Off My Bookshelf is a new monthly feature where every month I take a book off my bookshelf, one that I've had a for a while and put it on the top of my TBR because it's all too easy to get caught up in the shiny new releases; older books need some love too.
Big Little Lies follows three women, each at a crossroads:
Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny and biting, passionate, she remembers everything and forgives no one. Her ex-husband and his yogi new wife have moved into her beloved beachside community, and their daughter is in the same kindergarten class as Madeline’s youngest (how is this possible?). And to top it all off, Madeline’s teenage daughter seems to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her. (How. Is. This. Possible?).
Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. While she may seem a bit flustered at times, who wouldn’t be, with those rambunctious twin boys? Now that the boys are starting school, Celeste and her husband look set to become the king and queen of the school parent body. But royalty often comes at a price, and Celeste is grappling with how much more she is willing to pay.
New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for the nanny. Jane is sad beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son. But why? While Madeline and Celeste soon take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all.
Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.
In January I read Big Little Lies by Liane Moriaty which I've been wanting to read for ages, mostly because I've been hearing all about the TV series with Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman and was determined to read the book first.
That's backfired on me a little bit actually because the tv series is now not on either Netflix or Amazon and I'm wondering whether to get a subscription to Now TV just so I can watch it (and catch up on Nashville and my boyfriend can watch Dexter....) but I digress.
I was off work sick on Friday which meant I spent the day on the sofa with my kittens napping and reading Reading this book as it happens. Yup, this falls into the category of read it in a day. It's a really really good read. It's an excellent plot, with excellent characters and strikes just the right balance between family drama and thriller. I also love the way the story was told as a countdown to the murder and how you don't even know who the victim is. It's so clever.
It starts off like it's a story about a group of women whose children are just about to start nursery, a book about schoolyard politics and cliques, lighthearted but realistic, but then quickly proves itself to be much more, to go much deeper tackling bullying and domestic and sexual abuse and infidelity and co-parenting after a divorce.
And then, AND THEN you realise its a murder mystery also and there's all this stuff going on and it's marvellous. You don't even know for sure who the victim is and isn't that a brilliant thing?!
I just really really liked it. It was the perfect sick day read - mostly because it made me forget how crappy I was feeling because it was just that compelling and the pacing, actually, I felt was spot on. It never dragged and I never felt rushed. I love that I got time to get to know these women, to revel in their relationship to one another, to figure out how they worked and I loved that got to do that whilst trying to figure out whodunit (and indeed, to who) and that there were enough red herrings to keep me well and truly guessing.
I've gone Nine Perfect Strangers on my kindle and I can't wait to read it, and then get stuck into Liane Moriarty's whole back catalogue.
And I'm so tempted to get that Now TV subscription because I think Nicole Kidman will be the perfect Celeste....
