Book Review #123: One of Us is Back by Karen M. McManus

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Ever since Simon died in detention, everything has changed for the Bayview Crew. But when one of their own goes missing, it seems like a new game has begun. But this time, no one knows the rules.

I always start the year with Karen M. McManus's latest book. And while I love her writing, I've been more of a fan of her standalone novels lately, so I was a bit apprehensive to join the Bayview Crew for the third time.

But I shouldn't have worried, because this book was great!

Considering I read the first book maybe 4 years ago, it was really easy to slot back into the characters' lives.

At 30 pages in, I was already enjoying it a lot more than I enjoyed the second book, 'One of Us is Next', and ultimately I do believe this one was better than the second (though definitely not better than 'One of Us is Lying').

Usually, the use of multiple points of view in a book doesn't really work for me, but because I was already familiar with all of the characters, I really enjoyed it this time.

The book was so entertaining that I didn't really notice that there were a few stretches of time where not much was happening. It almost didn't matter because I enjoyed being with the characters so much regardless of the situation.

The writing does a good job of explaining what happened in the previous books without being boring, and saves you from having to re-read. Though I did find it helpful to have both of the previous books to hand so I could flick through them to remind myself of certain things. But I definitely didn't need to do that to enjoy the story.

McManus is a master of tension, and that is shown again here.

I found the reasoning behind the final reveal more convoluted than it needed to be. Too much was thrown in and the story probably would have been a bit more coherent without all the add-ons.

By the end I found myself wishing there were less characters so we could spend more time with them - especially the ones who were directly involved in the situation.

Whether this is a good or bad thing I don't know, but I liked the characters a lot more than the plot. Nate and Bronwyn in particular are characters that I fell in love with in the first book, and their development in this book only made me love them more.

Overall, this was an entertaining story. It wasn't the best thriller I've ever read, but I love the characters and would read a fourth book just to see where they go next.

3.5/5 stars


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