Suburban Drama, Darkness and Spectacular Female Characters: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Can we make suburban drama a genre, please?

I have talked and talked about how much I love small town books. Given the fact that suburbia is a small town in itself, I was bound to like this. I just wasn’t prepared for how much I was going to like it. I knew nothing about it going in, I just knew people loved it, so I was very pleasantly surprised.

This is a novel centered around three women and how their lives start to unravel once they all meet. We have Madeline, Celeste and Jane. They are all quite different and lead quite different lives, but I think Moriarty did all of them so well. I am someone who really enjoys reading about female characters, especially the dynamics between different women. I think the strongest point of this book and what made me fall in love with it is how good these characters are written. There’s a sense of deep understanding of women and their relationships and the way they are inclined to act, and I was completely in love with how Moriarty handled that.

It’s rare for me to be so dedicated to multiple characters. I tend to like ones lot more than the others or be indifferent and dislike the others, but I genuinely loved all three of the main characters. While Madeline is my favorite, I was completely invested in both Celeste’s and Jane’s storylines. I felt really connected to all of them, and I was really invested in their stories from the beginning. I really enjoyed how Moriarty managed to make them feel so real and fleshed out which inevitably led to me rooting for them at all times.

I also really enjoyed how the topic of abuse was handled in the book. It’s obvious that Moriarty did her research and I love seeing that. I appreciate the time someone takes to investigate and research a topic they are writing about, especially when it’s an important topic like domestic abuse. Given the fact that I am a psychology student, I was so impressed by how well the author managed to convey the feelings and thoughts of the victim. And how she was able to completely showcase all of the complexity that comes with it. It’s such a difficult and harrowing and complex thing to explore, and Liane Moriarty did it wonderfully.

Those were the two things that made me fall in love with this book. But obviously, the book has a lot going on for it. It’s a page turner. You want to know what happens and you are so invested in the story that you can’t help but keep reading. There’s petty drama and there’s real dark drama and I loved every second of it.

I did not expect the ending per say, but it did not shock me. I thought that the mystery part of the novel was going to be it’s strong point, but it really isn’t. The mystery is well done and intriguing, but the strong point of this story for me were definitely the characters and their dynamic. It was so intricate and really phenomenally done.

Also, there are so many different topics that are explored in here. So much to chew on and really actually think about. It was something I did not expect to see in this novel and I was so glad that that was part of the experience of the book. Obviously I highly recommend this one, you should definitely read it, and you won’t regret it.

Final verdict: 5 stars

The book was made into a TV show and I really wanted to watch the tv show, which was one of the incentives for me to finally pick this one up. I am only two episodes in, but I am enjoying it so far. One thing I would say is that I really like how Reese Whiterspoon portrayed Madeline, and I am okay with Shailene Woodley as Jane, but I really don’t like Kidman’s portrayal of Celeste. With all this in mind, the show looks promising to me, and I am looking forward to it!

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Have you read this? Did you like it? Have you watched the TV show? Let me know!

On a side note, I am trying out this new graphic, and I would love to hear from you! Do you love it? Do you hate it? Any suggestions? Please let me know! I used one of my Instagram pics as a background, and I like it, but I am not sure, so any input is appreciated.

xxx

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