Reading: ONE OF US IS LYING - Karen M. McManus

Entertainment Weekly's description of "Pretty Little Liars meets The Breakfast Club" was enough to get my attention and start reading this YA mystery-drama in which five high school seniors - Bronwyn (the smart girl), Cooper (the athlete), Addy (the looker), Nate (the bad boy), and Simon (the geek) all find themselves in afternoon detention for having been caught with cell phones on their persons (though each of them denies the phone was his/hers). One hour later, one of the five is dead - and suspicion falls to the other four, their lives forever changed, as author McManus spends the rest of the novel casting suspicion in various directions and peeling away the layers of secrets and lies each of the four suspects hides behind. Sometimes the suspense feels like too slow a build, the novel in need of tighter editing, but overall things stay intriguing as the four suspects at first fight the accusations on their own but then band together to try and solve the crime - even as they don't absolutely trust each other. Things pick up though, building nicely to the big reveal, but when that came, while it was still a surprise the solution did feel a bit of a "cheat" to this lifelong mystery fiction reader - though didn't by any means ruin the book for me, as the tension built nicely with a few surprises, and the ending made sense considering the characters and their motivations. Beyond that, McManus even wraps things up nicely in the aftermath of the truth, her characters experiencing growth after of all they've endured. Hard to say too much without giving away spoilers, but for sure worth a read, big-time, if a bit over-hyped overall.  4/5 stars