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.

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.

I don't know why I resisted reading this book even though I continued to hear good, no, great things about it. Interestingly, much of what I did hear was understated. Rather than claims of 'it's fabulous/wonderful/moving/erudite/beautifully written' (and believe me, this novel is all those things and more), the phrase I heard the most was 'just read it.' I also noted that people whose judgment I value rated it their best book of last year. Finally, early into 2015, I picked up Big Little Lies and the silly notion I'd developed that it was somehow a comic novel rapidly disappeared as I was drawn into the world Moriarty has created and the lives of its fully realized and complicated characters. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some genuinely laugh out loud moments as there would be in a novel centered around three women whose common ground is the school their children attend and the small beachside neighborhood they live in. Anyone with children in primary school forced to interact with other parents knows playground and parental/family politics can be a source of great amusement but also, as a Big Little Lies intricately and accurately maps, painful angst. Told from multiple points of view, the novel follows part of a school year and three mums whose children are newly enrolled in kindergarten. There is pragmatic 'I call a spade a spade' Madeline with her love of bling, glitter and her fierce sense of loyalty and social justice. Then there is her close friend, the extremely beautiful, slightly ethereal and distracted Celeste, mother to rambunctious twin boys with a perfect husband, house and wealth to spare. Finally, there is single-mother, Jane and her beloved young son, new to the area and carrying a great secret. The narrative unfolds retrospectively, the pivotal moment (minor spoiler – it is revealed in the blurb but don’t read on if you don’t want to know) in which time starts to wind back is a murder. Taking us back to the point at which the three women meet, we follow the first tentative steps of friendship as Madeline and Celeste, who are already good friends, take Jane under their wing. This fledgling threesome’s friendship’s bonds are immediately tested and tightened when Jane's son is accused of something terrible at school (no, not the murder). Thus the stage is set and what unfolds as the school year progresses and we start to race towards what we already know is going to happen is both the normality and impossibility of the daily life and grind of ordinary people. Moriarty plunges the reader into these women's lives and the secrets, lies – big and small - and truths of their existence, and that of their children, partners and families, as well as those of the many other characters that pepper and influence their lives. Other voices are given a brief platform from which to speak, serving to draw the reader into the mystery underpinning the entire story: who was killed? Where and why and by whom? Masterful, evocative and haunting, the novel captures so many of the complexities of relationships: the joy, despair, frustration and fury that can co-exist under one roof between partners, parents and children, as well as those we call friends or acquaintances. It reveals what lies beneath the surface, exposes the facades we powerfully erect and work hard to maintain and why we do this as well. It explores the ways in which and reasons behind certain behaviours, even when we know they’re wrong or wonder what we’re protecting by acting that way – usually, ourselves. This is a wonderful, chewy novel (by chewy, I mean you find yourself considering so much of what happens and what is said, turning it over and over in your head, thinking scenarios through, in many ways, testing their veracity and asking yourself, would I (or anyone I know) have said/done that) that lingers for ages in the head and heart. It is so believable, the characters so three dimensional and real you want to either slap them, interrupt an argument and add your two bits worth or invite them to a party and get drunk with them. Absolutely marvelous prose by a brilliant writer whose work I cannot wait to sink my teeth into again and mull over some more. Might be an early call, but could be my best read for 2015…

Liane Moriarty's last novel, The Husband's Secret, was tremendously popular last year, and when I finally got around to reading it I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it, domestic drama and all. Her newest novel, Big Little Lies, explores similar territory as it looks at the haves and have nots in a small Australian community, and throws in a little mayhem, melodrama, and murder to boot.

Another year of kindergarten is about to start at the Pirriwee Public School. Madeline, who loves to be the center of attention and will fight for any cause—or person—she thinks needs her support, is struggling, because her ex-husband Nathan and his new yoga-instructor wife Bonnie have moved to the same community, and their young daughter is in the same class as Madeline's daughter, Chloe. (And don't even get her started on the fact that Madeline and Nathan's teenage daughter Abigail would rather live with her father—who abandoned her and Madeline when she was an infant—than her mother.)

Madeline's gorgeous best friend, Celeste, has a picture-perfect life. She has the gorgeous, enormously wealthy husband, Perry, and two beautiful twin sons. Perry gives Celeste anything she wants, and their lives are the envy of most of the parents in their community. But what looks like the perfect life from the outside can be far from perfect on the inside, and Celeste has to figure out how to regain control.

New in town is single mother Jane, who is younger than most of the other parents—so young, in fact, that she is often mistaken for one of the children's nannies or au pairs. She is fiercely devoted to her young son, Ziggy, and despite the way many of the parents treat her, she becomes fast friends with Madeline and Celeste.

When a bullying scandal erupts in the kindergarten class, battle lines are drawn between groups of parents. As the most innocent of incidents are misinterpreted and re-interpreted, the scandal threatens to explode, and it brings many other issues between spouses, between friends, between sets of parents, to a head. And it all explodes one evening, at the school's "Elvis and Audrey" Trivia Night, when everything goes much too far, and someone winds up dead.

I really enjoy the way Moriarty writes. She completely hooks you in this tempestuous little community and gets you invested in the characters, and just when you think you know where she's going to take the story, she flips the script on you. The book flashes back to the months before Trivia Night, and is interspersed with commentary from a Greek chorus of sorts comprised of the other parents, as well as the teachers and administrators from the school.

There was a period of time when this book reminded me of Julia Fierro's Cutting Teeth, in that I found many of the supporting characters so odious that I wasn't sure I wanted to keep reading. But the main characters are so much more complex than I first thought, so I was glad I kept on, because in the end, despite my feeling for some of the characters, I really enjoyed the book as a whole. This is a fun, melodramatic, soapy read, definitely one which will amuse and intrigue you—unless this is the type of life you live.

This book was wonderful. I had a really hard time with this book at first and even put it away for almost a month before I picked it up but oh man, am I glad I did!!!!! I mean, at first I was tortured by the pace, the whiny character voices, the skipping back and forth. I almost wanted to make a spreadsheet just to keep track of all the characters and their children. But by the end of the book I was bawling. I was satisfied and appalled by the ending. I loved the way Liane Moriarty created all these characters with their own separate lives and problems and dealt with so many public issues that families struggle with every day. She tricked you at first by making the book and the characters just seem petty and whiny. By the end however she had shown an ugly face of suburban life that you never saw coming; All in one little book.

I will say the second this book ended, I wanted to pick it back up and re-read it because I knew there were so many bits of foreshadowing at the beginning that I was too busy being bored to pick up on. She lead me the wrong way, made me think I knew just what had happened at the end only to turnaround at the last minute and BAM, never saw that coming; All in one little book.

The dynamic of the characters, adding these harrowing issues right into the lives of perfect, suburban life was so enticing. I loved how each story line wasn’t dominating in the overall plot, yet each individual story was so powerful and important that they could have each had a book and I would have eaten all of them up. It was amazing how she made you hate, then love, hate and then cry for these characters; All in one little book.

Ok, I will digress back to actually talking about the book, not just raving about it. Moriarty wrote in different character perspectives in each almost chapter, hence why it started out so confusing. You start out not knowing anything about any of these characters, all you know is that one of them is dead. Then the author adds this layer of foreshadowing where she ends each chapter with a bit of the police report questions, which only adds more characters for you to keep track of, while flaming your curiosity for “who done it”. I liked that from the beginning the author was very upfront that something nasty had happened. It made you speculate through the entire book. The author throws all these characters right on you at the beginning, creating this quick web of intertwined people who all care way too much about each other’s lives. This was part of the reason I had a hard time with this book at first. I found it hard to get vested in these characters lives when I couldn’t even keep track of who Renata was from who Madeline was, and frankly, who cares when both of them were just whiney, conceded, rich housewives. Oh, how the tides turned when you got to know their stories; All in one little book.

I am still baffled, a day later, that Moriarty could make me, the reader, so tied up in all these characters lives so quickly. I find it similar to the movie “Crash” but way more engaging, dealing with almost every social convention possible while not making that point blatantly obvious. She sneaks these issues in just like they are snuck into real life. She makes them there, but almost makes you doubt they are happening as much at the character does. She shows you almost every point of view of each issue and how each problem effects each character differently; All in one little book.

Well done Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies is engaging, enthralling, captivating, sickening, heartfelt, disturbing, funny, lovable, powerful, and heart wrenching; All in one little book.

If you liked this review, check out my blog at www.balancingemma.wordpress.com for the full review and more!

Some of Moriarty's other novels are MUCH better than this one. But there are many good things about this book.

It does take on very important topics (domestic abuse and bullying) and tells the story of a single mother (Jane) who along with her son Ziggy moves to a seaside town supposedly on a whim (though you will learn later that there is more to why she chose that town...a clever plot turn on the author's part). She is very young (24) and has difficulties when she registers her son for kindergarten. The other mothers assume she is a nanny because she is so young.

For years, Jane has refused to identify Ziggy's father or the circumstances around her son's conception. She eventually reveals the ugly and life-altering story to some of her new friends. But about half way through the book I guessed what the outcome would be concerning the father.

I found all the drama at the school and with the very high maintenance mothers of the other children to be a bit tedious. The "camps" seemed to be divided between Jane's friends (who were for the most part rational) and the other mothers (who were mostly caricatures of the over-involved mom....too involved, too quick to judge, too critical. A little more "grey" and not so much black and white would have helped.

I'd much more quickly recommend Moriarty's The Hypnotist's Love Story and The Husband's Secret. Both of those books seem to be more tightly written and were novels I lost myself in right away.

I'd also like to send out a request that publishers do a much better job of proofing their work. I've noticed recently that I find lots of typos in books. This one had several....the word "remembered" misspelled, "had" written as ha'd, etc. Really needs to be improved.