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

Being a continuation from the first book, 'One of Us is Lying' it features a lot of the same characters. They don't have as central a focus as they did in the first one, as this book is basically about the next generation. We are once again introduced to Maeve, Bronwyn's little sister, who is now almost the age her sister was when everything started previously. We can already see that Maeve, although she likes the friends that her sister left behind when going to college, she wants other people of her own. She wants people that she made friends with because of herself, and not ones that she made because of her sister, no matter how much she actually likes them.

It was really interesting seeing everything that happened from outside perspectives, especially from Phoebe and Knox. They weren't involved at all in the first book, but seeing them being a part of this one, and talking about everything that happened makes what happened throughout the first book seem more real. There was also the mention of people trying to copy what Simon did, although to less extreme scales. The only one that lasted more than a few days was eventually forcefully shut down by the school. However, as they get used to these copycats, thinking it distasteful, someone decides to raise the stakes and actually restart Simon's work properly. First sending a message to Phoebe, who we know did something during a party and feels terribly guilty about it, which she of course ignores as no one would think otherwise, especially with how many other people had tried to do the same thing without succeeding.

As the story progresses, the levels that the person giving the truth or dare game increase. Instead of being a small thing like putting a toy chicken head on the top of a building, the dares become more deadly. Everyone has secrets, and no one wants those secrets revealed which is why they are always picking dare instead.

I should say that it is crazy how many people have secrets that they don't want to be revealed. It is a given that the people around us have a lot of secrets that they won't tell us, but the amount these people have, and the severity of them is insane. It is hard to imagine, even with the amble secrets that everyone has, that they would even be this big, or despair-inducing.

It was really great how Karen was able to separate herself from her characters, the ones from the last book, and look at them from an outside perspective, and look at their flaws as if she were the other character. It was something that I noticed straight away, and something that made this book feel more real.

The final sequence felt underwhelming at first. It was over too quickly and we didn't really know much about what had happened. However, as more and more was revealed we were given shock after shock. The first person being involved wasn't much of a shock. In the previous book, we had seen another person who was showing the same symptoms and both their roles turned out to be very similar in the end. Not the same, but there were a lot of similarities between their situations.

This book felt like a different book. One thing that can happen when you're writing about different characters while also including the previous ones is that you start to fall into those same habits and it makes the book feel the same and more boring. This didn't happen once, however, which is a massive testament to Karen, who did an amazing job making sure that she didn't fall into the trap that a lot of authors accidentally fall into.

Every character felt real, and none of them had lacking characteristics which was really nice. It is always hard to fully flesh out a character when they only have one-third of the book at their disposal. To achieve this she really utilised the others' perspectives to add more to the ones whose heads we weren't inside.

And the ending. Wow!

I didn't have a clue about that. I thought that they didn't have any involvement, but I should have guessed it earlier. Karen left a lot of clues, that at the time didn't seem really important, but looking back now I can see that they really were. Like in her first book, she left a lot of clues about who the person/people could be, and we had to piece together which one made the most sense if we wanted any information beforehand.

It wasn't even something I had taken into consideration, so when she revealed it, using one singular word, I instantly knew who it was and I felt extremely shocked.

This was an amazing book and I would definitely recommend it. I was apprehensive about reading it because I don't like reading books where the main characters/character are no longer the main characters/characters. This, however, made up for that as it gave me everything I could have wanted and more.

Loved it!

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

author: Karen M. McManus