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Apples Never Fall

Liane Moriarty

Start date: November 1, 2022

Finish date: November 30, 2022

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Oct 05, 2021 Michael rated it liked it

Shelves: fall-reading-2021, read-in-2021

The Delaney family history is intricately tied to the world of tennis. Stan and Joy meet and fell in love playing tennis and ran a successful and prestigious Australian tennis academy for years. Each of their four children played the game, with varying levels of success.

Now grown and having taken a step back from the world of tennis, the Delaneys world is shaken up with a mysterious woman shows up on Stan and Joy's doorstep and is taken in, and then months later, Joy vanishes, leaving her cell The Delaney family history is intricately tied to the world of tennis. Stan and Joy meet and fell in love playing tennis and ran a successful and prestigious Australian tennis academy for years. Each of their four children played the game, with varying levels of success.

Now grown and having taken a step back from the world of tennis, the Delaneys world is shaken up with a mysterious woman shows up on Stan and Joy's doorstep and is taken in, and then months later, Joy vanishes, leaving her cell phone behind. Suspicion falls on Stan, who isn't forthcoming with answers. Of course, neither are the Delaney children who each harbor their own secrets and are firmly divided on whether or not Stan did something nefarious to their mother.

And yet, despite all this swirling of potential family drama, Liane Moriarty's The Apples Never Fall falls into the same trap as many of her other offerings -- it simply overstays its welcome. The central mysteries (who is the girl, where is Joy?) propel the first third to half of the novel, as do the character-building of the various children and their secrets. But its once we get to the fateful Father's Day (which is heavily foreshadowed to the point they might as well put flashing neon signs saying, "This is important!" above passages about it), that things began to derail a bit.

Part of this could be that the group of siblings tied to a sport and having daddy issues was explored already this year in Malibu Rising (and probably better done there, to be honest). Part of it could be that Moriarty's books all seem to tread water in the middle third, not really dolling out new information so much as presenting things we already know again, just from another character's take on it. I'm all for giving us character insights by showing us how various characters react to the same circumstances. It's just that the insights should feel like insights rather than attempts to pad the overall page count.

Maybe I am just not cut out for the domestic thriller. Maybe I have different expectations of the central mystery in a novel that advertises itself as a mystery.

Or maybe I should just consider this the final confirmation that while Moriarty can create a hell of a set-up that taking the journey of reading her novels fully isn't necessarily for this reader. ...more

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Dec 27, 2022 Jenn rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, 2022-finished

My first thought when I started this book was "wow another tennis story." Just felt odd to read 2 tennis stories in one year. I didn't think tennis was a very popular back round story.

The Delaneys are a tennis family. Stan and Joy met and married because of tennis. They were good players in their own right when they were young. Once the babies started coming they decided to open up their own tennis school. They were popular and successful. They had one student who Stan thought could win it all, My first thought when I started this book was "wow another tennis story." Just felt odd to read 2 tennis stories in one year. I didn't think tennis was a very popular back round story.

The Delaneys are a tennis family. Stan and Joy met and married because of tennis. They were good players in their own right when they were young. Once the babies started coming they decided to open up their own tennis school. They were popular and successful. They had one student who Stan thought could win it all, Harry Haddad. Stan and Joy had four children together, Amy, Logan, Troy and Brooke.

This book reads split into past and present. A young woman arrives on their doorstep in the middle of the night with a story of domestic abuse and Joy takes her in. Her name is Savannah and she makes her way into trying to be part of the family. Even though the kids are all adults now they are harboring a little resentment towards Savanah. The book takes us through each of the four children and part of their childhood and their present day troubles.

The present part of this story has Joy missing and the finger pointing goes to Stan that he killed her, but there's no body. While all this is going on we learn more about the kids and their troubles in their lives. We also learn how the kids were when they were young.

The story seemed engaging and interesting in the beginning but the story just kept going on and on and on. It felt a little longer than it needed to be. By about the middle of the book it sounded a bit repetitious. Stan and Joy's marriage of 50 years kept being talked about. How there were ups and downs because of their chosen profession. Both seemed to harbor ill feelings towards each other because of this.

The ending, just wow. The very end brings the pandemic into play. I didn't even realize this book was set up in modern times. It felt a little forced and it gave the book an awkward ending. The entire Joy storyline felt a little disappointing and just anti climatic after all the pages being read.

I have mixed feelings on the book. It was fun to become part of the famed Delaneys lives, but the book got to be a bit word vomitty. It definitely could of been a shorter book. It felt like there were too many themes and ideas running throughout the book. It was alright read. ...more

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