9 Books for Teens Who Like One of Us Is Lying

This book is FANTASTIC — and the audiobook is even better (a top-class full cast audiobook that feels like a movie). When the principal of the Urban Promise Prep school is murdered in his office, three boys are high on the suspect list: J.B., Trey, and Ramon. They were either in the wrong place or have the wrong reputation or affiliation. Now they must join forces, along with their loved ones to find the real killer. I’d hand this to readers in grades 8 and up.

Emily Walters and 11 other contestants have been selected to compete abroad in a contest that could earn them a full college scholarship. But once they’re aboard the private jet taking them to Europe, it’s clear that Emily and the other contestants all have deep, dark secrets, and someone aboard is willing to do anything just to win — even killing the other contestants. Before the flight lands, they must find the culprit before someone else dies. This is the perfect escape room mystery thriller with flawed characters that feel like real teens. Grades 8+.

When two sisters camp in the woods for their class sleepover and only one comes out alive with no memory of what happened to her sister, all eyes are on her. It doesn’t help that her friends are suddenly acting weird toward her and no one seems trustworthy. As law enforcement investigates and the surviving sister digs through her memories for the truth, the reveal is shocking. I absolutely couldn’t put this one down, even though I suspected the ending. Still such a fun ride. No language or sexual content. Grades 7+

Cadence Sinclair Easton is back on her family’s island after a traumatic incident some years before. The only problem is that she can’t remember what happened, and no one seems to want to tell her. As readers follow Cadence, we’ll see her piece together the shocking events of that summer when class, youthful impulse, and family disagreements changed four lives forever. I found this mystery intriguing and poignant. I think teens will eat it up. Good for grades 8+

Rich kid Alice Ogilvie and her new tutor Iris Adams are forced to work together when one of Alice’s former besties (who stole her boyfriend) is found murdered with Alice’s ex-boyfriend as the prime suspect. As the two girls collaborate in this funny, cozy mystery, they end up finding a warm friendship with each other — and the shocking culprit. Good for grades 7+

This YA mystery by Ashley Elston was SO GOOD! Five private school teen boys go target shooting and one of them ends up dead, shot by his own gun with the fingerprints of all four friends on the gun and all the boys claiming they don’t know what happened. The story is told from two perspectives: that of the killer and that of a schoolmate in the public school they transfer to, who happened to be regularly texting the boy who was killed. The girl, Kate, also works at the DA’s office, where her mom works, and she helps the DA with his investigation since he has very poor eyesight. As things progress, nothing is as it seems both with Kate and with the boys in question and Kate gets more involved as the stakes get higher to find the killer. This was so much fun and really engaging on audio. There is one instance of F-word usage, but otherwise, this is pretty clean content-wise, and I would be fine handing it to a mature 7th-grader or an 8th-grader.

This is a deeply unsettling story about the murder of a high school queen bee. Just weeks after new girl Dawn joins the high school cheerleading team, the queen bee, Ella is murdered at a school party, leaving Dawn, the other two minions of the queen bee and her boyfriend as the main suspects. Told in alternating timelines from Dawn’s perspective and that of Hannah’s, a girl bullied by Ella and her minions in the past, as Dawn races to get to the bottom of the murder and find Ella’s killer. This book started off slowly but quickly escalated after a disturbing plot twist. I couldn’t stop listening, even though I think the story is a tad problematic. Hand to teens who like stories with unreliable narrators.