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A review by wild_mustang
One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
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.
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.
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