Big Little Lies book review

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Published by Berkley Books on February 9, 2017
Pages: 460
Goodreads

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.
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.

I wanted to read this one purely because I loved the TV show so much and wanted to see if Big Little Lies the book would live up to the hype. This book is SO close to the TV show it’s kinda unbelievable. Maybe we should let Reese Witherspoon produce all of our adaptations. I once again fell in love with the characters and the slightly different setting. I really enjoyed the third person point of view that focused on the different people as they walk through this town. It was really cool to see Jane and how she struggled with Ziggy in more detail. I just think this book did a really good job and I kind of wished I had read it before I had watched.

Characters in Big Little Lies

The main characters are three women who all have children in the first year at the exclusive primary school. We follow their stories as they navigate a messy divorced husband, a sexual assault and domestic violence. This is what Big Little Lies does SO well. It deals with all of these issues without it ever feeling too heavy. I really enjoyed watching how each of the characters dealt with the secrets in their lives. It really is a brilliant case study into the women’s lives as a whole. Watching them interact with not only their friendship group but the other women in the group became the highlight for me. It was the perfect indication of how things would be at one of those schools. The internalised competition, the snottiness and the belief that one’s child is the best thing ever. It was all portrayed perfectly throughout this story and plot.

My favourite character will always be Madeline and I think that has more to do with the TV show. I loved her humour and the peppy way she took on the world. She was always a joy to read about and so she became the comic relief. It was a weird juxtaposition though, because she was also dealing with her own heavy things. The events never seemed to dampen her spirits. Probably why I loved her so much as a whole.

The good and the bad

I’ve mentioned before that I wished I had read this before watching the program. That’s 100% the case. I loved the book but I felt as though it was almost a pointless exercise. I knew how it was going to end, and I knew what was going on. However, Big Little Lies managed to pull it out of the bag. The ending was even more believable than the program, perfectly done. I think I preferred the way everything was described as well, it gave a more human feel to the story. The TV show feels a little separated and disconnected at times. The book brings all that back into focus in a brilliant way.

One thing I should mention is that I felt this one dragged a little. I wasn’t expecting it to take as long as it did for me to get through. There were moments where boredom took over and sort of wanted to skip ahead. I don’t know whether it was because I had watched the TV show but some of it just seemed unnecessary. I would have loved for there to have been more focus on the politics at the school and less on the individual drama that at times was a little slow.

Recommendation

100% would recommend this book. It was a great read and there were definitely some wonderful moments in there. I will say if you haven’t watched the show yet, read this first! It won’t disappoint. I am going to watch the second series now that I know it isn’t connected to anything that goes on within this book!

Have you read or watched Big Little Lies? What are your favourite parts? Anything you would change? Let me know!