"Some Things Never Change" - My Review Of Karen M. McManus' "One Of Us Is Back"

Author: Karen M. McManus

Full Title: One Of Us Is Back

Originally Published: July 27, 2023

Publisher: Penguin

eAudiobook, £27.99

Length: 10h, 13m

ISBN: 978-0-5934-8501-9

10/10

In my opinion, the Bayview Crre books have all been a 10/10. This is no different. My biggest problem with One Of Us Is Next was the ending. I love it, it was just the wait for the final book that I didn't like. But it was definitely worth it.

Warning: Heavy Spoiler Ahead for the Bayview Crew trilogy as well as mild spoilers for "Jurassic World: Dominion", "Lying In The Deep" by Diana Urban, and "Where The Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens. I would highly recommend watching/reading all of the above before continuing!

Out of the three narrators, Addy gets the most chapters and content. However, Nate is the standout even though he has the least chapters and content. Everything led back to him and he's the most interesting in this story out of him, Addy, and Phoebe. From the problems in his house to being incapacitated in the climax, his line "Some things never change. They never fucking change" is especially true for him. But that's a good thing. He stays consistent to his character in the first, rather than becoming a completely different person to the other installments.

At first I was wary about the choice of narrators but after finishing the book, I wouldn't have it any other way. Addy has the biggest connection to Jake, Owen's actions still affect Phoebe, and Nate is linked to almost everything. Cooper and Knox were largely unaffected by Gavin and Chelsea, and the Rojas sisters were researching everything. I didn't feel like it was bloated in terms of narrators, and it didn't feel like there was someone's perspective missing.

Out of all the characters in the series, Nate has always been the most likely to swear. But when he does, it still hits hard because it's usually reserved for big moments. Outside of that he swears rarely, if at all. This is part of the reason why I love Nate so much. He's always been consistent in his character, which is rare for most sequels. He's always been protective of the other members of the Bayview Crew and rarely lashes out. Another thing that's always been consistent is the fact that he's always incapacitated during the climax, something that he jokes about at the end.

Compelling antagonists have been hard thing to come by recently, especially twist ones. From a lot of the Marvel villains since Thanos being lacklustre, to Lewis Dodgson in "Jurassic World: Dominion" being just another corrupt millionaire, good villains are few and far between. This isn't just limited to movies, with Chase Andrews from "Where The Crawdads Sing" being portrayed as a villain with no redeeming qualities, similar to pre-Shakespearean villains. This isn't the case here, however. Gavin and Evie were Nate and Phoebe's nice co-workers for the first 30 or so chapters that seemed like older versions of Luis, someone you could trust no matter what. I was shocked when it turned out that they weren't who they appeared to be. With Jake Riordan's and Simon Kelleher's final flashbacks being timed perfectly.

From the first time that Alexander Alton's death was mentioned, it was talked about with suspicion. I thought that this would be one of McManus' signature red herrings, but it wasn't. When he was strangled, I wasn't shocked but when Jake killed him I was. It also didn't come as too much of a shock when he was revealed to be Jake's biological father. Chelsea Alton wasn't a suspect until not long before the reveal that she was Evie, and she was a much better antagonist because of it due to the fact that she was right under their noses the entire time and almost got away with it. The timing of Gavin's reveal felt like a bit of a cliché, but it still came as a shock.

The use of flashbacks from both Jake and Simon helped to humanise them initially, showing their friendship and why they did what they did but eventually made me hate them even more as they started to take it too far. It comes to a climax when Simon starts to enjoy spying on the Riordan family and Jake kills his biological father, Alexander Alton, to protect his stepfather. The flashbacks also serve to provide a motive for Chelsea Alton as she builds up to killing Jake. The timing of the flashbacks also took me out of the action just as something was revealed a lot of the time, heightening the suspense to make me want to read on even more than I already did.

The death of Reggie is reminiscent of Diana Urban's "Lying In The Deep", as well as the death of Jake Riordan. Coupled with the kidnapping of Phoebe, everything about Chelsea's plan seemed botched and/or a haphazard, spur of the moment decision. This made it kind of funny when she did an entire villain monologue about her elaborate, carefully constructed plan and how it all went wrong because of how unpredictable human nature is. It made me laugh and forget about the tied up murderer in front of them and Nate being unconscious again.

Overall, this book was amazing and Karen M. McManus nailed it once again. I would highly recommend this to anyone reading (although if you've gotten this far, you most likely have).