Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

Amy      
Lynnie

contemporary fiction

Amy's Review 

At first, I was annoyed that Moriarty was copying the general structure of her previous novel Big Little Lies. That is, some event had happened and we were reading about it from the various viewpoints of players, peeling back the story in layers to finally get to the crux of the event. These viewpoints took place in fragmented pieces both leading up to the event and after the event. I had loved this crafty structure in Big Little Lies but feared it would be tiresome in a second novel. Sometimes, it was a bit tricky to figure out my position along the timeline. But, it was generally followable. And, by the time I was a quarter of the way through the book, I was hooked and really enjoying it.

In my opinion, it’s not quite as good as Big Little Lies. I’m sure the fact that the general structure is not unique is part of my lower opinion because I highly value creativity. I think the main reason it’s not as good is that the “event(s)” in this story aren’t as shocking as the murder in Big Little Lies. Also, while I enjoyed the more realistic (less outlandish/extreme) characters in Truly Madly Guilty, the main relationship in the story is a fairly sad one—a friendship which isn’t really a friendship. So, the undertone is not happy and I did not really appreciate that dysfunction.

The narrator of the audiobook was terrific. There was even an interview at the end of the audiobook between the author and the narrator which was interesting. So, I learned that this voice actor has read a few of Moriarty’s novels and I can see why they keep asking her do them. I give her an A.

Lynnie's Review

I love Liane Moriarty, but I didn't love Truly Madly Guilty. The good news is that I didn't hate it either.

Once again Moriarty has crafted a story full of layers that are slowly peeled back to reveal the main event in question. Unlike Big Little Lies where we know what happened, just not how, in Truly Madly Guilty we don't find out WHAT, exactly happened until more than halfway through the book. It's just a strange dance back and forth between how blissfully ignorant everyone was before the barbecue and how spun up & remorseful they were afterward. Bliss, remorse, repeat. Meanwhile, with all the suggestions and hints by the time the barbecue arrived and the events unfolded, I had figured out what was going to happen so that when it was revealed it was very anti-climatic.

Still, I like Moriarty's writing and her characters are interesting even if this story fell flat for me.