One of Us is Next – Book Review

17 January 2022

One of Us is Next, is the sequel to One of Us is Lying. This follows the next generation at Bayview and them coping with copycats of Simon’s blog and the aftermath of everything he did.

I will say the book was a bit slow in the beginning. It really took me a while to really get into it. I feel like the book only really got good in the last 120 pages. That is probably why this book gets a lower rating from me compared to the first book that got five-star rating.

I will say, the ending is amazing. I mean all the plot twists in the end. Like it makes me feel terrible for taking so long to enjoy the book but there was only real plot towards the end.

I think one of the main reasons it took me so long to read this book is because I didn’t really feel much of a connection to the new characters. I felt in the first 200 pages, I was just reading to hear the little information we got about the previous four in the first book.
One of the most realistic things in this book is that teenagers would rather risk dying than go without their phones for a couple of hours. I thought that was hilarious and something I could see my peers doing.

This story is told from three perspectives. Phoebe, Knox and Maeve.

Phoebe is new to this book series. Phoebe was my favourite character in this book. I will say it took me a while to warm up to this character. It did take me a while to warm up to all the character’s in this book though. She had the most character development out of all of them. At the beginning of the book, I didn’t really have that much sympathy for her but by the end of the book, I just wanted to give this girl a hug.

Knox, there isn’t much to say about Knox. He is just your average teenage boy. I will say you can’t help but feel sorry for him and root for him. The poor boy just couldn’t catch a break. The whole school gossiped about him which leads to him having to quit his play. Not to mention the way, his parents treated him throughout the whole book. So yeah, it was a bit depressing to read from Knox’s point of view. I also can’t remember if Knox was mentioned in the first book, if he was it wasn’t memorable enough for me to remember it. 

Maeve, was Bronwyn’s little sister in the first book. She tries her best to get to the bottom of who started the Truth or Dare game. She also goes through a cancer recurrence scare and tries to juggle her feelings for Luis, who is also mentioned in the first book! I didn’t really like Maeve in the first book, however, in this one, she was written a lot better and more likeable.

Maeve and Knox’s truth honestly had me laughing for a solid hour. I know it was just Maeve’s secret but I think Knox can be included in it. That was the highlight of the book for me. I think because there was a lot of suspense around Maeve. With her cancer scare and everything and all the build-up. Not to mention after Phoebe’s secret I thought the truths would just get worse. When it was revealed it was almost a relief and a very funny moment in the book. Don’t get me wrong I feel so sorry for Knox because he got the short end of that stick but wow did it make me laugh at myself for stressing so much.

Once I got into this book it was amazing. I would definitely recommend it.