characters so much by the end, I just wanted to hug and squeeze them all.
I suggested One of Us is Lying to my book club, and as soon as they heard, “The Breakfast Club, but with murder,” they didn’t even want to listen to any of my other suggestions. Sometimes you just can’t resist a good premise. And I think it lived up to it! I read this book so fast. I would have read it all in one sitting except that I had to go to work and do work and not read all day because of work.
Look, I’m not going to say this was super cleverly plotted or anything, because I’m pretty sure if I can guess your main twist, it’s not the best hidden twist. But I honestly didn’t really care that my theory ended up being right, and it wasn’t really a surprise, because I liked the rest of the book so much. My favorite part wasn’t even the murder plot and figuring out whodunnit, it was the characters. A lot of the time in mysteries and thrillers, you sacrifice character for plot, but all the characters here had nice arcs, and they were flawed and did shitty things, but by the end I just felt for them all so much and I can’t really say why because spoilers. As a teenager, this book would have blown my mind. As an adult, I still thought it was pretty great.
You should probably read it if that premise sounds at all intriguing to you.
[4.5 stars]