Ahh the latest Liane Moriarty ! I honestly couldn’t wait to get my hands on her new book. I think Moriarty is such a fabulous writer. I first discovered her two years ago, when I read The Husbands Secret — which I gobbled up, it was just so wonderful and juicy. As soon as I finished, I went out and read Big Little Lies (soon-to-be an HBO mini-series, BTW). Loved that too. So I bought another Moriarty book. And the cycle kept continuing. Each book better than her last.
So you can only imagine my glee when her 7th novel, Truly Madly Guilty was released over the Summer, and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to read it. Did it live up to the Moriarty standards? Did I love it? Would I recommend it?
THE MORIARTY STANDARD
Yes, I would definitely say that it was just as enjoyable to read as her other novels. She takes you pretty deep inside each main character, and even supporting characters. She has a great way of really understanding the inner psyche of both men and women, ages two through ninety two. It’s pretty incredible. Chapters are short, quick, it’s totally addicting, and exhilarating to read.
In all honesty, I enjoyed this book, but I didn’t love it. I think my expectations of Truly Madly Guilty were a bit too high. I was a waiting for an amazing plot, chalk full of complex, wonderful characters, and deep twists. This book fell a tiny bit short.
The entire book is centered around a barbecue, and a terrible incident that occurred during it. The book follows the three families at the barbecue, after the incident, and dives deep into how it affected each person as an individual, as well as their relationships with each other afterwards. What was a bit frustrating about this, was it took well over 1/4 of the book (which is north of 400 pages) to get to what the ‘incident’ was. And it wasn’t as horrific as it lead you, the reader, to believe.
Another slightly shocking detail I have to note… I didn’t like any of the characters. And I felt we got to know them pretty well. Each and every one was unlikeable in a unique way. Which I don’t think Moriarty meant to do…
With all of that said, I still very much enjoyed it, and found it quite tough to part with at night. I finished in just about 10 days. Though Moriarty books are not psychological thrillers (read: murder, kidnapping, rape), they still very much suspenseful and intoxicating. She may have fell a tad bit short with this book, but I will certainly read her next book, whenever that’s due to come out.
And that’s why Truly Madly Guilty made the Bee’s Book Club for December.