Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
Review by Mirah W. (mwelday)
Liane Moriarty is one of the authors I have really fallen in love with over the past couple of years. I’ve read five of her books so far and each one has a gripping, need-to-read feel. I know many readers have not been overly complimentary of Truly Madly Guilty but I tend to disagree.
Mirah gets a book signed by Liane Moriarty
I had the pleasure of attending a book event with Liane Moriarty during her promotional tour for Truly Madly Guilty. She was funny, personable, and self-deprecating. I could instantly see how her personality had come through in her books. Moriarty said one common theme for all of her books is guilt and what different people do when they carry a burden of guilt. I thought back to her books I had read and realized that guilt did, indeed, have a some role in every story but in Truly Madly Guilty, guilt is front and center in the plot.
Truly Madly Guilty is about six characters who attend a barbecue where ‘something’ happens that changes their lives. But what happened?! Moriarty does drag out the story and leave the readers wondering for quite a while. I admit, I felt very uncomfortable reading this book most of the time. I had a sinking feeling in my gut during all of the chapters that took place at the barbecue…what was about to happen? I felt nervous and apprehensive the more I read and even though I didn’t really like the characters, I had to keep reading. I had a similar reaction while reading Gone Girl, check out my review to that novel here on the blog. I think when an author has the ability to create such a visceral reaction to a story then she must be doing something right!
The characters in Truly Madly Guilty were not my favorite literary characters. I had a difficult time relating to any of them and that did make it more complicated for me to really care about what happened to them. However, the mystery of the barbecue kept me reading so I decided to give this novel 4 out of 5 stars. For a 5 star Moriarty recommendation, I would suggest The Husband’s Secret.
Tags: Book Recommendations, Book Reviews, Book Suggestions, Fiction, Mystery
