Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty

Fiction - Mystery & Thriller: 5 books

Author:  Lianne Moriarty
Publisher:  Berkley
Published Date:  August 2015 
512 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-425-27486-6​

Book Blurb:
Sometimes it's the little lies that turn out to be the most lethal.
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.  These three women are a 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 dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.

MY THOUGHTS:
An unlikely trio of women become friends during the first day of school orientation for their 5-year old children.  If only it was that easy.  The books starts with a murder which took place at a parent/teacher Trivia Night.  Although the place was full of people nobody seems to know what happened including the ones that were at the scene.  The story focuses on Madeline, Celeste and Jane.  Madeline is a firecracker.  She’s someone who would bat for you if she considers you a friend but who you wouldn't want to be on her bad side.  Jane is young, quiet and shy but with a secret that she's scared anyone will find out.  Celeste is in a word - beautiful.  She walks into a room and people literally trip over themselves to stare at her.  Her life and her husband are what everyone hopes to have.  However, they all have their own dilemmas.  Moriarty does a great job keeping you engaged in the mystery while divulging what is going on in these woman's personal lives. 
 
I really enjoyed this book and was hooked from the beginning.  While the book is a suspense/thriller there's also is an element of humor.  Oftentimes I found myself laughing at the snippets of the various parents trying to tell the detective what happened that night.  While some were drunk or weren’t even in the area of the murder, many couldn’t quite help divulge the personal information of some of the parents there.  In the meantime, the detective is trying to figure out what happened and we get a pretty good idea of how cliquey the school has become.  The story had me guessing up until the end and I definitely didn’t expect the outcome.
 
What did you think of the characters?  Would you have been friends with Madeline, Jane and/or Celeste?  Could you relate to any part of the problems that they had? Did you think Moriarty did a good job telling the story?  Is there anything you would change?  Did you know who did it before it was revealed?  Do you think the ending came together?