** spoiler alert ** 
 "She's a princess and you're a jock," he says. He thrusts his chin toward Bronwyn, then at Nate. "And you're a brain. And you're a criminal. You're all walking teen-movie stereotypes." 
 "What about you?" Bronwyn asks (...) 
 "I'm the omniscient narrator," Simon says. 
 Bronwyn's brows rise above her black frames. "There's no such thing in teen movies." 
 "Ah, but Bronwyn." Simon winks and chugs his water in one long gulp. "There is such a thing in life." 
 And shortly after that exchange everything goes to hell for our main characters. Simon (the basket case in this Breakfast Club scenario) goes into anaphylactic shock and dies in detention in front of the rest of our characters: Bronwyn (the brain), Nate (the criminal), Cooper (the jock), and Addy (the princess). We are left with the mystery of who killed Simon and why. All of our suspects have secrets that would be monumentally damaging to their lives and since Simon runs the school gossip blog and is planning on exposing these secrets, all of them have ample motive to want him dead. 
 As evidenced by the aforementioned descriptions One of Us Is Lying can best be described as The Breakfast Club but with murder. I'm not even being facetious or sarcastic about that. It's actually such a cool concept to work with. While this book has a distinctive YA quality to it, the characters were so much more than the stereotypes they represent. Yes, the characters are teens and they feel like teens when you're reading their perspectives but they also have this timeless quality to them. By that I mean the characters are relatable in an extremely unrelatable circumstance. Their problems are complex enough that, as an adult, I didn't find them trivial in the least. Sadly, many teen characters make me give the full Lucille Bluth martini sipping side eye. These characters were all so fully realized that I was able to empathize with them and I was fully invested in their development. All of the characters show significant growth at the end of the novel and I loved seeing their transformations. 
 Karen McManus was able to weave a real twisty mystery. I honestly did not expect the big reveal of the true killer's identity. DID I MENTION HOW INCREDIBLY RARE IT IS THAT I CAN'T PEG THE KILLER IMMEDIATELY IN A MYSTERY!? But once everything came to light it was brilliant! Everything was even more twisted than I anticipated! I can't even express how excited I was to be surprised by the killer. If I had to get picky about One of Us Is Lying I would say the one thing I wanted the story to have more of was the detective work involved in solving the case. So much of the story was about the character's personal struggles and growth and not as much effort was put into the kids playing detective and trying to solve the murder on their own. Don't get me wrong, the kids do work together and try to make sense of their predicament. But I just think perhaps a bit more of the focus could have been toward the detective aspect alongside their personal lives and character development. 
 As well as being a great mystery, One of Us Is Lying is also a great character study. It's a story that kept me guessing and at the same time really rooting for the characters to succeed. I know I mentioned wanting more detective action but I still loved this book as it is. I just think I probably would have read it faster if it was a bit more action driven. In the end, I feel like everything was resolved in a way where it felt complete but still imperfect. It's not a huge hugs and rainbows finale where everyone is completely blissful. It's still a little messy and the characters still have a lot of growing to do. However, I feel like they are all on the right track and I feel like I may still think about them from time to time and wonder about what happened to them next. That lingering feeling of connection to fictional characters is what makes a book exceptional for me.