Big Little Lies

I loved the commentary at the start and finish of each chapter. It really added to the story and pulled me in deeper.

Okay, you've almost certainly heard of this one. You might even be thinking that The Husband's Secret is a more obvious choice for this list. But I'm including BLL anyway because I couldn't believe how enthralling it was (even though I've been a Liane Moriarty fan since The Hypnotist's Love Story).

Many of the entries on this list have depicted a marriage that looks perfect from the outside but is rotten within. This book inverts this formula, or at least complicates it—Celeste thinks her marriage is perfect (or is telling herself she thinks that), but it's obvious from the… show more.

I binge-watched the series on an overseas flight and got no sleep. I finished the entire series in one sitting. International flights from Australia are long hauls. At home, I grabbed the book from my bookcase. It had been waiting patiently in my to-be-read stash. Why did I wait so long? The book offers the added bonus of the author’s deeper story.

Moriarty reveals the plot from multiple viewpoints, highlighting how none of us can know what someone else is thinking or going through, what they're capable of, and what secrets they're keeping. I didn’t know what to believe, and… show more.

This book created a whole new genre of contemporary fiction—mom drama intersecting with kid drama…and someone dies. The novel is pacey, keenly observant of social mores, and highlights prime emotional real estate: mothers’ hearts.

I loved how Moriarty explored the jagged edges of schoolyard friendships among child groups and adult groups. Messy, in the best way.

A compulsively readable exploration of friendship and motherhood, this book is hard not to devour in one sitting. The friendships that form between Madeline, Celeste, and Jane are so beautifully rendered–at once specific and universal–it’s no wonder the wildly popular TV adaptation is currently slated for a third season. 

Don’t mess with mamas and their babies. I loved how this group of women were flawed, petty, and mean but protective over their children and even each other.

It’s set amid beauty and wealth, but the baseness of human nature still manages to tarnish what is otherwise a picturesque life. I am a fan of that juxtaposition, lest we covet and pine for those same trappings, only to realize we all fall short of the glory.

If anyone’s life seems perfect, you can be sure that it isn’t. Big Little Lies follows a group of school moms, in a nice neighborhood, who bond and support each other while hiding massive secrets.

Liane Moriarty is a master at crafting relatable characters who feel real, like people you know from the school gates, only more glamorous. The idyllic suburban setting is equally vivid, while the twists keep coming. This isn’t a typical whodunnit but an exploration of the truths women hide from themselves and each other.

You’ve probably read it already, but if you haven’t–grab it.

I seriously could not put this book down for the three days it took me to read it.

It’s a breathless page-turner, and the levels and layers of characterization, twists and turns of the plot, and suspense were so intriguing. I couldn’t wait to find out what secrets from the past the characters were hiding that led them to their present dilemmas.

It was inspirational and cautionary at the same time and made me think, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” The book was a tribute to ultimate goodness and reason and an affirmation of our common… show more.

This novel is so much more than a funny and heart-breaking mystery involving three very different women with kids attending the same kindergarten.

Celeste is a victim of gaslighting and sexual abuse by her wealthy husband and she demonstrates only too well how difficult it is for victims to leave their abusers who have convinced them that how they see the world is wrong and their abuser is right.

Jane, a reclusive and timid single mom, is the victim of a rape that changed her life and personality. She has kept the rape a secret and it haunts her, until… show more.

This book opens with Madeleine, one of the three central female characters, debating what it means to be 40.

Throughout the book, Moriarty certainly shows us that midlife needn’t ever be boring and that when women get together, they can be unstoppable.

We may not want to be part of this community of lies and half-truths, but we’re rooting for them all the way.