One of Us Is Next by Karen M. McManus Review: A Propulsive YA Thriller Sequel

Set one year after the events of One of Us Is Lying, the novel returns to Bayview High with a new central trio: Maeve Rojas, the younger sister of the first book's protagonist Bronwyn; Knox Myers; and Phoebe Lawton. The threat this time comes in the form of an anonymous texter who launches a game of truth or dare aimed at the student body — one that escalates quickly into fatal consequences. Karen M. McManus structures the novel as a multi-perspective thriller, rotating the first-person narration among the three leads, while also weaving in returning figures such as Eli Kleinfelter, the crusading lawyer from the original story. The result is a book that is designed to function as a standalone entry point into the Bayview world while also rewarding readers already familiar with its characters and mythology.

One of Us Is Lying, McManus's 2017 debut, spent roughly 100 weeks on the New York Times YA bestseller list and sold over 200,000 copies in the UK alone, according to The Guardian's reception summary — a commercial footprint that made a sequel both inevitable and high-stakes. With One of Us Is Next, McManus chose not to simply retread the original's formula. Rather than following the same protagonists, she shifted the lens to a new generation of Bayview students while keeping the school's toxic social ecosystem — and its digital undercurrents — firmly intact. Critics Empire, writing in January 2020, headlined her piece "a thrilling sequel," noting that McManus had returned to Bayview after a detour in 2018's Two Can Keep a Secret. The book also forms the basis for the eight-episode second season of the Peacock teen drama One of Us Is Lying, released in October 2021, further cementing the series' crossover cultural footprint.

McManus's principal strength in this installment lies in her plotting. Critics observed that McManus "keeps the juicy subplots ticking over and drip-feeds reveals as clinically as an IV tube" — a description that captures the novel's most distinctive quality: its relentless forward momentum. The truth-or-dare mechanic is a smartly designed escalation device, raising the stakes with each chapter while giving McManus room to develop her ensemble cast in parallel. The novel was listed as a New York Times bestseller — a designation backed by its predecessor's extraordinary commercial track record — and received positive notices from Kirkus Reviews and Common Sense Media in addition to The Guardian.

The most substantive critique to emerge from published reviews concerns the novel's narration. Critics noted that although both books deploy a revolving cast of first-person narrators, "everyone's interior monologue sounds the same" — a structural issue that flattens character distinction even as the plot races forward. Empire qualified this as "a small gripe," but for readers who value richly differentiated voice work, the uniformity across perspectives is a real limitation. Some readers who came expecting the specific character dynamics and emotional depth of Bronwyn, Addy, Nate, and Cooper from the first book may also need an adjustment period before fully investing in the new trio, though the returning cast does provide continuity.

One of Us Is Next is designed for readers aged 14 and up, with a target grade range of 9–12, and fits squarely into the YA mystery thriller tradition that McManus helped revitalize with the original novel. Fans of the first book who want more of Bayview's darkly competitive social world will find familiar pleasures here, amplified by a new central game mechanic that raises the danger quotient. Readers new to the series can engage with this volume, though some of the emotional resonance of the returning characters is best appreciated with the original as context. Those who watched the Peacock adaptation of season two will find the source material both recognizable and, in the way of most adaptations, somewhat different in its specific texture and pacing.