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moonfromearth's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Coming off of You'll Be the Death of Me my expectations were really low for One of Us is Back. However, due to loyalty to the One of us series I vowed to read its finally installment and was... Actually pretty surprised to enjoy it a lot! Blasted through it in two days and can say that it was a good book.
It contains pretty much all of McManus's usual tropes that you're likely to recognize if you've read her books before, but this one felt less tied down to the teen drama cheesiness because many of the characters are now halfway through college or about to graduate high school. I found that made the characters seem to have a lot more depth in this installment, and I think that McManus's writing could benefit from writing some more of these older perspective characters. It was very cool to see what characters were chosen to be the perspective characters since the cast has grown so much since the first book, and I was really glad to see more of Addie since she was one of my favorites in the first two books.
Overall, One of Us is Back isn't the most thrilling of mystery novels, as it serves more as an extended epilogue to the stories of the characters in One of Us is Lying and One of Us is Next. It takes on a much slower pace, once in a while remembering that there's a mystery going on between moments that work towards wrapping up the crew's plotlines. Despite that, I still enjoyed the book, and would recommend the series as a whole. The One of Us is Lying series is a guilty pleasure for me. I've been following it for around seven years now and, despite its flaws, was a reading experience I'll always hold dear.
It contains pretty much all of McManus's usual tropes that you're likely to recognize if you've read her books before, but this one felt less tied down to the teen drama cheesiness because many of the characters are now halfway through college or about to graduate high school. I found that made the characters seem to have a lot more depth in this installment, and I think that McManus's writing could benefit from writing some more of these older perspective characters. It was very cool to see what characters were chosen to be the perspective characters since the cast has grown so much since the first book, and I was really glad to see more of Addie since she was one of my favorites in the first two books.
Overall, One of Us is Back isn't the most thrilling of mystery novels, as it serves more as an extended epilogue to the stories of the characters in One of Us is Lying and One of Us is Next. It takes on a much slower pace, once in a while remembering that there's a mystery going on between moments that work towards wrapping up the crew's plotlines. Despite that, I still enjoyed the book, and would recommend the series as a whole. The One of Us is Lying series is a guilty pleasure for me. I've been following it for around seven years now and, despite its flaws, was a reading experience I'll always hold dear.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, and Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Addiction, and Alcohol
bec_9's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse and Death
Minor: Vomit, Alcohol, Homophobia, Addiction, Blood, and Cancer
burnourhistory's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death of parent, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent, Stalking, Alcoholism, and Alcohol
Minor: Cancer
beckyyreadss's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I wanted to read this book as I really enjoyed this series so far and was intrigued at which member was going to be back. This book was confusing at times, but I'm glad that it got the ending the guys deserved.
This book follows the gang from the last two books who are still in Bayview. Some of these characters are Addy, Nate, Phoebe, Maeve and Cooper. Ever since Simon died in detention, life hasn’t been easy for the Bayview Crew. First the Bayview Four had to prove they weren’t killers. Then a new generation had to outwit a vengeful copycat. Now, it’s happening all over again. At first the mysterious billboard seems like a bad joke: Time for a new game, Bayview. But when a member of the crew disappears, it’s clear this “game” just got serious, and no one knows the rules. Everyone is a target and now that someone unexpected has returned to Bayview, things are getting deadly again. The thing is, Simon was right about secrets – they all will come out, eventually. And Bayview has a lot it’s still hiding.
I love being back in Bayview and seeing how the crew was doing even if there was more stress for them during this book. I love that all my favourite couples are still strong and there was no petty breakups over the situation at hand. My favourite part in any mystery book is when the pieces of the puzzle starts to make sense and the killer is revealed. The chapter where the killer and the motive are revealed is written brilliant and the suspense is nail biting especially because Karen manages to drag it on from several points of view that you are waiting just for the answer and what had just happened. I love the friendships that are in this book and that they all stayed closed. My favourite character will always be Nate, I just wanted to hug him to death during this series as he has not had it easy.
The thing that stopped it from being five stars was Jake. That boy was such a pain in the ass, and I just wanted to punch him in the face. I was also a tad confused when I started this book because I read the second book in 2021 and I couldn’t remember what happened in the second book and some of the side plots from the characters weren’t in my brain, so I was just playing catch up. I would have loved a recap at the beginning of the book.
I would have liked an epilogue with all the crew being happy and successful and how Bayview was doing. Maybe that will be a book in the future, but I want Nate and Bronwyn to be parents, Maeve and Luis traveling, Cooper and Kris being happy and parents. Addy and Keely being happy and just everyone getting the hell out of Bayview.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Kidnapping, and Death
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Gun violence, and Death of parent
Minor: Drug use, Cancer, Alcohol, and Addiction
lauren_shilling's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This was the third book in the One Of Us Is Lying series, and it was honestly just fine for me. I didn't think it was bad, but I think it definitely lacked compared to the other two. The first book is absolutely a five star for me. I loved everything about it. The second book was around a four star, I think. I liked it, but it didn't live up to the original. This book, I think mainly suffered from having way too many characters. I understand the point of the story was to focus on all the characters from the previous two books and really bring them all together in the final story from Bayview, but I think it missed the mark a bit. We barely heard from a lot of characters, and the story was very unbalanced between them all. Overall, I just think it was too many, and this book either needed to find a better way to focus in on a few of them or to be longer to give each of the characters more time. That being said, Nate, Addy, Bronwyn, and Cooper are characters that I love dearly from the first book, so seeing them again in any capacity is always a delight for me. I thought their stories all wrapped up really nicely as well. I thought the story was good and engaging, but there was just a lot going on at once and I feel like it was tied together a little haphazardly in the end. A lot of the reveals came from a villain monologue that spans actual chapters, and I have to say, that did bother me a little bit. I loved the flashback chapters, but I feel like they could have been more spread out. Plus, two of the major plot twists are revealed within pages of each other when I feel like it would have been better if they happened further apart. Overall, though, I did enjoy it, and I would recommend that people who enjoyed the other two books in the series should read this one as well. It does eventually wrap up in a satisfying way, especially for our original Bayview Four, so I did really appreciate that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Kidnapping, Death, and Gun violence
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Cancer, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Addiction
whosgina's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Death, Murder, and Blood
Moderate: Stalking and Infidelity
Minor: Cancer and Alcoholism
calamitywindpetal's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence, Murder, Kidnapping, Sexism, Suicide, Misogyny, Alcohol, Death, Blood, and Sexual assault
Minor: Grief, Death of parent, Cancer, and Alcoholism
themoodreader's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Cancer, Alcohol, Child death, Gun violence, Blood, Confinement, Death, Infidelity, Car accident, Kidnapping, Violence, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
bekah1210's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Kidnapping, Infidelity, Violence, Alcoholism, Death, and Addiction
Minor: Classism, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Gun violence, Grief, Alcohol, and Cancer
jazzyjbox's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Amazing addition to the Bayview series!
The Bayview Crew are together again for the summer, but when a billboard advertises another game to play and Jake Riordan is released on bail, things start to get weird again.
I loved seeing the follow up from the first two books! Just when I thought Simon's influence was done with, here it comes again.
This one just reinforces my love of YA thrillers.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review!
The Bayview Crew are together again for the summer, but when a billboard advertises another game to play and Jake Riordan is released on bail, things start to get weird again.
I loved seeing the follow up from the first two books! Just when I thought Simon's influence was done with, here it comes again.
This one just reinforces my love of YA thrillers.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism and Addiction
Minor: Cancer