Thursday 29 January 2015

BIG LITTLE LIES

This was a long-pending read.Seeing that it has been consistently on top on the New York times bestseller list,I finally decided to pick it up and I am so pleased I did.

The story takes place in an Australian sea-side town,when a chance meeting between three parents of kindergartners brings them closer as friends.

The three women have very different personalities,theres Madeline,who is a no-nonsense mom,who believes in calling a spade a spade,remembers everything and forgives noone but is still trying to grapple with the fact that her ex-husband and his wife have moved to the same town and even have a kid in the same class at the same school as hers and to top it all she also has to deal with a lot of drama from her older teenage daughter who seems to be choosing Madelines ex-husband over her.

Celeste is beautiful and wealthy and has the perfect husband,family and home but is somehow always flustered and trying to hide a secret and then theres Jane, a single mother who is new to the town and is trying to over come her past.


The story however begins with the knowledge that there is a death on Trivia Night in school but you dont know which parent died or which parent caused it.


My Views:This book was unputdownable and I read it compulsively through the night despite having to go to work the next morning.


The story was so intriguing,that there was never a dull moment.The characters are so real and relatable that you feel that you might really know them from somewhere in real life.I found myself actually rooting for them.

I loved Madeline the most.She was the perfect friend,kind and always ready to help even when she was facing a crisis.Besides, their distinctive personalities were very well portrayed,their reactions to the events being just as natural as can be.

There were many laugh out loud moments in the book and it was fast paced.Issues like bullying,domestic abuse are handled efficiently and weaved into the story.The problem of bullying is universal and aptly described,also the way parents are quick to judge other parents and their kids is something which does happen everywhere.

We were told in advance about the murder and we had to work it backward and that was new and made the story even more interesting.


We learn about the death through snippets of gossip interspersed throughout the book as comments made by parents and then the story as it actually unfolds is narrated.My brain went into over-drive trying to figure out how it would all end.


We are shown how judgements can be so flawed based on the superficiality of the way we percieve things.Dont we all go through it at some level or the other,readily believing whatever we see and judging things from the looks of it.How we readily judge other peoples lives based on their glossed over facebook updates.Sometimes there is much more than meets the eye.

We discover that people tell dangerous little lies just to be able to face the day or sometimes to disguise the big ones.

Everything leads up to the trivia night,the night of big revelations and disaster.


The end was perfect and the way the book is written is impressive.I loved it.

I rate it a 4 out of 5.



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