Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

113 reviews

rosamaria's review against another edition

adventurous 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Addiction, Homophobia, Alcohol, Bullying, Outing, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, and Suicidal thoughts

renyoi's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

4.75

YA fiction that simultaneously does and does not feel like YA fiction. Multiple gasp-out-loud moments and surprising subversions of popular tropes make this book one of the more sophisticated YA titles I’ve ever read. All characters feel well-rounded and representative of real teenagers—who, as the author clearly knows, are agents in their own world and not just victims of or reactions to circumstances. My main complaint? The author doesn’t actually know how Tumblr works. :P

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Grief, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Homophobia, Outing, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Car accident, Chronic illness, Cancer, Classism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

serendipity421's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Death, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Chronic illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Cursing

nctzen's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

One of the best books I've read in a while
Absolutely love the characters

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Murder, and Outing

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Suicide

Minor: Alcohol and Cancer

tbs250's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Outing, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexism, Misogyny, Alcohol, and Addiction

laney_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was an amazing book, some of the heavier topics in the book were brought in very nicely. I give this a 4.5 only because I kinda guessed who the killer was but I wasn't really serious about it bc the book did a great job of making you unsure!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Bullying, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Drug use, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Body shaming, Mental illness, and Suicide

Minor: Homophobia and Outing

This book handles a lot of heavy topics but does have resources in the back of the book for the most major topics!

dtierra's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

If you’re a non-white person who cares about reading accurate portrayals of people of color…skip this book. There is one woman of color in this book and it is DEEPLY uncomfortably written. There was clearly no research done besides maybe google translate and one google search. Bronwyn is effectively written as a white character who has 3 lines of spanish in the book with a Colombian father who she says won’t want a drug dealing hs’er (another main character) around bc he’s hyperconscious of the Colombian drug dealer stereotype. Yeah. The Author is a white woman. The only gay character in the book is closeted for most of the book and experiences intense homophobia. Diversity win! Outside of Karen McManus’ atrocious attempt at diverse characters, the book isn’t completely awful. However the book is meant to be high stakes and often fails to deliver.

maybe the point of Simon’s death and the Bayview four’s offenses is that it’s so small in the grand scheme of things. I’m not sure. In high school, everything feels bigger than it is. That said, most of the rumors in About That about the Bayview 4 were largely inconsequential. Maybe this is a testament to Simon’s deteriorating mental state. That said, it brings the believability into question

The book is fast paced, I got through it in about a day. It does keep you guessing and some of the plot twists were solid. Others were a bit predictable. I honestly think this book could have been miles better with a few well compensated sensitivity writers and a few drafts of edits. Would not recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Suicide, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Child death, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Homophobia, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

Minor: Domestic abuse

shiroofficial's review against another edition

5.0

This book was very interesting and it made me want to keep reading it all the time… the story was amazing and thrilling and the situations felt very real, like it would be something we could expect in the world today and it would feel normal, but feel bad as well. It was a very interesting story to read and many secrets were unravelled in the story and it was awesome! The plot twists were really good and it kept me captivated the whole time i was reading. I absolutely love this book. However i find that the pace is a little slower than i’d have preferred, but it really doesn't bother me much so yeah. Awesome book definitely recommend love it! very thrilling would read again! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Sexual content, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abandonment, Self harm, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Hate crime, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Self harm, and Drug use

emmacb16's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

This was a very good book, and probably the first book where I have actually been interested in every single POV. 

In the beginning, I loved how she set it up so that you didn’t know what each of them were trying to hide and no one trusted anyone. This made it interesting when you got to read it from all of the different perspectives. 

At the end, Jake make me want to throw the book…but I guess that’s expected.

All of the stories pulled together very nicely, and I like how much the characters developed by the end of the book. Very excited to read the next book!!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Drug use, Suicide, Murder, Bullying, Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Self harm and Transphobia

mangietran's review against another edition

dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Sexual content and Alcohol