Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

truly madly guilty

Hello, #KindleRead! October saw quite a bit of travel and appointments for me. That meant a lot of waiting around, or not wanting to carry a bunch of books around. I was reading Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Galbadon, but I just couldn’t do it. It was dragging, so I left it unfinished. Thanks to Overdrive/Libby, I was able to rent Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty!

kindle paperwhite truly madly guilty

I LOVED Big Little Lies, so I had high hopes for Truly Madly Guilty.

The Story

The story follows three couples and their families. There’s Clementine and Sam, with their two young daughters; Vid and Tiffany with their tween-ish daughter; and Erika and Oliver. The entire story connects all back to “The Day of the Barbecue”. We switch back and forth from the actual day to a few months after the barbecue.

There are all of these allusions to a “thing” that happened at the barbecue. All of the players remain in the story, so no one has died. None of the couples are really talking anymore, so you know something happens. For a hot minute, I thought it had turned into a swingers party, I’m not going to lie. That’s the only reasonable explanation for how they were behaving.

FINALLY, you get to the crux of the incident. I was surprised with how anticlimactic it felt. I can’t share any more details on it, but it wasn’t quite the story that I wanted it to be.

Then, this massive bomb (compared to the incident itself) is dropped in the last chapter or so of the book. It’s like Ms. Moriarty leaves it and walks away. She spent so much time going back and forth in time that she ran out of space to fit in some repercussions where they belonged.

My Feelings on Truly Madly Guilty

I was a little disappointed! Honestly, my hopes were probably too high after Big Little Lies. I could not put that book down. This one, I feel let down! The heart of my frustration does come from all of the back and forth. It seems to be a growing trend in a lot of the more suspenseful novels I’ve read, so maybe it’s just a staple of the genre. When Goodreads asked me for my star rating, I really felt I had to give it three stars!

I actually talked with a coworker in our Book Club about Truly Madly Guilty, and she had very similar sentiments. However, we’re not ready to give up on Liane Moriarty yet, so here’s to hoping for better books down the road!

Don’t forget to follow my #bookstagram, @downthebookjar!

Note: This post contains affiliate links, so I may receive a small commission from sales generated, at no cost to you!

Leave a Reply