"Big Little Lies"

My husband bought me this book for Valentine's day. It was a big surprise, I think this is the first book he has ever bought me, so I wasn't expecting it. I don't know where he found "Big Little Lies", by Liane Moriarty, but he said it was supposed to be really good from what he could tell. I started the book with a lot of excitement, but could tell pretty quickly that my husband didn't do his homework when he chose this book. It's a complex story that jumps back and forth between characters and their personal lives. So it is almost like a bunch of little stories that all tie together. All of the main characters are mom's who have kids going into kindergarten together. I only made it through the first 250 pages, but up to that point the story was all about the drama going on in each of the different mom's lives.

One mom is single and has some crap in her past that traumatized her, another mom has a great relationship but her husband occasionally beats her, another mom is controlling and judgmental and makes the other moms feel bad about themselves....really, that's the book. At the end of each chapter it jumps to the future and has a couple of paragraphs about someone that was murdered at a parent meeting at the school. I didn't get far enough into the book to find out what that was all about. Plus there was a lot of content that I would deem as 'inappropriate', which is why I didn't finish the whole book.

I know that there are people out there that feed off of other people's drama, this book is made for them. I try to stay away from 'drama' in real life, there is no way I'm wasting my precious reading time on it. There was also a handful of swear words in every chapter and some sexuality. All in all I would say that this book is probably not worth your time. The only reason I stuck with it as long as I did was because the author does have a way of making her characters come to life. I felt attached to them, almost like I was personally invested in the crap going on in their lives. Even now I can picture the fun and spunky Madeline and what she would be like if she were real.

However, that's not enough to make up for how mind numbing this book is. When I read a book I want to feel like it's impacting me in some positive way. Whether it's a story that really hits home, or the character becomes a type of role model for me, I want to have a good feeling when I get done reading. Every time I put this book down I felt the same way I feel when I browse through a magazine while standing in line at the grocery store. It's just something to distract me while I wait, just a waste of time really. If you haven't read this book, good, don't. If you have read this book, however, great tell me what you thought and I would love to know how it ends without actually having to read it myself!