Rotten Candy

This book was a let down, to be honest. I realized just how 2 dimensional most of the characters are, the twist at the end with Magpie was just...no, and it felt like some ideas were half developed. *Major Spoiler Warning* Okay, let's start off with the side characters, Oscar. I actually liked him in the other books, here, he is badly written. After Nova returns from prison (where she was going to be KILLED), you would expect him to actually CARE. But no, it's like she never left. It would be much better to change the tone to a tense one in preparation for the climax by having the more laid back, fun characters get serious to demonstrate the change in atmosphere and how close Nova was to death. Oscar can still be jokey, but it should be more trying to cheer Nova up and have underlying concern. I would make it so there are teams who don't trust Nova and mock her, and then have him defend his teammate. Also, cut the confessing to Ruby to the end. This guy comes off as someone who is oblivious to the world around him. Like, people are going to be executed without a trial, maybe wait? It's also all he apparently thinks about when Nova is locked up. Now about Honey. The part where she tried to kill Nova came out of nowhere. Yes, she IS loyal to Ace, but you think she was all people, who was the most openly emotion of the Anarchists, would like Nova. Cyanide even says that she loved Nova like a daughter and wouldn't kill her. This side was never hinted at before, it was just an excuse to kill her off. Thirdly, Frostbite and her crew. I still have VERY little idea about their personalities. You'd think after relatively reappearing and being (somewhat) important in each book they would have more depth than a piece of cardboard, but nope. Okay, now it's time for the Magpie twist. I hated this when I found it out. It reminds me how a character can never just die and that be the end with it. Not to mention the contradiction it made with an official news report. In a previous book, Nova comes across an article about her families murder. It says that 4 people die, and gives the names. Evie is of them. And guess what? This could have been forgiven if 2 things were done. 1.) Establish that Snapshot used to be a reporter and has written some documents that the Renegades have, and 2.) Not list the names. It's mentioned Snapshot makes some spelling errors in her work so it wouldn't be to hard to believe that she accidently hit '4' instead of '3' when saying how many dead people there were. This may seem to be a nitpick, but something REALLY could have been done with the fact Nova never removes her bracelet. Like for example, someone sees Nightmare with the same bracelet during a fight. Also, Narcissa has a similar name to Nova. Maybe the Renegades found something with Nova's name but it was damaged and all they could make out was an 'N' and a letter that could be an 'o' or an 'a' beside it. Because them forgetting about Nightmares ability is dumb, have Narcissa show off a special ring or hard to see glove that has a toxin on it to knock people out. Nova going to prison seems pointless, because barely anything changes after she does. Mostly everyone trusts her, she gained no new information or allies, it's just there to show that it should be changed and pad out the pages. That's all I have to say for now. I actually thought the series was fine when I first read it but now.....ehhh. Having said this, I don't hate it. I have the series and will probably read it again in the future. It flows nicely and isn't among the worst books you could read.

I seem to be one of the few who feel betrayed by this book, and not in the good way. 《SPOILERS》 ° ▪ ☆ With a title like One Us is Lying, I expected to be lied to. The secrets that the main characters had I could tell pretty much as soon as they were hinted at that it wasn't related to the murder. Also 3/4ths of them were just covering up some form of cheating. Who cares? Kill someone and convince me, the reader, that you are innocent! Lie to me and don't admit the truth, not until the very end. I haven't read many mystery books, I'm very easy to deceive, so at least TRY. Next, About That. You know, the drama website that was only used in the beginning. You'd think that Simon would have wanted to release his suicide note on there, right? Or you know, ANYTHING. I can understand his not wanting the 'murderer' confessing to kill him on there, because its fake. Also the detail about his programming it himself was thrown in there but never used again. Bayview is also a gossipy place, but not even his sources (we still don't know who they are), go looking for the killer. Just the core 4 and those connected. Thirdly, the murder plan. I expected more. The thought out murder plan is like this- Someone put peanut oil in Simon's water and hid the epipens. Then someone said they murdered Simon online. The police would later find a bag of stolen epipens in Addy's locker. You'd think for someone who like drama, their plan would be a bit more extravagant Each of the characters had blackmail, so it could have been fun to see them 'dig their own grave' by complying with orders pretyped by Simon or sent by an associate. But nope, things are mentioned and never brought back up again. Also the murder somehow feels like the B or C plot and the kids figuring themselves out is the main storyline. These were just my thoughts, if you liked it I can see why, but the closer I look at it the more problems I see.