This was just the book I was looking for. I needed something that was going to grab me from the first page, not be too complicated but at the same time keep me interested right until the end.
Big Little Lies is Liane Moriarty's latest book, last year I read The Husband's Secret and I really enjoyed it so I was thrilled to see this one.
It did not disappoint. It's a fast read and you will try and guess the story from the start. You are likely to guess it early on, but I didn't guess it at all.
The story is based around the community at a local primary school and all the personalities that you encounter in such a setting. There are the funny people, the serious, the annoying, the caring, the bitchy and the shy and it all builds perfectly to the ending that you are told about at the beginning, you just don't know which character/s will hit the dust.
It is hard to talk about this book without giving too much away, so I am going to suggest that you just pick it up and give it a chance.
It could probably have been wrapped up a bit faster, towards the end I was getting a bit impatient with the book and the story seemed to be dragging on for no reason. I could also have cut the section out about the child selling herself on the internet as I didn't think it really added all that much substance to the book, but it's a very small aspect and certainly doesn't ruin the fun and funny lines through out the rest of the book. (Be warned though, the book covers some serious issues of domestic violence and is not all rainbows and laughter).
Have you read it? What did you think?
I quite enjoyed The Husband's Secret and was looking forward to this one. I could have left out all the paragraphs of interviewing characters, they seemed far too one dimensional and didn't really add to the story. I appreciated the domestic violence aspect and thought the main characters were written well, and I finished it quickly. All in all a reasonable read, but still nothing on Kylie Ladd :)
ReplyDeleteI really liked the snippets at the end of each character, I read that not everyone did, but these were one of my favourite bits.
DeleteI really enjoyed this one. I think the main characters were very realistic and the story was interesting and easy to read. I did struggle a little with the conflicting tones of the book, humorous yet serious, but apart from that I thought it was a great read.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Jodi, there was an aspect of humour and at times when you jumped to the DV section I found my head was still not in DV mode. But I guess this is also the life of people living in real abusive relationships, and I really thought the character shared exactly how they wind up not leaving a relationship when they know they should.
DeleteI liked this book. There were some dark themes but also a lightness to it. I kept trying to guess the end but didn't work it all out either. I'm going back to read The Husband's Secret.
ReplyDeleteRead it over one weekend. Yes, the kids were 'forced' to watch an extra 2 hours of TV just so I could find out who did it! Didn't guess the ending at all.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big Liane Moriarty fan - What Alice Forgot is my absolute fave.
I'm looking forward to seeing The Husband's Secret on the big screen sometime (I read somewhere that Nicole Kidman had optioned it??!)