From the Bookshelf of 2015 Reading Challenge [Closed]…

Big Little Lies

Liane Moriarty

Discussion: . Week 28: Antonyms

Discussion leader: Maple

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 31 topics — 178 comments total

. Week 28: Antonyms

* Week 28: Progress Post
By Zaz , Mood Minion · 11 posts · 52 views

last updated Dec 17, 2015 02:14PM

* Week 28: Introduction
By Zaz , Mood Minion · 1 post · 132 views

last updated May 16, 2015 06:50AM

showing 10 of 63 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Jun 08, 2015 Sim Carter rated it it was amazing

Shelves: film, contemporary-fiction, screen-adaptations

Oh this book! It's set in Australia, yes, and in a fictional place that I'm casing out online—that's Manly Beach above—but I'll bet lots of you in the states know the parents of Pirriwee Public school from your own volunteer days with your kid's elementary school and the big mucky-mucks at your PTA. Who knew that Aussies were so much like Americans? Except for saying mums instead of moms, and the charming 'kindy' for kindergarten, and a few other minimally invasive terms, these women and their h Oh this book! It's set in Australia, yes, and in a fictional place that I'm casing out online—that's Manly Beach above—but I'll bet lots of you in the states know the parents of Pirriwee Public school from your own volunteer days with your kid's elementary school and the big mucky-mucks at your PTA. Who knew that Aussies were so much like Americans? Except for saying mums instead of moms, and the charming 'kindy' for kindergarten, and a few other minimally invasive terms, these women and their husbands are just like our US helicopter parents, and I'm betting, the rest of the world's micro-managing brand of mothers and fathers too!

Liane Moriarty perfectly captures that world and those varied voices, hilariously representing the gulf between the usual suspects, warring factions like the moms who wanted all sugary treats banned from the school completely and the parents who not only brought in cupcakes to their kid's class on their birthdays but one-upped the rest of us by baking a couple of extra dozen to drop off in the office and the teacher's lounge, making sure everyone in the school got a cupcake for Bobby's birthday. Every type you've ever met is sketched out in exquisite detail; Moriarty must have walked around with a tape recorder running.

Funny and loaded with snark, there's also a deep, dark ugliness at the core of Big Little Lies. The book begins with the revelation that something has happened at Trivia Night, a much-anticipated school fundraiser. Mrs. Ponder, the old lady who lives across the street from the school notes 'the Pirriwee Public parents were misbehaving'. Indeed. The chapter ends, as all the chapters end, with a variety of quotes from the school's parent body, each weighing in, in pithy and hilarious fashion, often in direct contradiction to each other, on exactly what's at the root of the goings on. The last voice in that first chapter belongs to Detective-Sergeant Adrian Quinlan:

Let me be clear: This is not a circus. This is a murder investigation.
Actually it does feel like a circus, funny and familiar but just like a circus, there's a big, fat elephant in the room. Read the book to find out what it is. After the intro chapter, Moriarty takes us back six months before the Trivia Night, to a kindergarten orientation where we meet the three major mums in the novel.

Madeline, who has just turned forty, is a glittery girl who loves nothing more than flirty, feminine clothes, shoes and a bit of fun. She's also the maternal heart of the novel. More than the clothes and shoes, Madeline is a nurturing caretaker type who would do anything for her family and her friends. Compared to Jane and Celeste, her problems are more of the garden variety type anyone in her position would encounter. Blended, extended families have their challenges. Divorced and remarried, Madeline has a fourteen year old who prefers to spend her time with her father's new family. At the same time she has two children with her second husband, Ed. Fred, her little boy, and Chloe entering kindergarten at Pirriwee.

Celeste is jaw-droopingly beautiful, half of the perfect couple and mother to a pair of high energy twin boys also entering kinder-garten. She lives a stupid-rich life of leisure courtesy of her handsome husband in a home not unlike the Sydney home of Kylie Minogue shown below. That's how I pictured it anyway. How could anyone this beautiful have problems?

Jane—yet to be cast—is a 24 year old single mother who is so young she's occasionally mistaken for a nanny. When Jane's son Ziggy is accused of choking a little girl at orientation, the girl's major mucky muck mother won't let it go and the incident colors the entire year. Nervous, self-effacing, Jane struggles to be her son's advocate. My two top choices to play Jane are Emma Stone and Kristen Stewart, either would work well as the diffident, t-shirt wearing Jane, able to transform into a butterfly when necessary.

Read the rest of my take on the book, plus pictures here: http://bit.ly/1KSksIz ...more

Like · see review

Dec 19, 2014 Stephanie rated it it was amazing

Another case of a book I did not think I was going to enjoy, and I was proven very wrong. I loved the format, the interchanging between the story and the detective questioning the school parents. I like that you are making intelligent guesses with the hints dropped through the entire book, until you get to the crucial "trivia night" and then you're so LET'S GO and you start speed reading.

The characters are on point, between crazy over-obsessive parents (ahem, Renata) and the wackiness of Madelei ...more

Like · see review