Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty Review

Hi ForeverBookers, 

How are you all today? I've just finished a great contemporary book!

4 Stars!

NOTE: There are scenes of abuse and bullying in Big Little Lies so if you're sensitive about either of those topics this book maybe isn't for you. 

Big Little Lies tells several stories at once. There's the story about the trivia night that runs throughout, the story of who one of the main character's father is, the story of an abuse victim, a story of a teenage girl putting her virginity up for sail in the internet and the main story for most of the book, little children lying about who bullied another child. All these stories were handled well. 

We see the characters, both major and minor be interviewed throughout because of the murder that happened on trivia night. I'll be honest in saying that at the beginning of the book I thought that another character had been killed so it was a surprise to read what actually had happened. 

Spoilers below...

The main characters are written well. Jane is very protective of her son, Ziggy so when she hears that he's hit another child she doesn't believe it. Another story that involves Ziggy is the reader finding out who his father is. This is probably where the title Big Little Lies stems from because although Ziggy himself never finds out in the novel because he's only 5 years old, we as the readers do after many lies, twists and turns. 

Celeste is the character that's being abused by her husband, Perry. She's written well, too. You can tell the author did her research about abuse victims, and what makes the abuser abuse in the first place.

Madeline is the character who's daughter is selling herself online to the highest bidder. This was interesting to read. Abigail only wants to support and raise awareness of children who do have to sell themselves for money. She's willing to do it, too. It's only when she receives an email from someone she doesn't know, telling her they'll pay a lot of money to her cause that she takes the auction down. It's said that Madeline and Abigail are as stubborn as each other. Madeline has split up with Abigail's father and is instead married to Ed. We see all of these characters sometimes struggle with life. Abigail wants to go and live with her father and his new wife at one point because she's sick of living with her mum.

The book, Big Little Lies is set in Australia because the author is Australian. I don't read many books that are set here, so it's nice to vary it up a little. I believe the TV show, Big Little Lies is however set in the USA. I plan on watching the show soon, now that I've read the book. 

What I liked about Big Little Lies...

I liked the amount of stories involved and how they each touched on a different demographic of people (bullies, those that are abuse sufferers, those wanting to do whatever they can to help charities etc).

I liked how the author did her research about these storylines. It really felt that I was reading true life events, however shocking they were.

I liked how we were kept guessing until the last few chapters, just what did happen on trivia night.

What I didn't like about Big Little Lies...

I thought that the first 100 or so pages were rather slow. For epic fantasy that's okay because the world needs to be built but in a contemporary I think events should move along faster. 

I thought the story wrapped up a little too nicely. I would have liked to have seen more conflict. 

Overall, I really enjoyed Big Little Lies so that's why I'm giving it 4 stars. The only things that let me down were the pacing of the first 100 pages and the wrap up. I look forward to watching the TV series soon so I can compare them and choose which my favourite is. 

Stand by for my next review that will be coming in a few days :).