Everything You Could Possibly Want to Know About GUILT, if you have the patience to get through the book. NOT this author’s best. Awarded two stars on Goodreads.
From the title, it’s no surprise that the theme of this book is “guilt.” In all its forms. Every character in the story deals with guilt of a different kind, in a different way. But ALL are profoundly affected by it.
It’s a story of three couples – two of whom have children (who also feel guilt). All attend a neighborhood barbecue where a devastating event occurs. It makes the plot absorbing and I did keep turning pages. But I found myself getting increasingly annoyed by the structure of the novel. It jumps around in time. It jumps from one character’s narrative to another. And you won’t find out what the “big event” is until 2/3rds of the way though.
Liane Moriarty
I simply didn’t find this device added anything to the book. Instead, I felt like I was being continually teased and kept thinking – enough already, tell me what happened. So, to me the structure hurt the flow. And the end seemed to tie up the storylines a little too neatly to be believable.
At the same time, I fully expect others will have a completely different reaction. So feel free to grab this one. It’s just not my favorite one of the four I’ve ready by Liane Moriarty.
Toby A. Smith 