Review: Truly madly guilty by Liane Moriarty

3.25/5stars

I have really mixed feelings about this book. On one hand I really enjoyed it and couldn't put it down, but on the other hand I had many issues with it. 

I enjoy Moriarty's writing immensely, and this is my 4th book by her. I only have 3 to go I think before I'm finished with all of her works. She writes with a punch, with truth and with hilarity. The situations that her characters get into are both incredulous and very real. Every book is like an immersion into somebody else crumbling world, and I love every minute of it. 

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“No one warned you that having children reduced you right down to some smaller, rudimentary, primitive version of yourself, where your talents and your education and your achievements meant nothing.”

Truly Madly Guilty features an array of the most unlikable characters I've ever met in one single book. At first I tried to pick who I liked the most, but in the end I ended up picking the ones I hated the least. 

​At first I thought I identified with Erika, but as the book progressed I found it very hard to even be able to stand her. In the end I was left feeling neutral about her, she wasn't so horrid after all. I enjoyed Tiffany a lot until something about her was released and to me it was a double no-no. First she lied about it and then what she did was just so humanly unethical I lost all my sympathy for her. The only character I liked and enjoyed were Dakota and Oliver.

I also really didn't like how the neighbor's story played out. It felt like what happened to him was just a punishment for being a grouchy old man, although he had all of the reasons to be one. That really left a bad taste in my mouth. 

What I didn't like the most of all was how Holly's arc was handled. I definitely didn't see how keeping quiet and not doing anything about it would be good for a child development? What happened and how it was handled was so totally wrong. 

Also plot wise the book kept dragging its feet like no other. It honestly could have been at least 100 pages shorter and nothing would have been lost. I get  that the author wanted to build suspense leading up to the main event, but when the main event did happen I was underwhelmed because of all of that suspense let me to believe that something even bigger was coming. 

​This was an entertaining read, but I feel like the characters didn't learn much from their mistakes, and some mistakes were covered up completely, thus I feel like as a reader I didn't get anything worthy out of the book, except some entertainment and some witty and hilarious dialogs. And some absurd characters with their absurd habits and kinks. 

Definitely my least favorite of Moriarty's books, but I still kind of enjoyed it somehow, and definitely will read more of her.