Listen to the First Chapter:
From the Book Jacket:
Come on, Bayview, you know you've missed this. A ton of copycat gossip apps have popped up since Simon died, but in the year since the Bayview four were cleared of his shocking death, no one's been able to fill the gossip void quite like he could. The problem is no one has the facts. Until now. This time it's not an app, though—it's a game. Truth or Dare. Phoebe's the first target. If you choose not to play, it's a truth. And hers is dark. Then comes Maeve and she should know better—always choose the dare. But by the time Knox is about to be tagged, things have gotten dangerous. The dares have become deadly, and if Maeve learned anything from Bronwyn last year, it's that they can't count on the police for help. Or protection. Simon's gone, but someone's determined to keep his legacy at Bayview High alive. And this time, there's a whole new set of rules.
Reviews:
A dangerous texting game comes to Bayview High in this sequel to One of Us Is Lying (2017).
Last year in a San Diego suburb, a gossip app led to a death and inspired weak copycats. Now an anonymous person is sending Truth or Dare messages to the students of Bayview High, and this time no one is safe. If you choose truth (or don’t respond), one of your secrets is revealed. Complete a dare and you’ve passed. The game mostly causes an entertaining stir—until a student winds up dead. Was it an accident, or was it murder? High school juniors Maeve, Phoebe, and Knox find themselves caught up in the mystery of who’s behind the texts. The Bayview Four make appearances, but the compelling heart of the story is the three main characters’ family drama and personal struggles. Maeve thinks she’s having a leukemia relapse, Phoebe slept with her sister’s boyfriend, and Knox interns at a legal aid firm whose staff members are receiving death threats. Shifting perspectives keep the pace steady while McManus (Two Can Keep a Secret, 2019, etc.) deftly weaves in commentary on the justice system, bullying, and slut shaming. Plenty of secrets and surprises will keep readers captivated until the satisfying end. Knox and Phoebe are white, Maeve has Colombian ancestry, and Bayview is a diverse community.
A can’t-put-down read.
-- Kirkus Reviews
McManus follows up her page-turning One of Us Is Lying with an equally breathless read, this time focusing on secondary characters from the original story. Following the events of the first book, the Bayview Four—Bronwyn, Addy, Cooper, and Nate—have now gone their separate ways. Only Addy remains in town, working as a server, alongside Phoebe, at Café Contigo. Maeve, Bronwyn’s younger sister, a leukemia survivor, spends a great deal of time there with Knox, her best friend and former boyfriend. When a new Reddit thread mysteriously begins under the moniker “Vengeance Is Mine,” and an anonymous texter begins a Truth or Dare game on Bayview High students’ phones, the new friends’ secrets are revealed in a public and embarrassing way, via school-wide texts. The anonymous texter ends the reveal with a warning: “Always take the dare.” When the dares go from shocking to dangerous, Maeve, Phoebe, Addy, and Knox find themselves at the center of a new mystery with an even more dangerous puppet master. Full of exciting and unexpected twists and racing toward a shocking conclusion, McManus’s tale will not disappoint fans, and those unfamiliar with her previous work will inhale this complicated story of friendship and revenge. -- Publishers Weekly
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