Books Like One of Us Is Lying
by Karen M. McManus
One of Us Is Lying is built around a simple, ruthless conceit: four teens walk into detention, one walks out dead, and the remaining quartet are all prime suspects. Karen M. McManus stages her plot like a courtroom in miniature — red herrings, social-media reputations, and shifting alliances — while alternating perspectives let readers watch how secrets and lies reshape each character's public image and private motives.
Readers come to this book for different engines: the locked-room urgency of a closed circle with a single death; the modern teen-social ecosystem (text threads, gossip, class hierarchies); or the pull of procedural unraveling led by young investigators. Some readers are hunting for twist mechanics and unreliable narration, others want emotional reckonings and character-driven reveals. The picks below are organized to match those specific attractions so you can choose whether you want another tightly wound school mystery, a noir-tinged revenge narrative, or a procedural where teens do the sleuthing.
Recommended for fans of One of Us Is Lying
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
Holly Jackson
Teen sleuth unravels a small-town murder with twists and true-crime vibes.
Pick this if you want a methodical teen investigator who treats a local murder like a true-crime case, with layered twists and public-facing research.
We Were Liars
E. Lockhart
Unreliable narration, elite teen circle, and a shocking twist-driven mystery.
Pick this if you were most drawn to the elite clique dynamics and a narratively unreliable perspective that upends everything at the end.
Two Can Keep a Secret
Karen M. McManus
Same author's tense, high-school-centered thriller about secrets and serial danger.
Pick this if you want another Karen M. McManus book with the same structural bones: small-town/high-school secrets, alternating perspectives, and tightly timed reveals.
Truly Devious
Maureen Johnson
Boarding-school mystery with puzzles, cold cases, and a clever teen protagonist.
Pick this if you liked puzzle-solving and atmospheric settings (closed institutions with legacy secrets) — pick this for elaborately staged cold cases and clue-driven plotting.
Sadie
Courtney Summers
Dark, emotionally raw hunt for truth driven by a vengeful teen narrator.
Pick this if you want something darker and rawer: a revenge-fueled hunt where grief and emotional obsession steer the investigation rather than procedural technique.
The Cheerleaders
Kara Thomas
Small-town tragedy, female friendships, and escalating secrets and revelations.
Pick this if your main interest was how a community reacts to repeated trauma and secrets; this centers female friendships and escalating town-wide revelations similar to McManus’s focus on reputation.
All the Missing Girls
Megan Miranda
Nonlinear timeline, eerie atmosphere, and disappearances that slowly reveal the truth.
Pick this if you enjoyed structural tricks with time and revelation. This one uses a nonlinear timeline and slow-burn reveals to generate unease; it's a good fit if you liked being kept off-balance.
The Naturals
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Profiled teens solve murders; procedural pace with teen dynamics and danger.
Pick this if you appreciated sharp banter and lighter romantic tension alongside danger — this is more playful and romantic while still offering twists, so it's a mood match more than a procedural one.
The Last Time I Lied
Riley Sager
Twisty adult thriller set around a summer camp disappearance and buried secrets.
Pick this if you liked the idea of teens trained or selected to solve crimes; choose this for a procedural team dynamic and profiling elements among young characters.
At a glance
Selections were chosen for how they echo this book’s core mechanics: a confined suspect pool, teen-led investigation, twist-driven plotting, and the role of reputation and social media. Match scores reflect which of those dimensions each book shares most strongly.
| Book | First published | Pages | Closest match on | Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder Holly Jackson | 2019 | 431 | Teen sleuthing procedural | 92% |
We Were Liars E. Lockhart | 2014 | 240 | Unreliable narration & twists | 90% |
Two Can Keep a Secret Karen M. McManus | 2019 | 332 | Same-author tension | 88% |
Truly Devious Maureen Johnson | 2018 | 432 | Boarding-school puzzles | 85% |
Sadie Courtney Summers | 2018 | 322 | Emotion-driven vengeance | 83% |
The Cheerleaders Kara Thomas | 2018 | 384 | Small-town tragedy focus | 82% |
All the Missing Girls Megan Miranda | 2016 | 400 | Nonlinear mystery tempo | 81% |
The Naturals Jennifer Lynn Barnes | 2013 | 290 | Ensemble wit & romance | 80% |
The Last Time I Lied Riley Sager | 2018 | 384 | Teens as profiled solvers | 78% |
About One of Us Is Lying
One of Us Is Lying debuted to strong YA bestseller attention and helped popularize contemporary ‘high school as crime scene’ mysteries in the late 2010s. Karen M. McManus has since written several standalone thrillers and YA mysteries that reuse similar structural devices: multiple viewpoints, secret-laden ensembles, and plot twists that hinge on social perception.
Frequently asked questions
What should I read after One of Us Is Lying?+
If you want more from the same author, try Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus for a similarly taut high-school/ small-town thriller. If you prefer a procedural teen investigator with twist-heavy plotting, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is the closest tonal next step.
Are these books all YA?+
Most picks here are YA or YA-adjacent and center teenage protagonists facing violent or mysterious circumstances. A few skew older in tone but are included because they mirror the twist mechanics or closed-circle plotting you liked in One of Us Is Lying.
Which book has the strongest teen detective vibe?+
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder gives you a determined teen sleuth running an investigation with true-crime apparatus and public-facing research — the most procedural, investigative match on the list.
I loved the unreliable narration and twist — which choice focuses on that?+
We Were Liars emphasizes unreliable narration and a reputation-driven elite circle, making it the best pick if you primarily want an unsettling twist revealed through subjective perspective.
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