Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty

Description

From the author of Truly Madly Guilty and The Husband's Secret comes a novel about the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.

Jane hasn't lived anywhere for longer than six months since her son was born five years ago. She keeps moving in an attempt to escape her past. Now the idyllic coastal town of Pirriwee has pulled her to its shores and Jane feels as if she finally belongs. She finds friends in the feisty Madeline and the incredibly beautiful Celeste, two women with seemingly perfect lives - and their own secrets. But at the start of a new term, an incident involving the children of all three women occurs in the playground, causing a rift between them and other parents. Minor at first but escalating fast, until the whispers and rumours become vicious and spiteful, and the truths blur into lies. It was always going to end in tears, but no one thought it would end in murder . . .

Review

I've read a few of Liane Moriarty's books now and loved them, and this was no exception. Written in a slightly different style than her other books. It flips back and forth but also there are inserted into the story the viewpoint of witnesses perception of what they think happened on "the trivia night". This really adds to the tension of what on earth did happen that night.

The book counts down from six months before the night up until the night itself and then the present day. Through this time we get to know each of the characters and find out more than their so called friends do about them and their lives.

Liane paints such a realistic picture of the small community and how the parents all interact at the school. I found the Blonde bombs parents as they are nicknamed hilarious and I am sure true to life. The small minded busy bodies who begin with other parents to make life very uncomfortable for one of the parents after a playground incident - but did it really happen the way it seems to have done?

Although you know from the outset that there has been a murder I kept wondering who it was that was dead, and I never worked it out. A few twists some nice, some not so nice and it was a pleasant change not to have been able to see them coming.

I'm giving this book four out of five stars. Only because I felt it was a little long for my taste.

My thanks go to Netgalley for a free copy of the book to review.