Mehreeb Shahzad

I really love this book and it is probably one of my favorites. I love the suspense that the author creates and the story is just so unique and interesting. I felt like I was involved in a murder mystery case with Pip and Ravi which I absolutely loved. This book had me guessing until the end. However, a 17 year-old dating a 20 year-old was a bit odd for me. Also, through the end of the third book (As Good As Dead) the author lost my attention. I felt like it was dragged through the end and it started to get a bit boring because nothing was happening. I loved the first half of the book but the last half just got too slow and boring for me - to put it simply. Overall, I love this book. Very interesting read and I also learned new stuff from it.

Note: There are some spoilers and no hate to the author, this is just my point of view and my opinions towards this book. I just finished this book yesterday and let's just say I was very disappointed after reading it. I personally think McManus did a better job with One of Us is Lying. So first, let's talk about the plot. I know I saw some other reviews saying the plot is very basic and I agree 100% it's just another story about 3 teenagers who are solving a murder mystery case with no police involved, no flavor in the plot. The story also seems pointless because if Ivy, Cal, and Mateo would have not run away from the police in the first place, they would have been living their lives normally and wouldn't have to get involved in anything. But they decided that they're going to run away and get themselves involved. Also, most of the book is about one SINGLE day. So these teenagers manage to solve a case in 1 day?? How is that realistic? Okay. So after the 3 run away, Ivy and Mateo find out that Cal is secretly in love with a teacher, Ms. Jamison. Now throughout the whole book, I couldn't understand Ms. Jamison's character. Ms. Jamison decided to side with her husband, Tom Kendall (aka Coach Kendall), even when he tried to frame her of murdering Boney. Can someone explain please?? Now Ivy's character. I don't even know what to say. I hated Ivy's character with my whole heart through the whole book. Well, minus the ending but still. The word that comes to mind to describe Ivy is: pathetic. She can't even let go of a stupid joke that Daniel decided to pull on her. She got Spare Me shut just because of her "plan" for revenge on Daniel. Ivy is known to be the smart one among the 3. Yet, she managed to not find a single piece of useful information about Boney's murder and worries more about how her life would've been if she got the Sugar Babies that Mateo left for her in grade 8. Even the drug dealing information, Cal managed to get that out from Charlie. And Mateo found out who the weasel was. So basically, Ivy did nothing but find the "kill list" which ends up useless in the end. I would say Ivy was more like the boss among them. Coming up with her useless "plans." Let's talk about Boney's phone's password. It just happens to be his name Brian. Okay, well, that was very lucky. Who puts their name as a password for their phone? Anyone would have tried his name first to get in. It just seems too unrealistic and ideal. Okay, let's set that aside for now. But at the end, I don't understand why Tom Kendall decided to kidnap Ivy. It's like he wanted her to find out he was the killer. Like there was no need for kidnapping her, she was already a suspect for Boney's murder and she had no proof against Tom, she didn't even suspect him, not for a second. He should have worried about his Fiancé instead. Not to mention that Ms. Jamison tells Cal about everything Tom has been doing. This story seems too ideal. Like the 3 of them are just handed all of the information by the killer and his partner. Again, this is just my point of view of the book and I'm very disappointed, McManus is a good author and after reading One of Us is Lying, I honestly expected more. Sorry for the long review, hope you guys found it helpful. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book for anyone to read. Thank you for reading!