Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

153 reviews

gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

After reading The Cousins recently, I was inspired to go through the authors backlist of books. 

This was such a great story that had so many layers! I will admit, I was a little nervous getting around to this very hyped book, but it was definitely worth it.

I never expected who would be the culprit in the 'whodunit' plot and I think it was executed really well.

The characters were fully dimensional and I was invested in all of their stories. 

Nate really irked me in the last few chapters! I felt so disappointed by his decisions, it was just mean.

I think my favourite character was Bronwyn. They all had some really problems in there life but for some reason the internal and external pressures of being the perfect everything really hit me. 

This was exciting, immersive, thrilling and had  lot of depth to reflect on the consequences of spiteful rumours and extremism and radicalisation within education.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Self harm, Homophobia, Addiction, Drug use, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Bullying, Child death, Outing, and Violence

itsjadenbaby's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

The epilogue was so pointless. Other than that, this wasn’t a super memorable book for me. It definitely wasn’t bad, I just wasn’t super impressed. I’m glad that so many other people liked it though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Outing, Suicide, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Infidelity, Bullying, Child death, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Self harm, Abandonment, Classism, Confinement, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content

mirjv's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Drug abuse, Car accident, Death, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Self harm, Suicide, and Toxic friendship

julia_jojo17's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Outing, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Murder, and Suicide

Minor: Addiction and Alcoholism

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

shinaa's review

hopeful lighthearted mysterious relaxing 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

4.0

I would have given it a 5 star rating if not not for the gay part.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Genocide, Alcoholism, Murder, Alcohol, and Drug use

Moderate: Hate crime, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Car accident, and Abandonment

Minor: Self harm and Suicide

I was really happy that

he was the one who killed himself because 1. It fits his character so well to be the one to kill himself and frame people out of spite of everybody and to "be creative" and 2. I liked all four of them and didn't want any of them to be murderers

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