Hello, bookworms!
I can’t believe I am finally catching up with the last July article. I swear, everytime I think I am going to get on top of this whole catch up business something comes up and suddenly I have 500 articles to write and post and the days keep slipping through my fingers.
But! Today we are here to finally talk about One Of Us Is Back by Karen M. McManus, the thrid and final book in the One Of Us Is Lying trilogy, and the latest release by one of the most well known YA mystery authors of the last few years.
This year, I have reread One Of Us Is Lying and finally picked up One Of Us Is Next to be fully prepared for when this finale came out, so you can find both reviews HERE and HERE. At the end of this article, I will rank the three books and all the books by this author, since I can now finally say I have read them all at this point in time.
But without any further ado, let’s get this final July review started!
About the book
Title: One Of Us Is Back
Series: One Of Us Is Lying #3
Author: Karen M. McManus
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication date: July 25, 2023
Pages: 368
Plot, as stated on Goodreads
The explosive third and final thrilling instalment in the acclaimed One of Us… series. Ever since Simon died in detention, life hasn’t been easy for the Bayview Crew. First the Bayview Four had to prove they weren’t killers. Then a new generation had to outwit a vengeful copycat. Now, it’s beginning again. At first the mysterious billboard seems like a bad joke: Time for a new game, Bayview. But when a member of the crew disappears, it’s clear this ‘game’ just got serious – and no one understands the rules. Everyone’s a target. And now that someone unexpected has returned to Bayview, things are starting to get deadly. Simon was right about secrets – they all come out in the end. The thing is, Simon was right about secrets-they all come out, eventually. And Bayview has a lot it’s still hiding.
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Review
I can’t believe after all these years I am finally done with the One Of Us Is Lying series. It’s been a long journey, I must say. With this book read, I am also officially caught up with everything Karen M. McManus has ever published, including short stories. No one cares, but I wanted to mention it, because I am going to tier rank her books at the end, so yeah.
After the second book, I did not have any expectations reading this one, to be completely honest. Instead, I ended up liking it better than One Of Us Is Next. It’s probably the nostalgia factor and the fact that the original characters had a bigger role in here.
Overall, I had a fun time reading this book. The mystery wasn’t the strongest out of the three books, but I loved that everything ended up being connected throughout the series. Sometimes, mystery series that were not supposed to be series, tend to lose focus or introduce new random mysteries, but this was not the case. You could not read these books as standalones (except for the first one, obviously), which is a bonus for me.
As I previously mentioned in one of my reviews of this series, probably the first one, there must be some kind of addicting drug that McManus puts into her characters, because you find yourself caring for them without any kind of warning, in the blink of an eye.
I truly believe they are the strongest feat of this series, because while One Of Us Is Lying has an original plot twist, this one and the previous insalment are much more basic YA mysteries. However, they keep you entertained and the characters are good, so you keep reading them. Compulsively reading them, as far as yours truly is concerned, in all honesty.
The fact that the thrid book was better than the second leads me to recommend the whole series, at this point. If I had to tier rank the series, I’d say One Of Us Is Lying, One Of Us Is Back and finally One Of Us Is Next. If you are only going to read the first one, it’s going to be just fine as well, but if you decide to continue with the series, I’d recommend finishing it.
Now, since there’s not much I can say about this book — being the third in a series and having already said everything in the two previous reviews — I am just going to quickly mention that I did not expect McManus to make that choice for Addy, but I am extremely glad she did. I would have loved to see that in the TV show as well, but alas.
And finally, the moment to tier rank every Karen M. McManus novel has come. I’d love to know your ranking, if you’ve read all (or most) of her works as well, to see if our taste alligns or if we have completely different opinions about the YA mystery lady.
- Nothing More to Tell
- One Of Us Is Lying
- One Of Us Is Back
- You’ll Be the Death of Me
- One Of Us Is Next
- Two Can Keep a Secret
- The Cousins
If I wanted to include the short stories as well, I’d have to put the one in Up All Night at the top of this list, while the one in Marple: Twelve New Stories somewhere around Two Can Keep a Secret, I believe. So yes, my favourite McManus is the short story in Up All Night, I still remember being shocked at how much I enjoyed that one when I first read it.
That is going to be all for today! I’ll talk to you soon with a new review, of the show that made me cry the most this year (and generally in the last few years).
La Petite Pritt 