Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

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. She comes with a mysterious past and a sadness beyond her years. These three women are at 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 little lies that can turn lethal.

What can I say? I absolutely loved this book! Moriarty keeps the reader engrossed with her effortless prose and gossipy passages that introduce the reader to more characters and provide just enough foreshadowing to keep them intrigued. And it is so believable! She then takes the reader back in time to sort out all of the incidents which lead up to the big event—the murder. The witnesses’ descriptions of what exactly happened on the Trivia Night are amazingly comedic and distorted. There are three sides to every story; mine, yours, and the truth.

The characters are so varied and layered—Moriarty encompasses all types of mums and personalities. Many of these characters exhibit the type of schoolyard behaviours other characters' children are accused of (cruelty and bullying). Each character is also hiding something be it a personality trait, or a deeper, darker secret.

I highly recommend this book—a really fun read!