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One of Us Is Next (One of Us Is Lying, #2)

Karen M. McManus

Start date: March 1, 2020

Finish date: March 31, 2020

Discussion: Book of the Month

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What Members Thought

May 13, 2020 Jenn rated it really liked it

Shelves: 4-star-reads, high-school-days, who-to-trust, read-in-2020, books-i-own, contemporary, young-adult, mystery

This was a one-sitting read. And I have no regrets staying up past midnight to finish. Even if I'm slowly dying at work...

After the fun mystery that was One of Us Is Lying, I knew I had to get my hands on this book. So i placed my 45743th order from my local indie bookstore during this quarantine time and waited, rather impatiently, for it to arrive. It arrived yesterday and I already read it. Patience is not my strongest quality.

I get that people are going to compare this to the first book and ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Nov 13, 2020 Colleen Scidmore rated it it was ok

I was so excited to dive into this after reading the very entertaining One of Is Lying. But sadly by the end of this book I was let down and let down hard. I just don’t understand how I can feel such extremes for 2 books that are in the same series!

The book takes place a year later with a new cast of characters mixed in with sprinklings of the original Bayview 4. Maeve, Bronwyn’s younger sister is now one of the main characters, which is fitting because she helped in the takedown of the culprit I was so excited to dive into this after reading the very entertaining One of Is Lying. But sadly by the end of this book I was let down and let down hard. I just don’t understand how I can feel such extremes for 2 books that are in the same series!

The book takes place a year later with a new cast of characters mixed in with sprinklings of the original Bayview 4. Maeve, Bronwyn’s younger sister is now one of the main characters, which is fitting because she helped in the takedown of the culprits in the first book.
This time around there is a copy cat at Bayview High that is trying to imitate the scandal Simon’s legacy created. But this time the game has changed a bit and morphed into a vicious game of Truth or Dare. Pick a truth and one of your deepest darkest secrets comes to light for the whole school to see. Pick a dare and you get to play a funny harmless prank. Seems like a no brainer right..always pick the dare. But the dares start to take on a more sinister turn and it soon becomes obvious this isn’t just a game and you could possibly lose your life is your name is chosen next.

The book definitely has some positive qualities like the characters for one. I loved the MC’s, Maeve, Phoebe and Knox. They were all so real in my mind and I got wrapped up and invested in their outcome, hoping they all came out on top.
Also I really liked the new take on Simon’s About That forum. The Truth or Dare was a fun imaginative twist to the original gossip app.
But these are not enough attributes to pull this book off because the plot was so absurd and easy to figure out. I knew right away who was most likely behind everything and why immediately. There was a twist at the end that I did not see coming but it was ridiculous and pretty unbelievable.

Honestly I wish I could unread this so that the mini series didn’t feel so tarnished to me. But even after the disaster of One of Us is Next I still have high hopes that this was just a one off and I will probably pick up more of Ms. McManus’s books in the future. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Oct 25, 2020 Elizabeth Aguilar rated it really liked it

One of Us is Next is a story I think best enjoyed without giving too many details.

I love Karen M. McManus's ability to weave complex characters and bring them to life. Even secondary characters play a big role even when they do not take up as much page time. Maeve was one of my favorite characters from One of Us is Lying and hers was my favorite POV to read from as well.

While I enjoyed that One of Us is Next was non-problematic in the ways its predecessor were, I felt the stakes (at least in th ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 14, 2020 Trisha rated it really liked it

This isn’t a joke.
I know where to find you.
And I’m not afraid to let this whole thing go up in flames.
I’ll do it just so I can watch you burn, too.

We currently live in weird times, right? So it's nice to find fiction as an easy escape from the day to day. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, even though I just barely remember the basic outline of the first book. The characters were easy to jump in the story with - the author does well to both catch you up but also completely suck you in to the new ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 18, 2020 Marie (UK) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-reading-challenge

It took me a while to get back into the Bayview scene but once there this is every bit as good as #1. I love the writing of McManus and will read more by her but i think this has been taken as far as it can go and maintain the thrill of the tale

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Apr 19, 2020 Keri rated it really liked it

Shelves: uno-challenge-2020, 2020-12-series-in-progress, mystery-thriller, owned, series-in-progress, series-unknown-number-of-books, ya

This was a strong sequel to me. I liked Maeve a lot in the first book so I was happy to find out we were getting her POV in this one. I liked the additions of Knox and Phoebe also. I was invested in this right away and enjoyed having the characters from the first one show up pretty regularly. The storyline and mystery of this was was engaging and kept me guessing. And that ending! Such a crazy twist—I love it. I’m sad this is over and would gladly read more books about the characters in these bo ...more

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