Big Little Lies

From the very beginning, this book had twists and turns with every page; I couldn’t put the book down! The book starts off with an old lady watching tv in her home near the local school. It was a trivia night at Pewee Elementary, so the streets were very noisy, but soon it gets out of hand so she goes outside to see what is going on when she notices ambulances and police cars. She soons learns that someone at the fundraiser got murdered. From this point on the book becomes a mystery. The author does not tell us who got murdered or who the murderer was. Each page has you changing your guess on who could have done such a thing, and who the victim was. The book focus on three different people; Madylin a mother of two who struggles with her ex living in the same neighborhood. Also that ex has a child in the same grade as her youngest. Celeste: a women who on the outside seems perfect, but what really happens in her house? Then there's Jane a single mom who just moved to the neighborhood, and to make her life even worse on orientation day apparently her son strangled a child. All of these women have children going into kindergarten at Pewee Elementary School; starting this school brings a lot of drama to the kids, teachers, and parents as they go about their daily lives. Madylin is the angry one who isn't afraid to stand up for herself, and her friends. Celeste is the perfect one who struggles with big problems of her own, and then there’s. Jane she is shy, nice, and just looking for a normal life for her and her son. When these three all come together as friends it makes a force to be reckoned with. Their journey through this book is nail biting, and very exciting. As the book goes on it switches between each of these three and their time building up to orientation day. Their lives are not as simple as they appear. Each face problems of their own that the others don’t know about. As friends they stick together and sort through the problems of their lives. On trivia night a lot happens that leaves you guessing till the very end. I highly recommend reading this book every page is a different twist that is shocking. Liane Moriarty did an excellent job writing this book. Her word choice really brings the characters to life, and makes it seem like this book is real. It seems as if this book was written from someone in the town. It tells the characters emotions as well, this is what makes the reader think that this is non fiction instead of fiction. It describes to us a neighborhood like the ones we live in; from having parades, to having that one special coffee shop everything about this books seems realistic. She wrote this book for young adults, and middle aged women. It really portrays that in the way the characters talk. The plot was very well thought out with each situation/conflict described, and resolved. This book can be relatable to some people because of the variety of characters it contains, no two people have the same personality, or thoughts in the book; even some of the kids are relatable! This book was written in shifting first person narration so each chapter switches the character of focus. At first I thought that this would make it confusing, but it doesn’t it helps the plot a lot and lets you see what the everyone is going through not just the main characters. This book is a mystery that keeps you on your toes, you'll never want to put your book down, and you'll never guess what will happen next!

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty is a tightly spun, complex story. Set in Australia’s Pirriwee peninsula, the book opens with a murder at the local elementary school trivia night fund raiser, though the victim, killer, and motive are not identified. All we are left with is that 1) things at trivia night got really out of hand, and 2) now someone is dead.

The story then flashes back, and we follow the main characters – three kindergarten mothers of different ages and backgrounds – as Moriarty pieces together for us how in the world such a horrible thing could happen in such a nice school. Lies touches on a number of social issues as Moriarty lays bare the deceptions both large and small of the community, from domestic violence to bullying to school politics. However, it does so in a way that is not heavy handed or preachy. Instead, each is part of the stew of conflicts that eventually boiled over at the trivia night. And interspersed within the chapters are interview-like transcripts from various supporting characters, given (apparently) after the incident. It makes for an effective foreshadowing effect.

So, yes, Lies is a well crafted story with lots of intrigue coming from unlikely places. It’s funny and heartbreaking and has all the feels. The characters, many of whom start out as flat archetypes, evolve as the novel unfolds into well rounded, fully developed characters that you genuinely pull for. And the twist is a lovely hidden-in-plain-sight gem that I kicked myself for not seeing sooner. All of which makes Lies worth reading. But where the book really shines is in the pacing.

The flow of the novel is so crisp, it practically crackles. It reads like a Gilmore Girls episode, and not just in the dialogue. I read a good chunk of it on the trip home from vacation, and more than once I said to my wife, “This book feels like it was meant to be read out loud.” The rhythm and cadence of the prose was brilliant, and that is what made this book so addictive. I’m looking forward to reading more from Liane Moriarty. So should you.

The first time I read this book was in October of 2014. It was my second book by Liane Moriarty after The Husband’s Secret but Big Little Lies was sooooo much BETTER!!!

It was funny, and poignant. And so on point regarding school politics and crazy parents. I’ve seen it all and honestly it’s not that far fetched or much exaggerated. But it also had a darker more serious side.

When I found out that Reese Witherspoon bought the filming rights and that it was being filmed in my neighborhood (ok, an hour away), I knew that I had to watch the show and would be rereading the book just to refresh my memories.

The trailer looked mighty fine and a lot more raunchy than the book really was, but that’s HBO.

To reread it a second time I bought the audible version, because all my libraries where out of the book and the waiting list would have literally killed me. And I have to say, Big Little Lies was as good the second time around as it was the first time – even though I knew who got killed.:D

What I loved the most about Big Little Lies was that it had the perfect mix of funny, snarky dialogs, and a hilarious bunch of over-the-top moms.

The story started out ominously.

Someone was KILLED!!!!!!

But the reader wouldn’t find out about who got killed until the very END!!

So let’s rewind…..

…someone died at a parents trivia night.

The thought alone was hilarious. Parents killing one of their own peers while playing trivia. Let’s bring out the knife or gun during “What’s the easiest way to kill a parent?”

The book started at the beginning of the school year, which in Australia starts in late January/early February – very different to Europe and the US. The parents were introduced, mostly MOMS and ONE dad. But those ladies had me laughing my head off.

From the very start there were two groups. And of course enemy lines were drawn immodestly. Either you were in one or the other group – no fraternization allowed. I preferred Madeline’s group – she was HILARIOUS!!

Madeline was one of the best characters in this book. She didn’t take herself too serious and always had a snarky comment or two. And her marriage was pretty awesome – all thanks to an amazing and funny husband.

Now, Celeste was a different story all together. She was complex and fascinating in a – what’s going on in your head is pretty screwed up but also quite riveting – kind of way. I felt for her, cheered for her, but also thought women you need your head screwed on right.

Jane was as normal as a person could be – yeah NOT!!! Non of those moms were normal. They all had something going on. Insecurities, bad marriages, unhappy lives, tragic pasts, workaholics, kids-are-genius-complexes – you name it they had it!!

Throughout the book ‘big little lies‘ were uncovered, skeletons in closets were revealed, and the bitter truth was dragged out into the light if it wanted or not!!!

It was quite spellbinding to see everything enfold. And there was not ONE minute I was bored or thought the book was predictable.

I loved the interview take outs throughout the book. Before or after each chapter were snippets of police interviews – all the parents gave their opinion of what happened. It was funny how those opinions differed and contradicted themselves.

I think the hardest and most heart wrenching part for me was reading about Ziggy. That little boy held up remarkable well under the circumstances, and all I wanted was to give him a big, tight hug.

For me Big Little Lies was a gem! It was such a great book that totally surprised me in the best of ways. I was raving about it to friends and family. Listening to it made my commute so much more enjoyable.

But please remember – it’s FICTION!!! Over the top, maybe. But just fiction.

I would highly recommend it just for the entertaining factor.

And I need to mention that the narrator did a fantastic job and made my listening experience OUTSTANDING!!!

ENGAGING, CAPTIVATING AND HEARTFELT

A great book about lies and its consequences. An author that makes an approach that goes way beyond that, portraying the dynamics of human actions and conflicts with no Manichaeism. My first and pleasant experience with Liane Moriarty was through “The Husband’s Secret”, which drew my attention to the release of her new book “Big Little Lies”, and I can tell now that the latter gave me an even more delightful experience than the first. I was captivated from the very beginning and was gently involved in the story of the three main characters and their individual dramas. Madeline is a generous, unreserved 40 year-old-woman in her second marriage, always ready to fight against any injustice and having to deal with her teenage daughter who looks up to her new stepmother. Jane, who holds a big secret, is in her early twenties and a single mother of a 5-year-old boy who is accused of bullying and thus is seen as an outcast at school. Celeste is the astonishingly beautiful woman married with a rich handsome man whose marriage is far from perfect although being regarded as such by everybody around her. The main setting is the kindergarten attended by their children where most situations take place. We can say that this is a mystery book in which we receive, at the end of each chapter, clues about a tragedy that will happen in the near future in an school event called Trivia Night. The chapters are named as a countdown to this event once their titles tell us how long it takes for it to happen. Along with this central line towards the event, every chapter reveals something important that feeds the subplots and whets our appetite for more. All that stoked my curiosity and kept me interested in reading to know what was going to happen and who was going to be struck by the mysterious blow. In my opinion, the enigma was built and solved in a completely unpredictable way. I caught myself many times thinking I had figured it out and was surprised in the end. I can say that I am an admirer of thrillers and am used to seeing mysteries being solved, but the way she does it in this book is special and I liked very much. She has a special way of making the revelations because they always come out as a natural consequence of what was being said or done, and she also provides wow moments of connections that couldn’t have been foreseen up to then. She skillfully masters the suspenseful style. However, as contradictory as it may seem, what makes this book a page-turner for me is not the mystery, masterfully held throughout it, or the excellent thrilling aspect of it, but the story itself and the author’s ability to create real deep characters and to address serious topics, such as insidious domestic violence and bullying, with the seriousness they deserve, without becoming boring, self-righteous or cliché. What I liked in this is that the social issues are not there as a sort of moral lesson but as part of their lives, and that is why we end up thinking them over and learning from them. At the same time that I could not wait to know the end, I savored and relished each and every moment of the story and, the balance between these two aspects amazed me. I did not feel like rushing because I was as much interested in knowing who did what to whom as I was in enjoying all the process in the character’s mind and life. The plot talks about friendship, betrayals, loyalty, marriage, second-marriage, parenting, self-esteem, along with abuse in domestic violence and bullying, all of them perfectly intertwined in the characters’ daily life. The story is told mainly through the distinct voices of the three women in such a well written style that everything is flawlessly integrated since the very beginning. Past and present, facts and emotions of each one of them are merged in a unique story that flows wonderfully. The author manages to be gentle and yet straightforward in building the depth of each character through clever and sensitive dialogues, unfolding what lies underneath the appearance or the lie they create to survive, pleasing us with genuine brilliant insights of human nature. The author really has a way to create complex and rich characters and yet make them so real that they look like someone who lives next door. She sets an exciting pace while ushering us between the hidden and the social lives of each character, displaying a special skill at unearthing the secrets. In spite of having a great number of characters and many issues dealt with in the subplots, everything is very well tied together making it easy for the reader to get hooked to the story throughout it without getting lost. Besides, she provides us with a broad range of emotional responses: moments of loud hearty laugh, moments of complete shock and moments of teary sadness. Liane Moriarty has a great style of writing, which is articulate, fluent and chatty, steering the reader into a close and intimate relationship with the characters and the story. Besides, she has a special talent to put humor while addressing serious issues in a story that flows round. I loved reading this book. I had far many reasons not to put my kindle down and a lot more to love about it. It was an easy reading yet rich and with many nuances of the human being. I think it is even better than “The husband’s secret” and I will certainly read more books from her. Maybe “What Alice Forgot” is next in line, as it seems to be regarded as her best of all.