Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in One of Us is Lying, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Stereotypes and Unlikely Connections
Gossip, Secrets, and Lies
Wisdom of the Youth
Millennial Problems
Summary
Analysis
It is Tuesday night, and Bronwyn is in her room with Maeve and Addy, working on the case. After she texted Mrs. Macauley a link to the About This post she, Addy, and Cooper had flagged as odd—and the fact that Jake, of all people, seems to be involved in making it—Mrs. Macauley texted back to say thank you, but also to ask Bronwyn not to get involved any further.
Bronwyn is desperate to help, but now even Nate’s mother is trying to shut her out. Even though she’s just trying to preserve the integrity of the investigation, Mrs. Macauley frustrates Bronwyn, who is working around the clock to uncover new bombshells and clear Nate’s name.
Themes
Bronwyn, Maeve, and Addy tack up colorful sticky notes on the wall, pointing out the many disparate details of the case. Cooper arrives to help—he can’t stay long, but wanted to tell everyone that Luis’s brother may have found the red Camaro. He hands Bronwyn a piece of paper with the license plate and phone number on the back. As the three of them plus Maeve examine the collection of seemingly random facts on the wall, they grow frustrated by how nothing seems to make sense.
The Bayview Four have been thrown together by a series of unlikely circumstances, and the connections they’ve fostered with one another have grown and flourished. Now, they have to look beyond their own unlikely connections and try to point out the coincidences, oddities, and correlations in the rest of their class—which is hard, because of the thriving environment of secrets, lies, divisions, and stereotypes which still pervades Bayview.
Themes
Cooper leaves, and Maeve gets up to shuffle the sticky notes around. She groups together the notes bearing information about people who “hate” Simon, but as the girls stare at the names and facts on the wall, they all have the feeling they’re missing something.
Everyone is working hard, but there’s still a major piece of the puzzle missing—still, they’re determined to find it and put it in place.
Themes
Bronwyn finds out the name—and high school—of the owner of the Camaro. Rather than handing the information over to Eli, who may not even pay attention to her anymore, she decides to track the car’s owner down on her own. Bronwyn pulls into the parking lot of Eastland High before classes start, and waits for the red Camaro. She rolls down her window and calls out a hello as the guy gets out of his car—her recognizes her from the investigation, and asks what she’s doing here. She answers that she’s waiting for somebody, but when the guy asks who, she confesses that she’s waiting for him; she mentions the car accident on the day of Simon’s death, and asks if he can give her any information.
Bronwyn knows that she’s hit a wall with both Mrs. Macauley and Eli—she has to depend on herself, now, and take matters firmly into her own hands. She does just that in this passage, risking her own well-being—and her entire mini-investigation—as she heads out to try and secure a major breakthrough in the case.
Themes
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The guy hesitates before introducing himself as Sam Barron. He confesses he’s been wondering if he should speak up about the accident—as far as he knows, he didn’t do anything illegal. He and one of his friends accepted a thousand dollars each from a Bayview student to stage a car crash in the parking lot. Bronwyn pulls up a picture of Jake on her phone and asks if that’s who paid him; Sam gravely replies that he was paid off by Simon Kelleher himself.
Though Bronwyn had started to believe that Jake was responsible for the entire plot, Sam’s bombshell of a revelation shows that an earlier instinct was correct—Simon orchestrated the circumstances surrounding his death, and now Bronwyn has hard, definitive proof.
Themes
