Early Review of Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

Title: Truly Madly Guilty
Classification: Adult Fiction
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Format: Hardcover; 432 pages
Publisher: Flatiron Books (July 26, 2016)
ISBN-10: 1250069793
ISBN-13: 978-1250069795
Author's Website: http://lianemoriarty.com.au/
Notes: I received this book at BEA from the person behind me while we were waiting in line for another book--Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. I was acting as a placeholder for my daughter when I noticed the lady behind me was reading Truly Madly Guilty. I made a comment that I liked the author and didn't know her book was being given away. She finished the book before she had my daughter reached the end and gave it to her to give to me. So a great big THANK YOU to the person whose name I don't know.

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One moment, if it's the right or wrong moment, can change your perspective, your outlook, or your opinion of yourself, your life, or the world. One moment happened to three families who got together for a seemingly ordinary barbecue, but it ended up being anything but...

This was a novel that touches upon some of today's most common fears, and how different people handle different situations. Liane Moriarty has this uncanny knack for capturing human emotions on paper, and if anyone else had written this story, I'd probably been bored and a touch disappointed. She however, like a gifted composer, intertwines the melody "emotions" of the instruments "people" and creates something which captivates her audience.

I confess, this one drove me a little crazy at the beginning because we don't find out exactly what happened at the barbecue until the last quarter of the book. The book alternates between the present and the past. The past is slowly revealed through the alternating chapters letting us know what transpired for all three families on the day of the barbecue. The chapters dealing with the present let us know how each person is coping with the aftermath of what happened. To me, the actual event was minimal compared to the reactions it inspired. From the slowly divulged snippets we were given, I initially thought something quite different had occurred. When the actual "incident" was disclosed, I felt perhaps Ms. Moriarty should have taken the full plunge and made the "incident" more tragic or at least stretched out the (Forgive me for I'm struggling with how do I say this without revealing what happened.) length of time it took before the full extent of consequences were exposed. I just felt it would have been a better fit to the reactions we observe. That being said, I loved the way Ms. Moriarty brought everything together at the end.

Overall, I gave this one 4 out of 5 roses. While I thought the reactions were a bit too dramatic for what took place, I enjoyed the story. The twists that are revealed, and the way the ending clicks the final puzzle pieces of that evening into place was nicely done. There was a nice congruency between what happened in the past to someone else and what happened at the barbecue. It gave us a peek of how things could have played out if things had ended differently. Likewise, I enjoyed another incident that happens toward the end which showed one character just how quickly things can transpire, and helps him come to terms with what happened. I felt the parallelism of the three events was well done.