A review by alexsbookishadventures
One of Us Is Next by Karen M. McManus

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.0

This book was a really good YA mystery, but still lacked something for me. The plot started very slowly and hardly anything happened until the last few pages. The growth of the characters is the big focus, and so I found the characters very interesting. They each have their own story, but again everything feels so stereotypical. As in One Of Us Is Lying, the mystery falls into the background and I don't feel like I'm joining in the search for who did it. While it is nice that the we see the 'core four' return once more, I felt like they were taking over the story. The relationships between the characters, while great, also took over the story again. Mystery always does romance best though :) The final reveal of who it is is so anti-climactic, he had nothing to do with the whole story and just appaered out of nowhere. I can say I wouldn't have guessed, but I wasn't sitting with my mouth open with excitement either. This book had the perfect stepping stone to be great, but the writer still left something out.