BIG LITTLE TRUTHS by Liane Moriarty

 

By Margaret S. Hamilton

 

 

“Mary-Louise leaned forward and poked Bonnie in the center of her chest, just beneath her collarbone, the same way she’d poked Celeste in the shoulder earlier that night. Her tone was like hard candy: sweet and brittle. ‘Murdered anyone lately, Bonnie?’” (p.73)

 

 

 

Remember Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies, published to popular acclaim in 2014 and followed by the dark comedy HBO series? The five women characters have returned in a sequel, Big Little Truths. It’s the best book I’ve read in 2026.

 

Set in a small town near Sydney, Australia, Moriarty’s two books combine a traumatizing incident with the often hilarious actions of the five women. In the sequel set ten years after the first book, Madeline faces a cancer scare and upcoming marriage of her older daughter. Widowed Celeste works remotely for a legal publisher and picks up the new guy in town. With her husband in prison for financial crimes, Renata starts her new life taking motorcycle lessons. Jane is married and pondering another pregnancy. Bonnie discovers that yoga will not solve all of life’s problems. An additional character, Mary-Louise, Celeste’s annoying mother-in-law, continues to meddle in Celeste’s life.

 

The kindergarten children in the first book are now fifteen and enrolled in the local high school. A new, charismatic history teacher, Melody Montclair, joins the faculty. The new principal receives a dead man’s severed finger in the mail.

 

As in Where’d You Go Bernadette? or Up the Down Staircase, the narrative is enhanced by frequent postings from the principal and the school parents’ Whatsapp site. The transcript of a group therapy session for the kids runs through the book, providing perspective on their joint history project and daily interactions with each other.

 

Josh and Max are Celeste’s twin surfing sons. Ziggy is their half-brother. Amabella is Renata’s talented and gifted daughter. Chloe is Madeleine’s younger daughter and Skye is Bonnie’s daughter and Chloe’s half-sister.

 

And we’re off to the races: in addition to all the personal drama the five women are facing as they turn fifty, a middle-aged man driving a green Volvo lurks around town, asking questions about the new history teacher. While researching Ms. Montclair’s past, the kids discover a high school student trafficking situation, which they reveal in a short documentary video. Almost as an afterthought, the source of the severed finger is revealed.

 

As a veteran parent of three teenagers, I found the transcript of the kid’s comments hilarious, much more interesting than the petty and more serious problems of their parents. The transcript drives the plot and the teens solve the mystery. The parents realize they owe their kids complete explanations about past events, the “big little truths.”

 

Moriarty’s descriptions are sheer perfection, and she has the uncanny ability to elevate mundane domestic details—Madeline getting her hair styled—into an accurate portrayal of the character.

 

Readers and Writers, do you enjoy a blend of tension and dark comedy?

 

Margaret S. Hamilton writes the Jericho Mystery series.

 

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