Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

211 reviews

austin_lakes's review

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Homophobia, Outing, Alcoholism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Addiction, Bullying, Death of parent, Infidelity, Mass/school shootings, and Alcohol

3ch4na's review

dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book is really good, I recommend this for people who like Y/A mystery or liked the Agggtm series. Karen M. McManus is a really talented author!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Suicide, Drug use, Infidelity, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Vomit, Addiction, Mental illness, Murder, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Violence

notyourdailynerd's review

adventurous mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Homophobia, Addiction, Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Self harm, and Suicide

tearstoflowers's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Sexism, Addiction, Bullying, Death, Alcoholism, Violence, and Toxic friendship

savreads28's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Homophobia, Outing, Bullying, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Car accident, Drug use, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcohol, Cursing, Mass/school shootings, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Murder

vesperity's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

I came into reading this with no expectations. I was unsure on how I would like it. As I kept on reading, I was surprised at how much I did not want to put it down.  It felt like a rollercoaster on the events going on between everyone. I enjoyed the different POV. That was a nice touch. Some of the characters in the beginning I did not like, but over time they grew on me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Addiction, Death, Outing, and Homophobia

wild_mustang's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.25

It was fine.
Pretty much just teen drama - sex, drugs, alcohol and depression. Oh, and trying to stay out of jail - but to be honest there wasn’t heaps of focus on the murder mystery. At least there wasn’t until the last 100 pages or so.

Personally, I didn’t really care for the romance sub-plots either.

The writing was also in a more juvenile voice than what I normally read, which makes sense because it’s first person perspectives from teenagers, but it took me a little while to get used to. Additionally, many of the plots were very trope heavy and painfully stereotypical at times

However, if was a very easy read and only took like 7hrs so it gets an average 3 star rating. The extra quarter of a star is an appreciation of some of the authors writing choices and the execution of perspective narrations to reveal relevant things in the intended literary light and at the right narrative time.

I recently studied Reader-Response Theory and I think, in this light, McManus did a very good job at writing for the implied reader (so the rating is bumped up), however, I really don’t think that I am the implied or intended reader (so it’s still a fairly average rating).

To take a strategic leaf from Simon’s tumblr…
JT recommended this to me and I’m not mad I read it but I certainly don’t care to continue the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Outing

Moderate: Alcoholism, Violence, Cursing, and Homophobia

Minor: Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Vomit, Abandonment, Sexual content, Cancer, Car accident, Sexual assault, Mass/school shootings, and Self harm

ashleysager's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, Child death, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Alcoholism, Addiction, Self harm, Grief, Death, Terminal illness, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Suicide

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

4.0

This was an entertaining read, it was fairly fast paced and it held my attention. I enjoyed getting to know the characters through their own perspectives! I didn’t like Cooper’s POV as much for awhile because it was a lot of baseball talk which I just don’t care for 😅 but he grew on me eventually! The first half of the book was really good but I didn’t love the second half.

I didn’t guess any of the twists which is always a plus for me! However the reveal was kind of disappointing (and a bit of a cop out in my opinion). It just didn’t excite me and I wasn’t racing to find out the answers with this like I normally do with thrillers. The ending was also underwhelming-it’s the ending of book 1 in a thriller series, where is the cliffhanger? This could even be read as a stand alone I think 😅 I will however be picking up book 2 this weekend because it fits a prompt for a readathon I’m doing, otherwise I’d be in no rush to continue.

Overall it’s entertaining and a quick read but left me feeling underwhelmed in the end. I’d still recommend if you’re looking for an easy thriller with well developed characters!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Outing

Moderate: Homophobia, Cancer, Addiction, Mental illness, Infidelity, Drug abuse, Mass/school shootings, and Suicide

Minor: Car accident, Vomit, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

pink_princess_24's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

I loved this book it took me 2 months to read even with being busy. The book seems really long but it's not. I liked how the book would change in different perspectives.  The book kind of gives it away on how Simon died in the middle of the book and then you end up just reading the rest of the book for the romance. It also leaves you on a cliff hanger. I liked the book so much I got the second one so i'm not left wondering what else happens.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Addiction, Blood, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Suicide, Drug use, Grief, and Suicide attempt