About the Author: Liane Moriarty
Liane Moriarty is the Australian author of six internationally best-selling novels, Three Wishes, The Last Anniversary, What Alice Forgot, The Hypnotist's Love Story and the number 1 New York Times bestsellers, The Husband's Secret and Big Little Lies.
Her breakout novel The Husband's Secret sold over three million copies worldwide, was a number 1 UK bestseller, an Amazon Best Book of 2013 and has been translated into over 40 languages. It spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list. CBS Films has acquired the film rights.
With the launch of Big Little Lies, Liane became the first Australian author to have a novel debut at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. An HBO series based on Big Little Lies is currently in production, starring Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon.
Writing as L.M. Moriarty, Liane has also written a children's book series, The Petrifying Problem with Princess Petronella, The Shocking Trouble on the Planet of Shobble and The Wicked War on the Planet of Whimsy.
Liane lives in Sydney with her husband, son and daughter. Her new novel, Truly Madly Guilty, will be released in July 2016.
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Liane Moriarty
Goodreads rating: 
Paperback, Published in May 2015 by Penguin
ISBN10: 1405916362 | ISBN13: 9781405916363
Page count: 480
Sometimes it’s the little lies that turn out to be the most lethal...
A murder . . . a tragic accident . . . or just parents behaving badly?
What’s indisputable is that someone is dead.
But who did what?
Big Little Lies follows three women, each at a crossroads:
Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny and biting, passionate, she remembers everything and forgives no one. Her ex-husband and his yogi new wife have moved into her beloved beachside community, and their daughter is in the same kindergarten class as Madeline’s youngest (how is this possible?). And to top it all off, Madeline’s teenage daughter seems to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her. (How. Is. This. Possible?).
Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. While she may seem a bit flustered at times, who wouldn’t be, with those rambunctious twin boys? Now that the boys are starting school, Celeste and her husband look set to become the king and queen of the school parent body. But royalty often comes at a price, and Celeste is grappling with how much more she is willing to pay.
New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for the nanny. Jane is sad beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son. But why? While Madeline and Celeste soon take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all.
Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.
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SocialBookCo User Reviews
Jocelyn Michell on 03 Dec 2016
“What we see - and what we think we see. What we know - and what we think we know. This is a novel that ties together the seemingly ordinary lives of school parents, but as is commonly said, "No one knows what goes on behind closed doors."
Big Little Lies portrays a small town community where it is like no one has really left the school yard. Cliquey groups still exist amongst the parents (particularly the mothers), and gossip runs rampant about everything and anything. The story starts off with a rather relaxed paced, introducing the main characters as if one is on a scenic drive of the coastal town and is getting a snapshot view of where the movie stars live. One doesn't really get a sense of who the main characters really are until a few chapters in when their personas begin to take a more solid form. There is also interview-style commentary narration interspersed throughout the novel. At first this may seem distracting and appear a bit disjointed, but as the story winds itself along they serve to reveal the other layers involved in the plot and it all begins to connect quite smoothly.
The three main characters are women: Jane, Madeline and Celeste. They are all close friends and the author illustrates who they are incredibly well through physical descriptions as well as actions, dialogues and the inner thoughts of the characters. The children of the parents are also depicted in detail and like their parents, have their own little secrets to protect and disclose at the appropriate times. Even if one is not a parent, the author is able to draw out sympathy towards parents that are being judged not only on how they appear in the community but also how their children look and behave. Furthermore, while women are key characters in this novel, the male characters such as Perry, Ed, Nathan, and Tom play significant roles in how events unfold and very much influence the lives of the leading ladies.
None of the characters in the book are flawless. They are realistically created by the author to be people one may know in real life. The novel makes one think about the lies and truths that anyone may struggle and deal with day to day. A mother reading this story may connect with a character because she is always running late to drop of her children to school and can feel the intense, judgmental stares of the other drop-off mums as she races to get her children out of the car so she can make it to work on time. A father may share empathy with one of the husband's in this story because his wife also stages a loud protest over some real or imagined incident with another school mum and suddenly he is forced to take sides in something he does not even feel they should be involved in.
Through a mix of mini dramas which hints at building towards a large event, Big Little Lies pulls one along at a constant pace. It keeps one wanting to find out just a little more, and to see what will happen next. The biggest hook in this novel actually is when the mystery surrounding the murder is revealed to the reader. It is normally expected that the how and the why of a murder is the most crucial detail, but it is intriguing how clarifying a connection between characters can result in heart-stopping moment. It is as if the revelation itself is the shocking event as opposed to the actions that followed.
All in all, this is a book that is easy to pick up and put down, but Moriarty's genius comes into play when the reader finally reaches a point in the book where it becomes increasingly hard to put it back down. The eagerness in which the reader will want to find out "what comes next' and "who did what' is timed to perfection. The ending itself comes around full circle and should leave the reader with the just the right amount of contentment. While not a cliff-hanging thriller, Big Little Lies leaves one wanting to see if one really sees and if not, keep looking. ”