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annamwallace66's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Alcohol, Homophobia, Infidelity, Murder, Violence, Blood, Gun violence, Medical content, Outing, Abandonment, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, and Alcoholism
moonfromearth's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
- 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
Moderate: Drug abuse and Death
Minor: Vomit, Alcohol, Homophobia, Addiction, Blood, and Cancer
burnourhistory's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death of parent, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent, Stalking, Alcoholism, and Alcohol
Minor: Cancer
luananki's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
although some of the characters felt a little off, i had so much fun with the mystery and the characters’ development and i’m going to miss their little group
Graphic: Murder, Death, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Gun violence, Stalking, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Alcohol and Infidelity
beckyyreadss's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Murder, Kidnapping, and Death
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Gun violence, and Death of parent
Minor: Drug use, Cancer, Alcohol, and Addiction
jelkebooks's review against another edition
- 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
2.0
This was honeslty such a slow paced book it honeslty got painful. It made me think that Karen M McManus didn't really have anything planned for this book, and just wrote it to fulfil her contract, and therefore just stretched out a very thin idea. If I didn't care so much about these characters already this 100% would be a one star, or maybe even a DNF. It just wasn't a good book at all, and my love for these characters is what pushed me through.
That being said though I do think Karen M McManus didn't do a good job juggling the large cast of characters in this book. So many characters just felt left to the wayside, and kind of forgotten about throughout the book, which I thought was a shame. We only get POV's from Addy, Phoebe, and Nate, and that honestly left me a bit sad. I did love Addy's POV. She had the most interesting POV from the three, and great character growth throughout the book. I also understood why we got Phoebe's POV as she played a large part in the story, and she also has great developement throughout the story but I just didn't really like following her that much. I just don't think she was that compelling of a character, and whenever we got to her chapters I was just hoping we would get back to Addy as soon as possible. Nate's POV though could have been scrapped. He didn't play that big of a part in the story, he's on the same line as some of the side characters that didn't have a POV, and he also just doesn't have a personal journey to get through. It kind of felt a bit unnececary besides a few scenes here and there were we get a tiny bit of plot.
So yeah, this just didn't end up working for me at all. However, I do like the place this left our characters in a great place, and I am glad that I read this book just to see these characters happy endings. However, it just wasn't a good book. I can't in good conciousness even think that it is, which is a massive dissapointement as this series has been pretty good before that.
Moderate: Alcohol and Grief
There is a scene in which a main character gets drugged.greatexpectations77's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, and Infidelity
Moderate: Death, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Murder, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, and Kidnapping
Minor: Alcohol, Grief, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Blood, and Death of parent
klcrabill's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.
Graphic: Murder
Minor: Alcohol
bookishexpat's review against another edition
It reads like what it is, a portion of a story that was already finished but was made into a THING, possibly also to provide more material for the TV adaptation.
My recommendation: read the first book maybe, but skip the rest (including the adaotation).
Graphic: Alcohol
Moderate: Confinement and Kidnapping