Introduction
One of Us is Next was published two and a half years after its predecessor, One of Us is Lying, on January 7th, 2020, by Delacorte Press publishing company. Karen M. McManus brought this series back with a bang with this installment. As mentioned in several previous reviews, I love McManus as an author, and her books never fail to hook me and draw me in more with every page turned. This book was no exception, and I cannot wait to review the third installment. As a reminder, if you haven’t read this book or its predecessor yet, I would stick to the Plot and Spoiler-Free Thoughts sections. For those who have read this book, the Thoughts section will be a bit more in-depth.
Apologies for the long wait between reviews, I have been busy studying for and recovering from this semester’s final exams, as well as gearing up for the holiday season. I do have some reviews ready to be written, and I hope to fall back into my regular post schedule soon. Thank you all for your patience and understanding!
If you’d like to keep up with Karen M. McManus, you can visit her website, https://www.karenmcmanus.com/, or follow her on social media @writerkmc.
Plot
Simon is gone, but his legacy lives on in the Bayview High rumor mill. When a game turns deadly, Maeve, Knox, and Phoebe need to unravel who is behind it before anyone else gets hurt.
Spoiler-Free Thoughts
I really enjoyed the development of side characters in this book. Maeve in particular was one we were very familiar with through Bronwyn, and Knox is the boy she did the play with at the end of One of Us is Lying, though we never officially met him in that book. Phoebe is an entirely new character, and while she initially seems to be the outlier, McManus ties her in nicely and naturally with the other characters. Each character gets a nice introduction (or reintroduction for Maeve), and in true McManus fashion, each of them was very well-developed right off the bat. I especially appreciated this with Maeve because we already knew of her through Bronwyn, but she is so much more than Bronwyn’s little sister.
The old characters were kept up with; Addy and Nate more so than Cooper and Bronwyn because they remained in Bayview. Some other old characters were reintroduced through new eyes, Luis being the most relevant, but there are a few other callbacks. Keeping that graduated class in the story also serves to have some people involved in the drama but not on the high school level. They have more resources this way, more perspectives, and the ideas from people who have - to some degree - dealt with this before.
Where the last book focused on how the rumor mill could be used and manipulated in a high school setting to ruin individual lives, this one focused on ruining relationships. The rumors spread and secrets spilled in this book were revealed to drive wedges between friends and family to cleave those bonds and drive others to revenge. It was an interesting and new avenue for this book to take that transitioned well from the first installment and didn’t stray too far from the formula that I loved so much in One of Us is Lying. Speaking of that formula, there was another completely unexpected plot twist at the end of this book that I would consider on par with the first, and one that both ties up most loose ends but leaves just enough open for the third and final book to continue with.
I did like the plot, and I like how it somewhat tied into Simon as far as people trying to parody what he did. For better or for worse, he made an impact at Bayview in revealing just how everyone would respond to the gossip mill, especially when rumors are spread anonymously. This book took that and added to it by making a game out of it. Much of this did seem more realistic, but in all honesty, the ending was nearing the line of being too melodramatic for my taste. I enjoyed this entire book, but the finale of this one was even more extreme than the last, and while it didn’t cross the line into unbelievable, it started to feel like an action as opposed to a mystery. That isn’t inherently a bad thing, and it was done well here, but something about it felt dissonant to me.
With the added development of old and new characters, the new relationships introduced, and overarching plot of the book, I have to rank this one a 9/10. Not quite as jaw-dropping as its predecessor, but still a solid installment.
Thoughts
I really liked getting to keep up with the characters from the last book because it both helped with continuity and reminded us that this is a continuation of the same series, only told through different eyes, and I liked getting to see the characters I got so attached to return so frequently. Luis was my favorite side character, and I loved his development. He was never nasty in the first book, but he readily admitted that while he was there for Cooper when it came down to the wire, he should have done the same for Addy. He is so much more mature here, and I appreciate that even though he is a side character. He has his own developed goals and aspirations. It helps to build the character and the world around the main characters in knowing that they are not the whole world here.
One relationship I was glad to see further developed was Bronwyn and Nate, but I was more focused on Maeve and Luis, given that this was more Maeve’s story. Maeve and Luis had a very sweet and easy banter that I enjoyed reading, and I like that it took the forefront as opposed to Bronwyn and Nate’s on-again-off-again relationship (though I was grateful to see that sorted by the end). Where Nate was concerned, I really liked his big-brother relationship with Maeve, and I thought it was very sweet how they teased one another back and forth.
Relationships as a whole played a huge role in this book because, as mentioned above, the Truth or Dare game wasn’t just about ruining lives in the same way About That was, it was about breaking bonds between people. Phoebe and her sister were ruined by Phoebe’s hook-up, Jules’ dare almost broke apart Nate and Bronwyn, and Maeve’s confession to Bronwyn nearly destroyed her friendship with Knox. In the case of Emma, Phoebe’s sister, the knowledge of what Phoebe did coupled with what she learned about her father’s death was enough to drive her to the revenge forum Simon frequented, one Maeve had kept track of in the previous book. Everything tied together so perfectly that - similar to One of Us is Lying - the little things begin to make so much more sense on a second (or third) read through. All of this goes without mentioning the brilliant plot twist at the end, one that was almost as jaw-dropping as the first.
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