"Big Little Lies"

“Big Little Lies”

Written by Liane Moriarty

            Hi, folks. Finally got around to reading this! I picked up a copy over the Christmas season, and it finally made it to the top of my to-be-read list. This review is going to be short and sweet and to the point, because I want to get reading for the next book on my list!

            “Big Little Lies” starts out letting us know that there’s been a murder / an accident / some sort of tragedy that occurs at an elementary school’s trivia night for the parents. We’re introduced to Madeline, Celeste, and Jane as our main characters. We also have many side characters including Madeline’s husband, Ed, her ex-husband, Nathan, his new wife Bonnie, and their children. Celeste and Perry have two boys. Jane is a single parent of little Ziggy. On the first day of kindergarten, a fellow mother, Renata, announces her child has been bullied. This causes a domino effect throughout the parent community in the little town.

            We are introduced to Madeline and Ed’s marriage, very cute but overshadowed by Madeline’s ex-husband and his new family. Jane is struggling through post-tramatic stress and the fact her son might become a bully, like his father was. We also see a heartbreaking but extremely riveting abuse story of poor Celeste by Perry behind closed doors.

            This book is very dramatic, and much less of a psychological thriller than I had imagined. This is very mysterious and intriguing. It’s also very funny. I didn’t realize how comedic some of the characters and events would be, especially Madeline’s character. She’s great. I couldn’t help but look up the cast of characters portrayed in the HBO production. The characters seem so fitting to the actors and actresses, and I cannot wait to begin the show.

            I enjoyed the narrative. There’s little “Lincoln in the Bardo” meets “Mean Girls” messages and chats from the other side characters, that I don’t like as much, but they’re an interesting narrative addition. Also, I do not think that the ending is supposed to be secret. There’s about 2-4 characters that I had figured could be involved, but it was very easy to determine who was killed. The killer surprised me.

            I thoroughly enjoyed this and I plan to continue reading more of Liane’s work.