Reviews tagging 'Outing'

One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

295 reviews

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, Cursing, Homophobia, and Violence

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

synkdive's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Vomit, and Outing

Minor: Cursing

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, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Outing

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

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

dramagirl2003's review against another edition

dark 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

5.0

ah this was a clever plot. so many twists and turns. I loved the MCs growing relationships with each other

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Murder, and Outing

Minor: Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, Blood, Mass/school shootings, and Suicide attempt

prairieraven's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ansuya's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing

Moderate: Cancer and Gun violence

olivia_sz's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Suicide, and Outing

Moderate: Cancer and Medical content

Minor: Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

senpai_no_lie's review against another edition

fast-paced

4.0

Definitely Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars. Liked the characters a lot and had a fun time reading it, even if it was a bit YA for me at times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Outing

jasmineslibraryy's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

i was very intrigued, but the book was pretty predictable ngl. still enjoyable though! i liked the characters, and the intertwining storylines, but i think there should've been more to this book for everything to be so carefully intricated, and so that they all had more time to grow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Outing

Moderate: Homophobia

kkuecker218's review against another edition

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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Outing, and Alcohol

Moderate: Mass/school shootings