I really like a good thriller, and usually anticipate it to be full of who dunnits, mystery, intrigue and fast paced. I particularly like insights from the ‘killer’. I saw a lot of love for this book before picking it up and I had huge expectations and unfortunately the book just missed the bar for me. I gave this 3 stars on goodreads but it’d probably put it closer to 3 and a half as it’s not bad, it’s just average, and I was a bit disapointed.
I’m really getting through the multiple POV book this month. One of Us is Lying has four characters you frequently read through in a chronalogical timeline and includes an epilogue three months after the murder. The premise is, 5 students walk into detention but only 4 walk out alive. So someone died in the room. The death actually happened pretty quickly and right at the start of the story so the rest of the book, I knew, would be focusing on the investigation and experiences of the other four characters.
Each chapter seems to unveil a bit more about each character so you begin to build a picture of their character but I found it quite slow moving. I enjoyed some of the contemporary references but some of the stereotypes made me feel uncomfortable. It felt like what teen movies are based on and that just reminded me of the film ‘Cabin in the Wood’s (this book is nothing like this film, but the select characters, princess, geek, bad boy, jock etc made me feel reminisent). Actually, of all the films it reminded me of The Breakfast Club meets Gossip Girl meets Pretty Little Liars. It was all very relevant I guess which made it feel like this is something that could really happen.
I wouldn’t say I disliked this book, it was just average and I felt it didn’t live up to the hype. There are a couple of red flags which do make a lot more sense with the big reveal of which I didn’t see coming actually at all. So that was good. I just felt some of the filler content was a bit bland and where it was multiple POV’s you didn’t really get as much character depth as I would have liked but for a 370 or so page book it’s a fairly quick, easy read.
One of my goals for 2020 is to read 52 books or around one a week. Some might be new, some are ones I’ve had for a while or been meaning to read, some I haven’t quite finished yet and some will be recommendations from others. You can see all the books I’ve read so far on my Good Reads 2020 Reading Challenge.
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