“..a fantastically nimble writer, so sure-footed that the book leaps between dark and light seamlessly.”

 

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

I recommended Big Little Lies on the page late last year but it actually took me an age to get around to reading it myself, finally picking it up over Christmas while I had some spare time. The novel is set around a school yard of a respectable school, but as you scratch the surface there are some big little lies causing problems.

It’s not a spoiler to tell you that someone dies and the police are investigating, because the novel is written backwards. In the very first chapters there’s a death at school trivia night and then as the course of the police investigation time is rolled back and you see the events running up to the evening.

I got completely engrossed in this tale of school yard politics, family strife and small town secrets and lost a few hours sleep playing the ‘one more chapter’ game. Big Little Lies really draws you in and you almost feel part of the story, and with likeable and not so likeable characters it really could be your own school yard.

I have to confess I got so completely engrossed with the story that I completely lost the plot, quite literally and by the time I’d got to the last few chapters I suddenly remembered that the book had started with a death and we were almost back there chronologically, I found myself surprised that suddenly one of these characters I had grown fond of might be about to die and I was suddenly distraught imagining who it could be.

The ending does not disappoint, this is a great novel and aptly named. You won’t fail to get drawn into the schoolyard gossip, lies and dramas at Pirriwee Public School. This is the first Liane Moriarty novel I have read but it won’t be the last.

 

Reviewed by:

Kath Cross

Added 3rd March 2015

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Kath Cross