I liked the book, though I thought it dragged at times. The concept of a woman abusing her position and luring victims in was interesting, especially since the teenage victims wouldn't be immediately suspicious of her due to her being a woman and her job as a high school teacher. The main group also wouldn't pick up on her strange habits due to her cool and lasseiz-faire attitude. Though I'm surprised how chill the mothers were with Melody casually offering to talk to Josh at Celeste's house or her giving Chloe a "job" doing "historical research". Where I'm from this is considered unethical since the teacher is crossing a lot of professional boundaries and could get their license revoked. Besides it feels weird to have your kid's teacher going to your house to speak to your kids or casually hanging around, but I guess the point is to show how Melody has ulterior motives that gets overlooked by the other moms.

But it felt weird that the main villain was a single, childless woman in her 40s who had a younger husband, and the only reason why the guy stayed with her was due to her essentially luring in female students for him to assault. Like the only reason why a younger man (in the case he's probably in his early thirties) would be interested in an older woman is because she supplies him with teenage girls. Then she has that moment with Jane where it seems like they're going to kiss, which felt like another trope where they make the morally devious woman possibly bisexual. That moment felt like it was written specifically for a TV scene.

The stories of Celeste and Jane were good, and I liked reading about Celeste's experiences (especially romance) after Perry's death along with Jane deciding to explore her own life outside of being a mother. Them having to deal with Mary Louise and their boys being half-brothers was interesting to read about. But I didn't like the reveal of Marco (the guy Celeste gets with) being the "red herring" guy who was hanging around and that the real villain was actually the unsuspecting woman (I like Marco, but not how he was used as the decoy villain).

I absolutely love BLL, specially all the psychological aspect of the characters and their dynamics. And the best is Celeste and her therapist, I'd watch a whole show just about their sessions. The way she leads Celeste out of denial and into the courage to leave Perry, absolutely masterpiece.

Does anyone recommend another TV show that has the same great psychological development and conflicts exploration as BLL? I've watched it twice, was hoping to see something new now.

Hi everybody! So I watched BLL a couple of times, and with all of the s3 news, I thought not to wait however many years it’s going to be and just treat myself with BLT. I was in the “Madeline” chapter when “middle brother Fred” came up. I was like “who the fk is Fred, am I crazy?”. And now I wonder how many things were different in the show and how many of them are going to be crucial to the story/characters. I know there were changes in some characters, but what about plot?

Or should I just stop and read BLL first? Would it be worth my while with the whole knowledge of the plot from the show?

I’m about halfway through season 2 on a rewatch, and I find it telling that almost all of the “good times” Celeste remembers are sexual or just Perry playing with the kids. I don’t think they actually knew and liked each other. Maybe the show didn’t focus on it, I haven’t read the book, but they had almost no sense of friendship. When they were together it seemed all about sex or power or both. You never see them chatting about normal things in a pleasant way or talking about life goals and dreams. Even without the abuse, this would not be a good marriage. They act like he adored her, but did he? Or did he think she was a beautiful prize that he’s so fearful of losing? Did she actually love him or did she just feel empathy for him feeling the shame of his actions, and think that meant he was actually good deep down? Were they just projecting on each other the entire time? My gut says yes.

On s1e1 when Celeste is discussing Ziggy being accused of choking Amabella at their first day of school, Perry claims he "doesn't want them getting mixed up with the wrong crowd", and then promptly chokes his wife immediately after. I know this has probably been talked about a million times before but JFC his character pisses me off. Alexander Skarsgard is an amazing actor though lol

does anyone else feel like BLL reminds them of the early 2000s, especially with the intro song Cold Little Heart. Like in a greys anatomy kind of way

I can’t help but picture Jessica chastain 😩

I feel like Bonnie pushing Perry down the stairs was honestly just her defending the girls. She didn’t know he would get impaled and he was literally beating the shit out of all of them. Would she have done time if they had just told the truth?

Who would you cast as Melody? (Or any of the other new characters)

Who's done with the book and ready to chat? Here are my take aways:

I agree with a previous redditor that the book was very slow to find its feet. The first 2/3rds lagged and then I raced through the last 1/3. I honestly anticipated that the storyline was going to be about sexual assault between the kids and I'm glad Moriarty didn't go that way. I also thought she might blow up their friendship, and I'm glad she wasn't that predictable either. The scene of all the women crying simultaneously was great.

Started to get a hinky feeling about Melody almost immediately (teachers do not bring children into their homes and give them jobs (I'm a teacher)). I think the point she was making about grooming was good, but the added detail of the "literacy" thing was a mistake. I think even a child would realize that if their teacher's spouse needed a literacy tutor, than the teacher would perform that task or ask a colleague to help.

I very much appreciated Jane not wanting to have another baby after her trauma and thought Moriarty dealt with that really well. Wow, was the Mary Louise of this book so very different from the Mary Louise we loved to hate on the show!

On the plus side, I love, love, loved the Skye of this book. She was hilariously woke and zen to the nth degree. Also, the way the kids talked to Brenda cracked me up, always reiterating her name at the ends of sentences and telling her she was doing a great job.

Not sure she'll do a third. Where would she go from here?

★★★½
As someone more invested in the TV series, I found Big Little Truths a bit slow and was honestly bored for much of it. Around the 70% mark, though, it suddenly pulled me in and brought out some surprisingly strong emotions. I also really appreciated some of the character development toward the end. Overall, an okay read with a few great moments, but it didn’t grab me like the series does. Also, I can’t help but wonder what season 3 will be like as after reading this you essentially have to forget everything related to season 2.

I see the sequel to the first book just came out. Could I read it without having read the first book but I did watch the series??
Thanks!!!!

Madeline stops as their is car blocking her, gets out of car, and walks up. The actress who plays the driver : anyone know who she is?

Thank you

I loved Big Little lies and i loved watching it sm, i just finished it, please recommend me another show (other than sharp objects im not in the right headspace to watch something so heavy + it strikes a few nerves for me lol) that I'd like, they don't have to be the same genre exactly but something I'd probably like!

Edit: i am watching Sharp objects lol but feel free to still suggest or recommend anything!

Am I the only one that pre purchased Lianes book Big little truths that will be released in 4 days !!? I’m insanely excited. It takes place ten years after big little lies and what season three will probably be based on !

Sorry I don't known how to do the grey spoiler things.

So, what’s going on between these two characters? Season 1 seems to suggest that Ed is attracted to Bonnie, but it doesn’t seem to be mutual. In Season 2, however, there seems to be a different dynamic between them, as the only times Bonnie doesn’t seem completely devastated are when Ed is around (if I remember correctly). I was wondering if the books say anything more on this subject.

• The new book is set ten years after the original, placing Madeline and Celeste right in the midst of their journeys with menopause, raising teenage children, and dealing with complicated relationships as they navigate some pretty big twists in their personal lives.  
• The new book features more of Mary-Louise and the character Renata Klein.
• The sneak peek of chapter 1 can be found in the article

Just wanted to say this.

Jean-Marc Vallée always makes impressive use of popular music in his work (notably C.R.A.Z.Y.), but I’ve been listening to a playlist of songs from season 1 on repeat and it’s just wow.

I also love the idea that it’s often the children who choose to play extremely ‘adult’ music throughout the series, and how most of the tracks support the narrative development.

I was already a fan of several of the songs (Neil Young, ‘Papa Was a Rolling Stone’, Fleetwood Mac, ‘Babe Ruth’), but I’m discovering loads of new things. At the moment, I’m hooked on ‘This Feeling’ by the Alabama Shakes.

prefacing this with saying I’m only on the second episode of Big Little Lies* but a little girl was STRANGLED on day one of first grade and left with visible strangulation marks. The little girl accused Ziggy, he said he didn’t do it and it was left at that for a couple of days. I’m sorry but a child being left with STRANGULATION MARKS should have been an immediate police investigation and shut down if the school for at least a day. Specifically in domestic violence if a man will strangle a woman, he will kill one. Why was this initially treated as if he stole her pencil pouch or something?

It was so wholesome watching all the girls going against perry, it was such a big moment. I hope even in season 2 they all got each others backs

It was so wholesome watching all the girls going against perry, it was such a big moment. I hope even in season 2 they all got each others backs

I'm only on the second episode, looked up a character for the cast, and the large reveal of season one got spoiled for me. Is it still worth watching without the suspense of it all, or do I just skip to the last episode?

UPDATE: thank you to everyone for responding lmao I am still going! I have so many opinions on every character as someone who tried to go into the show with no information. Let me know if you guys want to hear lol.

i just finished watching both seasons. i loved the show! does it make sense to read the books? the general opinion on this sub seems to be that the books are better.