One of Us Is Back

One of Us Is Back (2023) is the final novel in Karen M. McManus’s One of Us Is Lying YA thriller trilogy. This novel revisits the Bayview Four, the group of high school seniors McManus first introduced in the first book of the series, One of Us is Lying. The group is now known as the Bayview Crew because its membership has grown to nine. The Bayview Crew is home for the summer when news hits that Jake Riordan, a former friend and convicted felon, has been released from juvenile detention based on a trial error. With Jake free and odd things beginning to happen around town, the Bayview Crew is anxious to resolve the mystery that began over two years ago with Simon Kelleher’s death. The novel explores themes of Seeking and Offering Redemption, Privilege and Entitlement as a Hindrance to Justice, and The Peril of Keeping Secrets.

One of Us is Back was a New York Times Best Seller, in addition to winning many other honors. One of Us Is Lying was made into a television series that aired for two seasons on Peacock and Netflix. McManus is an international bestselling author of YA fiction. In addition to the series, she has written four other novels, including New York Times Best Sellers Nothing More to Tell (2022) and You’ll Be the Death of Me (2024).

This study guide utilizes the 2023 Delacorte Press eBook.

Content Warning: The guide discusses death by suicide and intimate partner violence, which are present in the source text.

Plot Summary

Adelaide “Addy” Prentiss meets her friends, the sisters Maeve and Bronwyn Rojas, at their family home to watch television. Addy is agitated because the show they are watching is a live speech being given by her former boyfriend, Jake Riordan, who was convicted of assaulting her two years ago. Jake is serving his time in juvenile detention and is allowed to visit local schools to give these speeches as part of his rehabilitation. As they watch the speech, Addy and Maeve believe they catch sight of another friend, Phoebe, but neither comments on it.

Phoebe rushes to work at Café Contigo after the speech, worried someone will figure out she was there. Phoebe attended the speech because she is concerned about her little brother, Owen. Nearly three months ago, Phoebe and her sister, Emma, discovered that Owen was involved in a truth or dare game organized by a man named Jared Jackson that resulted in the death of Brandon, a young man who accidentally caused the death of Phoebe’s father. Emma and Phoebe have sworn to keep this information secret, but it weighs heavily on Phoebe, and she hopes that by attending Jake’s speeches, she can find hope that someone who has committed a terrible crime isn’t necessarily destined to commit more.

Nate is at his second job as a barback at the local country club when he learns that Jake has been awarded a new trial due to a trial error with a jury member. Jake will also be getting out of juvenile detention until the trial. Nate is angry about this news because Jake set Nate up to go to jail for the death of their friend Simon Kelleher despite knowing that Simon took his own life. Nate is also concerned about his friend Addy, Jake’s former girlfriend and the victim of his assault.

The Bayview Four, now called the Bayview Crew because they have grown to nine members, gathers for a Fourth of July party. Jake comes up in conversation, and Maeve announces to the group that not only did Phoebe attend Jake’s most recent speech, but she also allowed Jake to change a flat tire on her car a few days before. Addy becomes angry with Phoebe, so Phoebe distances herself from the group. Phoebe takes a drink from another girl, Vanessa Merriman, and drinks it quickly. A short time later, Phoebe realizes she is intoxicated and steps out into the backyard for air.

Addy receives a call the day after the party from Phoebe’s mother: Phoebe texted her mother that she was spending the night at Addy’s the night before, but no one has been able to get in touch with her since. The Bayview Crew becomes concerned and goes searching for Phoebe. Nate receives a call from his father, a maintenance worker at Bayview High School, asking him to come. Nate’s father found Phoebe inside a shed at the school, but Phoebe has no memory of what happened to her. She recalls the image of wallpaper with vines, and there is a word written on her arm: Practice.

Addy recalls that Jake’s family vacation home has a sunroom with vines on the wallpaper. Maeve, Nate, and Addy drive to the vacation home when Bronwyn doesn’t show up for dinner with Nate and his father; they are concerned Jake might be behind Phoebe’s kidnapping and could have Bronwyn too. When they arrive, Jake is there, and he confronts them. Maeve manages to get a picture of the wallpaper, but Phoebe doesn’t recognize it. They also find Bronwyn, who’d gotten lost and dropped her phone in water.

Nate’s roommate, Reggie Crawley, goes missing. Nate and Bronwyn go to Bayview High School and search for him. They eventually find his body in the boy’s locker room, where he died after being tied to a chair and hit on the head. There is a word written on his arm: Makes.

Maeve does an online search for the words written on Phoebe and Reggie’s arms after their kidnappings and links them to an advertising campaign created by the agency where Jake Riordan’s mother Katherine worked. They also learn that Katherine was having an affair with a man named Alexander Alton who died by drowning six years ago. The Bayview Crew wonders if the kidnappings are part of some revenge plot, so they begin researching Alton’s family. They discover that his wife has died but both his sons are accounted for. However, his daughter, Chelsea, is unaccounted for. At the same time, Phoebe has discovered a necklace belonging to Reggie in Owen’s backpack. She suspects another of Nate’s roommates, Sana, placed it there and decides to visit her coworker Evie at home to ask if she ever saw anything suspicious at the café. However, when Phoebe arrives, she discovers vine wallpaper in the apartment exactly like the one she remembers from the night she was kidnapped.

Maeve discovers a yearbook picture of Chelsea and sends it to Nate, who then recognizes a bartender, Gavin, in the same yearbook. Meanwhile, Nate has just asked Gavin to give Addy a ride home. Nate chases down Addy and Gavin, and Gavin admits to being Chelsea’s boyfriend but also insists on continuing to help her. He knocks Nate out and ties Addy up in his trunk. Gavin takes Addy to the Alton family’s former home where Chelsea/Evie has both Jake and Phoebe tied up. Chelsea takes Addy to Jake and tells her that Simon sent her a letter in which he confesses to overhearing Alexander Alton and Jake’s father argue after Jake’s father caught Alexander packing up Katherine’s belongings. Alexander announces to Jake’s father that Jake is his biological child. Jake’s father kills Alexander. Simon leaves, but spies through the window to see Alexander wake up and Jake strangle him.

Cooper and Luis arrive in search of Phoebe. Chelsea shoots Jake and runs away with Gavin. Jake dies. Nate is found and recovers in the hospital. The Bayview Crew gathers for one last party before everyone goes their separate ways—some returning to high school, others to college. Addy begins to move past her trauma and face the future with optimism.