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!

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.

There is so much to say about this book – I could probably write a novel! At first, it was hard to get into and follow but because I love this author, I had faith and kept reading. And because I did, I read an amazing book!

This is a book within a book – one book is a murder mystery told through eyewitness accounts. The other book is about three friends and how their lives are intertwined. Both books are joined together through the premise of kindergarten parents (some first year school parents and some returning) thrown together by circumstance.

The entire book is like a three-ring circus, similar to a school with gossipy parents and PTO types and all the other stereotypes. I think this is why it was so hard to get into the book at first. The chapters are very short and end with quotes from various parents and faculty at the school. There are a lot of characters and storylines and action. Everything comes together in the end in a predictable way (we know it’s a murder mystery, after all), but the aftermath is very poignant and important.

Some great themes that could and should be explored in book discussion/analysis: -avoidance of touchy or sensitive topics in groups of people -the iceberg effect, especially when meeting new people (only 1/10 – 2/10 of icebergs are visible above water – similar to people. We only see what is shown to us.) -judgments we all make about people based upon what we see -the tendency for women to rationalize reality and don’t actually see reality -the tendency for women to blame themselves, leading to personal guilt -female competition, especially when children are involved

Even though the shorter chapters made it more difficult to attach myself to the three main characters at first, it did happen. I especially enjoyed reading the parent statements, used to differentiate sections and action and chapters, to try and figure out who was murdered, by whom, and why. Even though I had a good guess, I was still stunned. I love the author’s use of pop references in all of her books, and especially this one. This book is truly funny and yet very deep and meaningful.

What I love most about Liane Moriarty (this is the fifth book of hers that I have read) is the way she is the voice for women: she writes what we are really feeling. She goes there in an unapologetic way. It’s raw and authentic writing at times. As a woman, she helps me feel normal and similar.

What I love most about this book is that the author takes something silly and three-ring circus-like and turns it into a very powerful and moving message. It was a ride well worth taking.