One Of Us Is Lying

Description

At Bayview High, Bronwyn, Simon, Nate, Cooper, and Addy attend detention with teacher Mr. Avery after he found mobile phones in each of their school bags, against the high school’s no-phone policy. However, each of the students claims that the phones are not theirs and that someone played a prank on them. They hear a collision in the school parking lot, and Mr. Avery leaves to investigate. Simon—creator of the ‘About That’ gossip app in which the personal lives of students at Bayview High are posted for the rest of the school to see—begins a speech about the stereotypical personalities of the other four students and how he, through his app, is the omniscient narrator. He drinks water from a plastic cup and suffers a fatal allergic reaction due to his peanut allergy. The others attempt to help, but it is too late and Simon dies in the hospital.

Initially, the incident is considered an accident, but after a Tumblr post claiming that Simon’s death was planned and the killer watched him die is shared, the police begin to investigate and find an unpublished post by Simon that features the secrets of the other four students. Each of the secrets would affect the student’s future: Bronwyn’s cheating on a test could impact her college applications; Nate’s repeated misdemeanor could send him to jail; Addy’s infidelity might end her relationship with Jake; and the accusation of steroid use could halt Cooper’s potential baseball career. The four are initially suspicious of one another but begin to grow closer due to their shared situation.