“Her manic phases were a trip, though. For my eighth birthday she took me to a department store, handed me a cart, and told me to fill it with whatever I wanted. When I was nine and into reptiles she surprised me by setting up a terrarium in the living room with a bearded dragon. We called it Stan after Stan Lee, and I still have it. Those things live forever.”

Themes:

• Friendship
• Thinking you know someone versus truly seeing them
• The importance of reserving judgements and always striving to empathize

Before starting this, I had heard it described as The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars—intriguing, right? I’m not huge into thriller books, but Halloween was approaching, and I kept hearing about this, so I started it. And I’m so glad I did! I expected One of Us is Lying to be entertaining. I didn’t expect it to be something I can see myself rereading.

Let’s start with the fact that while the characters are, at their basest level, somewhat tropy, they all have such interesting growth. By the end of the novel, I really felt McManus had demonstrated each character’s individual complexity quite well. I feel like I know these people, and I want to know them more. Addy’s story arc was particularly awesome, in my opinion. She went from a character I couldn’t stand to one I would read a whole book about. Seriously. I also loved Cooper, who is gay and outed in the process of the investigation into what happened to Simon. I can’t personally speak to the representation, but I could imagine how his story line would be relatable to an underrepresented group of people, which is so important. He’s a star baseball player, with a father who literally calls people fags. It’s in this environment that we first see Cooper, in love with a man named Kris, but dating a girl named Keely. When Cooper was forcibly outed, it was painful. It was awful. But, it did help someone like myself, who hasn’t had that particular experience, empathize with people who do go through that. I felt better able to relate to how assaulted someone in that situation would feel. So I thought that was a great element of his story! Plus, I loved him and Kris! read more