Header Image

Review: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Title: Big Little Lies
Author: Liane Moriarty
Year Published: 2014

Genre: Adult fiction
Pages: 482
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Location (my 2019 Google Reading map)UK

FTC Disclosure: I bought this book with my own money

Summary (from the inside flap of the book): A murder...A tragic accident...Or just parents behaving badly? What’s indisputable is that someone is dead.

Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny, biting, and passionate; she remembers everything and forgives no one. Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare but she is paying a price for the illusion of perfection. New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for a nanny. She comes with a mysterious past and a sadness beyond her years. These three women are at different crossroads, but they will all wind up in the same shocking place.

Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the little lies that can turn lethal. 

Review: I heard this was a good show so thought I would read the book (I don't have HBO so can't see the show). I am so glad that I did; it is really fun!

On the surface this is a book about three women whose children are at the same primary school and all the social drama and frivolity that surrounds them. However, there is more to the story. It covers important issues, which I don't want to list here because it will give away the plot, but trust me, they are big societal issues that are slowly revealed.

Many of the characters are difficult to like as they are petty, but it is also easy to see how in a small insular group, parents pick at each other, choose sides, and support bad behavior in their own children. This book manages to be a study of social dynamics wrapped in a really good novel that doesn't feel heavy at all.

Challenges for which this counts: 

No comments