WARNING: REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS In the third chapter of the Bayview Crew, all our favorite beloved characters return just in time for a new game to begin. It all begins with a mysterious billboard message and the return of a familiar face to shake things up in Bayview once again, with the promise of more secrets to be revealed and more deadly rules that the Crew must learn in time to try to put a stop to the increasingly fatal plot. OVERVIEWIt’s my first blog post of 2024! And what better way to commemorate that than by reviewing a book that I read several months ago? Yes, yes, this review has been sitting in the vault for a bit. But I still wanted to share my thoughts on this book since it was a pretty big deal for me over the summer, being a very big fan of this author. I can not tell you how excited I was once I heard there was going to be a third book in this series. I have been an enormous fan of all of this author’s books since the first one, and to see a third installment in the One Of Us story that started it all made me giddy with book-joy. This was yet another fun teen mystery story that hooked me with the likeability of the characters and the interesting setting. I have always thought that McManus’ books succeed because of these two components specifically, and while this book didn’t necessarily focus on setting as much, and the characters are all ones we know already, the strength from the previous stories carries over. Bayview in these books is a cool, creepy little town that feels like the perfect place to set a mystery involving young people who feel even more trapped because they often can’t get any help from the adults around them. Honestly, Bayview feels a bit like Derry in It in that way. Aside from a spare few, all the adults either seem brainwashed, or like they might be in on it all. Overall, it was nice to see the original Bayview four as semi-functioning adults themselves now and teaming up with the younger generation we got to know in One of Us is Next. I am a fan of epic crossovers, so this was all I ever wanted as far as I’m concerned. As usually, there will be casual and big spoilers throughout this review, so be warned. CHARACTERSI was extremely satisfied with the WTF ending of the second book, even more so because nothing was even close to being resolved with it. I liked the bizarre horror of Phoebe and her sister finding that their seemingly innocent little brother had a huge yet unintentional part in their classmate being killed and their friends almost being blown up. There was this daunting question if things were really going to turn out ok, which you certainly got the idea that they weren’t going to be. And this continuation confirmed that. Though I liked the ambiguity of the second book, it is very nice to pick up where we left off and see how keeping this secret has affected Phoebe. We get to see how the guilt of protecting her brother is weighing on her relationships with the others in the group, and her questioning of whether hiding her brother’s secret was really for the best, now that it seems he might be heading down a dangerously dark path. This makes her a great character to focus on throughout the story, since a lot of the tension comes from her carrying this secret and wondering if perhaps her brother is involved in the disappearances that start happening. We also get to go back to Addy and Nate as our other two main POV characters, which was a great choice. They are the ones who have still remained in Bayview after graduation, and with the gap of the second book, we get to see a significant change in both of them. Nate feels like he has matured a lot and isn’t doing his mopey teen angst thing anymore, which is great, and Addy is a take-charge badass now, which is a satisfying development from way back when she felt like she had to do everything anyone else told her. I absolutely loved getting to read from their points of view again and see how differently they handle the new threat in this novel. I adore all of the characters in these books, so it’s too bad we don’t get as in-depth with characters like Cooper or Bronwyn, but Addy and Nate are the ones who had the need for the greatest character development, so they were definitely the right choices to be the main focus, as well as Phoebe because of the secret she is carrying. Though each of the other characters get a fair amount of time to shine, one I felt was lacking was Knox. He was a great character in the second book, and I adore his relationship with Phoebe. But here, it really felt like he had very little to do or say, and I honestly forgot he was even in the book a lot of the time. It felt like even Luis, who has always been a side character, had more to do than him. I wish Knox had maybe a bit more in this story, perhaps a bit more sleuthing with Phoebe or something, especially since this is the last book. But at least their relationship is touched upon and they do have at least one meaningful conversation towards the middle of the book that was nice to see, but again, could have been expanded upon a bit regarding Phoebe’s guilt and Knox’s hurt over her keeping things from him causing a rift in their relationship. Lastly, I like the addition of Vanessa’s character. It was nice to see a minor villain from the first book get some redemption and join in the crew to help solve the new mystery. I liked that her interactions were mostly with Nate as well, seeing as no one else in the group probably would have wanted to give her the time of day. But Nate always seems to have a soft spot for everyone (though he would never admit it). MYSTERYRight from the start, I liked the direction the mystery went this time around. Once Phoebe is the first person to go missing pretty early on in the story, we get the feeling that things are going to be deadly at every turn, and that no one is safe. Not only is someone from the Bayview Crew the first victim, but it is one of the main narrators. I thought that was a great way to show how unpredictable this was going to be, and I genuinely didn’t know what to expect from the rest of the story. Once Phoebe is recovered safe and sound and the next victim goes missing, only to be found dead, I was honestly starting to get sort of a Saw vibe, which was very fun. Obviously there are no gory and glorious death traps or anything, but with the continuous mentions of a “new game” and “rules”, coupled with the random abductions and finding a victim dead in a locker room surrounded by their own blood, I was sort of questioning if we had a Jigsaw equivalent killer on our hands in this one. Because of course, the perpetrator behind everything in these books is out for revenge against dishonest and morally corrupt people. So… interesting connection. Overall, I did like the development of the mystery a lot. I genuinely had no idea who to suspect, or what the big secret was this time. But to be fair and transparent, I have never been great at figuring out mysteries. So me being surprised by an ending is not exactly an uncommon occurrence in everyday life. I’m just a wide eyed, innocent little reader/viewer who is usually too busy focusing on the wrong things to catch any clues as to what’s actually going on. But in all seriousness, I did really like how this all played out, especially with the addition of the multiple flashbacks bringing us years back, to Simon and Jake’s point of views. I thought this was a really fun element to bring in, since we can get a little sneak preview into Simon and Jake’s heads and get some more interesting context to not only the events in this book, but the events in the first book as well and why this all started in the first place. Yes. Jake is back. I was floored. I really didn’t know what to expect this time around. Is his supposed turn to the light side all a farce? Is he behind everything again? Is he a complete red herring and not involved in any way at all? The answer of course ended up being a combination of all three, which was probably the best way to go since he had to be really at the center of all of this in order to justify bringing him back into the story, but at the same time it wouldn’t have been as exciting if he was the big bad villain all over again. ENDINGI found myself a bit torn when I first got through the ending of this and saw how much they were sympathizing with who turned out to be the villain. It felt a bit odd with everything she had done (literally planning to and succeeding with murdering someone). But what was interesting is there was also some sympathy for Jake from Addy’s perspective. I realized it sort of humanized all of these villains a bit, especially with wondering if things could have been different for all of them if they had simply been raised differently. It made them feel a bit more real when putting the question out there of how such horrible people come to be, and that the answer is not just because they were born a bad seed. I liked that all of this is from Addy’s head, showing how she can finally get some closure and begin to move on with no malice in her heart, proving she will not go down the same path of revenge and destruction after being wronged. And even more proof of this is the fact that there is no stinger or secret reveal at the end that hints at the suggestion for the story to go on because of some unresolved, overlooked loose string that is still threatening the characters. It is simply Addy moving on. In fact, I think this is the only Karen McManus book without a stinger at the end, which signified to me that this is the firm conclusion of this story and these characters. It is really nice to see Phoebe’s family come to a happy conclusion after all the tension from both her sister and brother having been involved in the crimes in the previous book. It’s satisfying that they get to all come together and agree to work past everything (for real this time). It is equally satisfying to get a happy ending for Addy’s family as well. Addy’s mother seemed a bit of a lost cause in the first book, so it is nice to get to see her and her daughter connect and have a serious conversation about the past, about Jake in particular and the unhealthy pressures she put onto Addy throughout her life. I wasn’t expecting that and it was definitely a pleasant surprise. And finally, the confirmation that Nate and Bronwyn are indeed going to be a forever couple, is magnificent. They really are sort of the characters that started it all, and they are the ones we care about the most, so it is beyond lovely to see that they have moved past the angsty stage of their relationship and feel like they are ready to move into the next phase, as adults. Hopeless romantic that I am, that was the greatest ending I could have asked for. FINAL THOUGHTSI have such a guilty pleasure for any teen mystery/thrillers, and this series started that obsession for me. They may not be ground-breaking storylines or the most genius twists and turns, but they are filled with likable and comforting characters, atmospheric settings, lovely romances, and of course, that jaw-dropping teen drama mixed in with a dash of murder.
I am obsessed with epic finales, and bringing all these characters together for the conclusion of this trilogy was super exciting to see, with all of their contrasting personalities and the different things they bring to the story. I think this author does a brilliant job with balancing different points of views and keeping the characters’ different voices consistent (something I as a writer struggle severely with). And I have always liked how her books know exactly what they are: they are just serious enough, but there is always a firm undertone of that fun, dramatic, teen craziness. This book showed great development for my favorite characters and gave a very satisfying conclusion to many things that were previously left up in the air in the other books. We even got some nice closure with Jake’s character and some extra Simon content that added to his scheming personality, which I absolutely loved. Overall, a very fitting and fun conclusion to this series. I will be waiting anxiously for the next Karen McManus book to come out. And the next, and the next, and the next.
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June 2024
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