What Happened in One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus - Recaptains

The basics

Title: One of Us Is Lying

Author: Karen M. McManus

Series: One of Us Is Lying #1

- One of Us Is Lying (2017)
- One of Us Is Next (2019)

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Goodreads Summary:

Pay close attention and you might solve this.

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose? Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

Here is a spoiler summary of what happened in One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus to help refresh your memory in time for the sequel, One of Us Is Next, coming in January 2019!

what happened in One of Us Is Lying?

• Bronwyn, Addy, Cooper, Nate, and Simon are all in detention together for having their cell phones in their bags. They all say that those weren’t their phones, but Mr Avery is having none of it.
• There’s an accident in the car park which draws everyone’s attention.

• Simon pours himself a drink, and then seems to have an allergic reaction. He isn’t carrying his ep-pen, so he dies.
• The autopsy results show that Simon ingested peanut oil. It was common knowledge that he was allergic to peanuts. The cops start investigating, and the four remaining students are suspects and are questioned about the incident.
• The police reveal that Simon wrote up some posts about each student on his gossip website, About That. It’s revealed through these posts that Bronwyn stole tests, Nate deals drugs, Cooper is on steroids, and Addie cheated on her boyfriend. Cooper is the only one who disputes the rumor about him.  For some reason, Simon didn’t post about Cooper’s real secret.
• Someone creates a new blog called About This and posts the rumors from About That.
• The main four are called into Principal Gupta’s office. Gupta asks them what is going on with the new blog and the now published rumors. The teens all keep quiet.
• Bronwyn and Maeve go to the library. Maeve hacks into Simon’s app and finds a file in the blog queue. She looks up Simon’s username and finds some posts written by him online.
• Addy’s friends all disown her after they find out about her cheating. Addy becomes friends with Janae, who was Simon’s only friend.
• Bronwyn discovers that Simon was on several forums that were pro-gun violence.
• The media catches on to what’s happening in the school and starts calling the group “the Bayview Four”. The media attention causes Cooper to break up with Keely.
• The cops find a rude comment on the About That blog which seems to have been written by Bronwyn. The comment tells Simon to die.
• Cooper goes to see his secret boyfriend, Kris.
• Nate and Bronwyn get together.
• Bronwyn tells Addy that she doesn’t trust Janae. Addy doesn’t agree.
• The cops unencrypt the About That post, which is about Cooper and his boyfriend. They call Cooper in and tell him he’s a person of interest. Cooper is forced to tell his parents about Kris, and shortly after the whole school finds out.
• Bronwyn is super turned on when Nate stands up for Cooper.
• Nate is arrested when the school finds the nurse’s missing epi-pens in his locker. Bronwyn helps Nate’s mother find a lawyer for him.
• The group start to look through the About This website, and Addy notices a small detail relating to something she said to Jake a while back.
• Cooper finds out that the accident in the car park involved a car owned by Sam Barron, a student from another school.
• Bronwyn speaks to Sam, who tells her that someone at Bayview paid him a tonne of money to fake an accident in the car park. That someone was Simon.
• Kris suggests that Simon killed himself.
• Addy goes to see Janae, who has a lot of information on how Simon planned to shake up the school. He hated being rejected by the popular kids at school, which is why he was planning on killing himself and framing Cooper, Bronwyn, and Nate.
• Jake is also involved, and he’s the one that planned to frame Addy.
• Janae admits to putting the epi-pens in Nate’s locker.

How did One of Us Is Lying end?

• Jake arrives at Janae’s house, and Addy records his and Janae’s conversation. Her phone goes off in the middle of it and Jake chases her into the woods. He tries to kill her but Cooper rescues her.
• Jake is arrested and charged. Addy moves in with her sister to get away from her mother. Nate tells Bronwyn they’re too different and they split up.
• There’s a three month time jump. Bronwyn is playing in a concert in San Diego. Nate arrives and apologises for his actions. They plan to see a movie together.

That’s what happened in One of Us Is Lying! Who’s looking forward to the sequel? We personally can’t wait to get our hands on it in January. Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!

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Watch our review of One of Us is Next here!

Other recaps for this series:

• One of Us Is Next (One of Us Is Lying #2)