A murder . . . a tragic accident . . . or just parents behaving badly?
What’s indisputable is that someone is dead.
But who did what?
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.
Comment: I'm part of that group of readers who dislikes covers with movie ties-in, but it was a fact that once I was randomly browsing books at a bookstore and this title caught my eye, I knew it was hyped because of the series and I still got it. Thankfully, the content was certainly more appealing to me than the cover. And no, I have not watched the series.
In another story set in a suburban neighborhood in Australia, we meet a set of characters whose lives are connected by their small children, who all attend a specific school. The plot is centered on a few characters, and the reason why things change can be linked to the arrival of Jane, a single mother whose financial background isn't as steady as the families in the area. But Jane wants acceptance and she wants a good school for her 5 year old son Ziggy, and she decides this can be a good place for them. As the story develops, however, it seems there is bullying at the school and there are also secrets among the parents, perhaps the combination of both is the turning point for what comes next...
This is the third book I try by this author and one I've ended up enjoying a lot. I kept having the feeling it was very similar in structure and characterization to The Husband's Secret, which I liked but just thinking about the title does not make me remember anything else, so how good could my memory be after all?
Anyway, this story is not what I'd say hugely complex nor terribly demanding in terms of concentration and mystery, even though that label is also attributed to it. When the story begins we know there has been a death and the author decides to carry the readers throughout time, since the school year begun and months before that death, which happened during a special night for the parents, which ended badly when someone died. We only discover who died at the end but let me very honest: who died isn't a big deal in my opinion because the actual story isn't simply about it so I wasn't too concerned about the stress or the mystery of it.
This might not be considered by many readers as a demanding read but I had a great time reading. I liked the experience of reading about these people and their sometimes silly worries. I think the author was quite subtle in some things and I liked the exercise of reading between the lines, but she also used humor here and there and while this is not a comedy, I still found some scenes to be funny. I think her writing style is predictable but engaging and that also counts for enjoyment.
The main characters are Madeline, a bubbly OTT woman but with whom is very easy to sympathize, Celeste who is beautiful but whose marriage isn't as perfect as everyone thinks, and Jane who is single and doesn't seem to be very self confident. As the story moves along, we get to see many of the actions and thoughts of these characters and I can genuinely say I liked them all somehow, in the sense I didn't mind reading from all their POVs, as sometimes we like to stay with a character more than with another.
Many readers comment about the themes in this book, mainly the domestic violence and the bullying, which are sadly hot topics nowadays, and I think the author did a good enough job bringing attention to this in a way that isn't, perhaps, the most known one. Here, the bullying is portrayed in young ages and then, how the character who suffers abuse isn't as traditionally presented as we are used to. I say this because abuse and violence come in many ways and what seems to be the norm might not be the reality of every single person/household where the problem happens.
As expected, there is also a certain element that kind of links all the main characters (some more than others), but while the author only hints at the big secret throughout the novel, I will have to be honest and say: more than predictable, it's incredibly obvious as soon as a specific scene takes place. From then on, I just could not avoid knowing and that did color the rest of my reading experience, but not in a negative way, I suppose I was just waiting for the characters to unite the dots. I wonder, however, how those who did not see the twist come didn't get there...
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