One of Us is Lying

“‘She’s the princess and you’re a jock,’ he says. He thrusts his chin toward Bronwyn, then at Nate. ‘And you’re a brain. And you’re a criminal. You’re all walking teen-movie stereotypes.’

’What about you?’ Bronwyn asks. She’s been hovering near the window, but now goes to her desk and perches on top of it. She crosses her legs and pulls her dark ponytail over one shoulder. Something about her is cuter this year. New glasses, maybe? Longer hair? All of a sudden, she’s kind of working this sexy-nerd thing.

‘I’m the omniscient narrator,’ Simon says.”

Cooper narrates this scene in detention just before Simon drinks the cup of water laced with peanut oil. Simon’s description of himself as “the omniscient narrator” is the first clue that he is orchestrating the events to come (11). Later in the book, Bronwyn will recall Simon referring to himself the omniscient narrator when the group realizes that Simon was not murdered but committed suicide.

This passage is also significant for reducing the novel’s four narrators to stereotypes. Throughout the book, each character is shown to be more than a stereotype and to have complex and nuanced inner lives.

“That girl and I have barely crossed paths before today and probably won’t again. I’m pretty sure that’s fine with both of us. I know her type. Not a thought in her head except her boyfriend and whatever petty power play’s happening with her friends this week. Hot enough, I guess, but other than that she’s got nothing to offer.”

This is Nate responding to Bronwyn, who chides him for not knowing Addy’s name, despite the trauma they went through together watching Simon die. Nate dismisses her as having “nothing to offer,” based on her appearance, though he does not know her well. In a way, Nate’s observation that she thinks only of her boyfriend is, at this point, true of Addy, but Nate’s extrapolation that this means Addy is not capable of more is incorrect. Later in the book, Addy will be instrumental in securing Nate’s release from jail (by prompting Janae to confess) and in bringing him and Bronwyn back together (by helping him understand why he ran away from Bronwyn).

“I forgot how tiring Bronwyn is. Even in grade school, the amount of crap she cared about on a daily basis would wear down a normal person. She was always trying to join things, or start things for other people to join. Then be in charge of all the things she joined or started.

“She’s not boring, though. I’ll give her that.” 

Here, Nate sees Bronwyn as he has seen her since elementary school: as competent and take-charge. Though he sees these qualities as exhausting, he also idealizes them as being the opposite of his chaotic life with his alcoholic father. Further, he fails to recognize that Bronwyn can herself be limited by these qualities. When her competence fails her, as it did in chemistry, she struggles to cope productively and to accept that she cannot direct every outcome through force of will.

“The thing with About That was […] you could pretty much guarantee every word was true. Simon built it sophomore year, after he spent spring break at some expensive coding camp in Silicon Valley, and nobody except him was allowed to post there. He had sources all over school, and he was choosy and careful about what he reported. People usually denied or ignored it, but he was never wrong.”

In this passage, Bronwyn points out that Simon’s gossip was always correct, which is why he provoked fear in his classmates. By pointing out that his information was both accurate and harmful, Bronwyn highlights that what makes gossip harmful is not spreading misinformation but hurting others by not respecting their privacy and by failing to recognize one’s self in another. This is evident later in the book, when Addy’s former friends taunt her for having cheated on Jake, despite having done the same in their relationships, and when Cooper is outed without his consent. In both cases, the gossip was true, but its intent was to expose and humiliate.

“So I brought my grades up, and got an A by the end of the year. But I’m pretty sure nobody wants me sharing my strategies with the other students.”

This is an example of the foreshadowing McManus uses to create suspense and suspicion. Bronwyn has not yet explicitly revealed to the reader that she cheated on her chemistry test. Rather, her cheating is implied through Bronwyn’s discomfort when her teacher asks her to tutor other students. The teacher believes Bronwyn is a role model for how to use hard work to overcome academic difficulty. When working hard failed to yield an improve grade, Bronwyn cheated, which she well knows would not be her teacher’s idea of a productive strategy.

“Gossip as a public service doesn’t go very far, so Simon started posting things a lot pettier and more personal than the sexting scandal. Nobody thought he was a hero anymore, but by then they were getting scared of him, and I guess for Simon that was almost as good.

“Jake usually defended Simon, though, when our friends got down on him for About That. It’s not like he’s lying, he’d point out. Stop doing sneaky shit and it won’t be a problem.”

Addy narrates this section, explaining the origins of Simon’s app, which she believes may have been Simon’s attempt “to impress Jake” (44). Simon had discovered that one of Jake’s football rivals had been anonymously sexting junior girls and exposed his find. His expose made him a hero, and Addy notes that may have “been the first time anyone at Bayview noticed him” (44). Addy assumes Simon was satisfied being feared but hated. However, Janae later reveals how bitter and angry Simon became, feeling that he deserved to be popular and respected. Addy’s assumptions reduce Simon’s motives and character, the mistake students make throughout the book, one which leads to tragedy. Also significant is that Simon hoped to impress Jake, who dropped Simon as a friend in high school. Simon enlists Jake as his accomplice but not out of friendship; rather, he sees Jake as expendable and worthy of punishment for having hurt Simon.

This section also reveals Jake’s “black-and-white” mindset, as Addy calls it (44). Jake does not see a problem with revealing others’ secrets, labelling them all as “sneaky” without understanding the complex motives that drive people’s choices and acknowledging that he himself can make bad choices (44). Addy says it’s easy for Jake to be so strident because he never makes mistakes. Later, this will be shown to be untrue through the reveal of Jake’s role in Simon’s suicide and his violent attack on Addy after he catches her recording him. 

“I’ve taken lessons since I was eight and I’m pretty competent, technically. But I’ve never made people feel anything. ‘Variations on the Canon’ is the first piece that made me want to try. There’s something about the way it builds, starting soft and sweet but gaining in volume and intensity until it’s almost angry. That’s the hard part, because at a certain point the notes grow harsh, verging on discordant, and I can’t muster the force to pull it off.”

In this section, Nate is at Bronwyn’s house, and she is preparing to play “Variations on the Canon” for him and Maeve. The composition has symbolic resonance as it is a beautiful piece of music that encompasses seemingly contradictory elements (e.g. soft and harsh, sweet and angry), much like each of the students in the novel. Bronwyn describes her piano playing as competent but unable to provoke emotion, which fits the stereotype of her as competent and contained. Her striving comes more from external motivation (protecting her sister, pleasing her parents, playing the role expected of her) than internal drive. “Variations on the Canon” also represents the disconnect Bronwyn notices in Nate between his criminal activity and his caring nature, evident in the way he looked after his mother and scrambled to save Simon.

With Nate and Maeve as her audience, Bronwyn loses herself in the piece, even forgetting they are in the room, and feels more enjoyment and confidence in her playing. When she has finished, Nate tells her it’s “the best thing [he’s] ever heard” (58).

“That’s the thing about competitive edges. Sometimes they’re too good to be true.”

In this passage, Cooper has just met with an MLB recruiter who has noticed how much Cooper’s fastball has improved. His observation provides an example of the author’s use of misdirection. The way Cooper describes his competitive edge—“too good to be true”—makes it sound as if he may be guilty of using steroids (72). The point has already been made that Simon’s gossip was always accurate, and Cooper acts guilty. However, the competitive edge that was “too good to be true” is revealed, later in the book, to have been fabricated: Cooper’s father encouraged him to hold back during his junior year so that he could impress recruiters during his senior year (72). Because of the false gossip Jake later plants, the strategy ends up backfiring by making it seem that Cooper had a motive to kill Simon.

“I’ve built my entire world around Jake and now that it’s shattered I realize, way too late, that I should have cultivated some other people who’d care that a police officer with mom hair and a sensible suit just accused me of murder. And when I say ‘care,’ I don’t mean in an oh-my-God-did-you-hear-what-happened-to-Addy kind of way.”

These are Addy’s reflections after a detective questions her about her motives for killing Simon. The detective knows that Simon’s final, unpublished post included exposing Addy’s infidelity, and uses that knowledge to pressure her to reveal what she knows. Since she does not actually know anything about the murder, she walks out but then feels lost. She cannot call Jake, since her infidelity is the reason she is questioned, and she has no other friends whom she trusts. Her realization that her so-called friends would be more interested in gossiping about her than helping her prompts Addy to see the importance of cultivating community around empathy, rather than investing herself in a man, which is the advice that her mother has been giving her. In the second half of the book, Addy practices empathy with Janae and Nate, and it leads to Janae admitting Simon’s scheme and Nate reaching out to Bronwyn.

“I sound like the ass-kisser of the century. It’s years of conditioning kicking in.”

In this passage, Cooper has just finished his police interview. His father instructed him not to answer any questions, but Cooper “can’t bring [him]self to leave without saying anything,” so he thanks the detective for his time and shakes his hand (88). He knows what he sounds like, but his father has so effectively conditioned Cooper to please others that even when he is accused of murder, he observes the etiquette he has been taught. 

“I wonder if anything Simon wrote about Cooper and Addy is true too. Detective Mendoza showed us all the entries, implying that somebody else might already be confessing and cutting a deal. I always thought Cooper’s talent was God-given and that Addy was too Jake-obsessed to even look at another guy, but they probably never imagined me as a cheater, either.

“With Nate, I don’t wonder. He never pretended to be anything other than exactly who he is.”

Here, Bronwyn has been questioned about Simon’s About That piece, in which he reveals that she cheated. She struggles to reconcile her totalizing perceptions of Cooper and Addy—jock and princess, the labels Simon assigned to the them in detention—with the information in Simon’s unpublished post. Her realization extends to herself, too, in that she’s not the perfect, studious, high-achiever that she has portrayed herself to be. Only Nate has been transparent throughout, a quality that Bronwyn values but that he himself underestimates.

“Bunch of hypocrites. Luis was on Simon’s app for the same damn thing and Vanessa tried to give me a hand job at a pool party last month, so they shouldn’t be judging anyone.”

In this passage, Cooper reflects on how Addy’s so-called friends have turned on her for having cheated on Jake. He recognizes their blatant hypocrisy since they too have been unfaithful to partners (Luis) or encouraged others to be (Vanessa). Cooper’s observation harkens back to the book’s opening chapter, when Bronwyn lists “[t]wo cheating scandals” (not counting Addy’s) among the subjects of Simon’s app (3). 

“She probably is, but it’s not the whole truth. Reality’s messier than that. She had months to confess if it was really eating at her, and she didn’t. I don’t know why it’s so hard for people to admit that sometimes they’re just assholes who screw up because they don’t expect to get caught.”

Here, Nate reflects on Bronwyn and her cheating scandal. In conversation with him, she claims to feel ashamed and regretful, but he challenges her, saying that her shame and regret are likely the product of being caught. If these feelings had indeed hounded her prior to being accused, she could have confessed, but she did not. It’s not until the end of the book, when she realizes how her cheating impacted others, that she publicly confesses and feels genuine remorse. Though Bronwyn is the more manifestly successful and competent student, Nate is the one who recognizes complexity of motives and that people make mistakes. 

“If it ever came out that I’d actually done something to Simon, plenty of people would hate me. But there’d also be people who’d make excuses for me, and say there must be more to my story than just getting accused of using steroids.

“The thing is, they’d be right.”

While visiting Nonny in the hospital, Cooper notices how solicitous people are towards him because of his attractive looks and good manners. On a larger scale, he is pointing out that people make reductive assumptions based on appearances, the basis of stereotyping. This passage is also an example of misdirection and foreshadowing. “If it ever came out that I’d actually done something to Simon” makes it unclear whether the secret Cooper is hiding—the one that is about more “than just getting accused of using steroids”—has to do with Simon (144). The final sentence foreshadows that more reveals about Cooper lie ahead. 

“‘“I am large, I contain multitudes,”’ I tell her, and her eyes widen. ‘“Song of Myself,” right? Walt Whitman. I’ve been reading it since Simon’s funeral. I don’t understand most of it, but it’s comforting in a weird way.’

“Janae keeps dabbing at her eyes. ‘That’s what I thought. It was Simon’s favorite poem.’”

Here, Addy admits to Janae that she was not popular but rode Jake’s popularity, and Janae tells her she never expected to hear Addy admit that. Janae made assumptions about Addy and stereotyped her as Simon did: as the “princess” (11). Addy invokes Whitman’s poem, which Janae read at Simon’s funeral, both to connect with Janae through a shared reference point and to demonstrate that she is more multi-faceted than her peers, Simon and Janae included, have given her credit for.

“‘It takes years before it blooms. And every branching stem stops growing after it blossoms, so you’ve got this complex system of dead areas and new growth.’

“I used to think about that, sometimes, when I wondered what parts of her might still be alive.”

After a distressing visit with his mother, Nate rides off to the desert and recalls a family vacation he and his parents took to Joshua Tree. The first two sentences of this passage are what his mother told him about the trees, which here serve a symbolic function. They represent the growth in the four main characters throughout the book. Each harbors a complex system.

“If I tell him about Kris and me, seventeen years of being the perfect son would be gone in an instant. He’d never look at me the same. The way he’s looking at me now, even though I’m a murder suspect who’s been accused of using steroids. That he can handle.”

Cooper contemplates how his father would react to learning his son is gay. He describes his father as “the kind of good old boy who calls gay people ‘fags’” and assumes gay men hit on straight men (231). He can handle Cooper being accused of murder and steroid use but not being someone other than what his father has scripted for his son. Cooper’s desire to please his father by meeting his expectations has caused him to hide who he is and live in fear of being discovered. This fear prompted Cooper to get Simon disinvited from Vanessa’s after-prom party and became one of the grievances that drove Simon to concoct his revenge plot. Though McManus makes clear that it is not Cooper’s—or Nate, Bronwyn, or Addy’s—fault that Simon did what he did, the negative dynamic of hiding and fear/secrets and gossip engender a dysfunctional environment that causes unnecessary suffering. 

“At first all I can think is What’s the least amount of information I can provide and still make you understand I need to help Nate? But then she reaches out and squeezes my hand, and it hits me with a stab of guilt how I never used to keep things from her until I cheated in chemistry. And look how that turned out.”

Here, Bronwyn’s mother has confronted her, and Bronwyn’s instinct is to hide information her mother might find objectionable. At the same moment, she realizes that this instinct kicked into gear after Bronwyn cheated, and she became fearful of being caught. As in the case of Cooper, hiding and fear led to dysfunction in Bronwyn’s relationship with her mother. It caused resentment and bitterness in Simon. Honesty and lack of transparency do not create perfect outcomes: had she not cheated, Bronwyn would possibly have failed or received a “D” in chemistry. Honesty and lack of transparency do, however, promote healthier relationships among involved parties.

“I don’t know what to think. If I’d had to point a finger at someone when this all started, it would’ve been Nate. Even though he’d acted genuinely desperate when he was searching for Simon’s EpiPen. He was the person I knew the least, and he was already a criminal so […] it wasn’t much of a stretch.

“But when the entire Bayview High cafeteria was ready to take me down like a pack of hyenas, Nate was the only person who said anything. I never thanked him, but I’ve thought a lot about how much worse school would’ve gotten if he’d brushed past me and let things snowball.”

After Nate is arrested for Simon’s murder, many of his classmates assume he was the obvious choice because of his criminal past, including Cooper’s friend, Luis, and Bronwyn’s sister, Maeve. Cooper, however, confronts his prejudgment of Nate. He acknowledges that he, too, would have been all too willing to condemn Nate based on the “criminal” stereotype Simon assigned to him, but he also acknowledges what the stereotype does not account for (11). Nate was the first to understand what was happening to Simon and try to help him, and he was the first to defend Cooper and call out his classmates for their hypocrisy. These caring acts define Nate as much as the negative parts of his past.

“‘Simon was weird like that. He’d make fun of people for being lemmings, but he still wanted the same things they did. And he wanted them to look up to him.’”

Here, Janae explains to Addy the conflict within Simon. He wanted the same things that everyone else at school did—to be popular, admired, and respected. Feeling denied of these, he chose notoriety and fear—the negative attention he gained from exposing secrets and promoting gossip. The thought of being exposed for being just like the kids he mocked on his app and 4chan sent him “over the edge,” but he is still like them (324). As Addy later notes, Simon wanted what everyone wants: “to be successful, to have friends, to be loved. To be seen” (340).

“The charges were dropped because Bronwyn kept unraveling threads and tracked down a witness. Because Cooper’s boyfriend connected dots nobody else saw. Because Addy put herself in the line of fire. And because Cooper saved the day before Jake could shut her up.

“I’m the only one in the murder club who didn’t contribute a goddamn thing. All I did was be the guy who’s easy to frame.”

This is Nate reflecting on his release from prison. His friends’ heroic efforts make him feel useless and amplify his feeling that he is not good enough for Bronwyn. Despite her desire to be with Nate, he breaks up with her. Abby will later recognize his feelings, as she has been through a similar experience. Her low self-esteem allowed her to give Jake control over her. Addy will be instrumental in Cooper’s growth at the end of the book. In addition to disproving Nate’s assessment of her as useless at the beginning of the book, Addy’s treatment of Jake shows the value of empathy: it enables Nate to know that he is not alone in his feelings and to become as transparent emotionally as he is about his actions. At the end of the book, he is able to confess his feelings for Bronwyn and articulate why he feared having a relationship with her.

“It’s too bad, because there might’ve been some potential if we’d gone about things differently. But I’m starting to realize there are some things you can’t undo, no matter how good your intentions are.”

In her final reflection at the end of the book, Abby explains why she cannot date TJ, despite his interest in her and her belief that they might have been well-matched. Her infidelity with him is tied up in trauma and pain. It provided Jake with a motif to hurt her and thus provided Simon with the accomplice he needed to carry out his revenge plot. The notion that “you can’t undo” everything also refers obliquely to Simon’s suicide. It is a choice that cannot be undone.

“Everything’s pretty fluid, and I’m trying to be okay with that. I think a lot about Simon and what the media called his ‘aggrieved entitlement’—the belief he was owed something he didn’t get, and everyone should pay because of it. It’s almost impossible to understand, except by that corner of my brain that pushed me to cheat for validation I hadn’t earned. I don’t ever want to be that person again.”

In this passage, Bronwyn reflects on what she shared with Simon: a sense that she was owed something. She cheated in chemistry because she felt she was entitled to a particular grade because of her hard work. She realizes that while she is different from Simon by degrees—and these degrees are significant—she, like Simon, justified doing something wrong because of her sense of entitlement. She is able to have empathy for Simon while still recognizing the tragic outcome of his choices. Also significant is Bronwyn working toward accepting that she cannot control everything.