One of the four students in detention, Cooper, was in the closet. The book discussed important everyday topics most teenagers can relate to. Toward the end of the book, they become a couple. When Nate got arrested for probable cause, Bronwyn found a pro bono lawyer to fight for Nate to get him out of custody. Nate gave Bronwyn a burner phone so they could talk and plan times to secretly meet up. With their lawyer’s guidance, the four students weren’t supposed to interact, text or hang out with each other. As time went on, she began to enjoy Nate and their characters began to get closer. Nate offers Bronwyn a ride home on his motorcycle, which she reluctantly accepts, after detention on the day Simon died. His mom left and he makes money by selling drugs. Nate comes from a family where his dad struggles with substance abuse. Two of the characters who were in detention, Bronwyn and Nate, are the complete opposite of each other.īronwyn has amazing grades, is involved in many extraccuriculars and applied to Ivy League schools. One of my favorite parts about this book is how deep the character development is. The school administration wasn’t doing anything about the app though, and that just isn’t realistic in the real world. Simon created the “About That” app, which had information about who cheated with who, when someone was in the closet and other secrets people didn’t want their peers to know.Īlthough the book did mention Bayview’s principal is a big advocate for free speech, most schools would try to get an app like that shut down because it’s a severe distraction to the learning environment. One aspect I didn’t like about this book is how some parts were unrealistic. The rest of the book was from the perspective of the four students as the homicide investigation happened.

There were four other students in the room at the time of the incident making them the main suspects of Simon’s death. The paramedics took him to the hospital, but he didn’t survive. His epi pen wasn’t in his backpack and there weren’t any at the nurse’s office. As he drank it, Simon went into anaphylactic shock from a peanut allergy. One of the students, Simon, got a cup of water from the back of the room. The book started with five students in detention at Bayview High School. “One of Us is Lying” kept me engaged from the first chapter to the very end and I cared about the characters. They either have too much action and not enough character development, making it so that I don’t care about the characters, or the other way around.

I often struggle to find books I truly enjoy. Warning! This review contains spoilers about “One of Us is Lying.”

One of us is lying book spine