One of Us is Lying

· Written by: Karen M. McManus

· Characters, setting, and plot:

   - Characters: Nate, Bronwyn, Cooper, and Addy

   - Place: Bayview High School

   - Main plot: Simon, who is extremely allergic to peanuts, dies after drinking from a cup which had been covered with peanut butter, and all four of the students are considered suspects because he had planned to post negative information about all of them on his gossip app.

· My thoughts

   One aspect of this book that I found interesting is that the story is told from the first-person perspective, as the author describes the mental processes of each character in the form of diary entries. Details are clearly presented, and each narrative step is shown through small elements that provide context.

 I can clearly remember the moment when Addy discovered the fake detail on Simon’s Tumblr. She told incorrect information to Jake, and Jake posted it. However, nearly everyone except Jake knew that the information was fake. From this point they found out that Jake had been posting for Simon after he died, and that Simon’s death was in fact a suicide.

   One thing that I disliked about this book is that it used up four-fifths of the story to talk about what happened after these four students were put on the list, but only one-fifth to describe the process of Jake impersonating Simon and how he (Simon) committed suicide. The climax of the story was when Addy found out that Jake was controlling the account of Simon, and the revelation of Simon’s suicide. However, this part was only described in the last four chapters, only a small portion of twenty-one total chapters. More details and more foreshadowing clues and hints should ha