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Big Little Lies #2
Big Little Truths
Win a free print copy of this book!
4 days and 01:18:53
10 copies available
Canada only
In her first-ever sequel, Liane Moriarty examines the complexities of modern women’s lives, shining light on shame and family secrets with wit and compassion. Whether you’ve read Big Little Lies or not, this is the perfect novel for longtime fans and new readers alike.
The last time we saw the women of Big Little Lies—Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie—their children were five years old. If someone wasn’t invited to a child’s birthday party, feelings were hurt. But ten years have passed, and the kids are now in high school, with all of the drama that accompanies teendom (goodbye playdates, hello drugs, sex, and alcohol).
Now, after the principal of the high school receives a severed human finger in the mail, the parents are in an uproar. But Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie have other things to worry about. Celeste’s mother-in-law, Mary Louise, is behaving oddly—is it old-age forgetfulness and forthrightness, or something more sinister? Madeline is facing perhaps the biggest challenge of her life, Jane is at a dangerous fork in her marriage, Bonnie has realized there’s only so much solace in yoga. And Renata? Renata is living her best life—revenge is sweet.
When a strange man begins lurking around the school asking supposedly innocent questions, this tightly connected group of women must finally face the full repercussions of the big little truths they have and haven’t shared with their kids. Because the stakes are now much higher than not being invited to an ice-skating show—and the ice has never been thinner for any of them.
The last time we saw the women of Big Little Lies—Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie—their children were five years old. If someone wasn’t invited to a child’s birthday party, feelings were hurt. But ten years have passed, and the kids are now in high school, with all of the drama that accompanies teendom (goodbye playdates, hello drugs, sex, and alcohol).
Now, after the principal of the high school receives a severed human finger in the mail, the parents are in an uproar. But Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie have other things to worry about. Celeste’s mother-in-law, Mary Louise, is behaving oddly—is it old-age forgetfulness and forthrightness, or something more sinister? Madeline is facing perhaps the biggest challenge of her life, Jane is at a dangerous fork in her marriage, Bonnie has realized there’s only so much solace in yoga. And Renata? Renata is living her best life—revenge is sweet.
When a strange man begins lurking around the school asking supposedly innocent questions, this tightly connected group of women must finally face the full repercussions of the big little truths they have and haven’t shared with their kids. Because the stakes are now much higher than not being invited to an ice-skating show—and the ice has never been thinner for any of them.
454 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 25, 2026
About the author
Liane Moriarty
66 books78.5k followersLiane Moriarty is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Big Little Lies, The Husband’s Secret, and Truly Madly Guilty; the New York Times bestsellers Apples Never Fall, Nine Perfect Strangers, What Alice Forgot, and The Last Anniversary; The Hypnotist’s Love Story; and Three Wishes. She lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband and two children.
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Want to Read
August 17, 2026WHATTTTTTTTTTT!?! 😲😲😲😲
Big Little Lies is one of my Top 10 fave book of all time!
I genuinely cannot wait for this to be released!
Will be dropping everything for this one!
💚🤍🤍💚
Big Little Lies is one of my Top 10 fave book of all time!
I genuinely cannot wait for this to be released!
Will be dropping everything for this one!
💚🤍🤍💚
August 23, 2026
The biggest book of the year is here and it did not disappoint! I was so lucky to be invited to the private launch for this fabulous book in Sydney last week and hear Liane Moriarty talk about it which was such a special experience. Excitingly we also received an early copy of Big Little Truths which I spent my weekend lost in.
It has been 10 years since we were last in Pirriwee Peninsula and the kids are now teenagers. Madeleine, Jane, Celeste, Bonnie, Renata are dealing with high school dramas and the ailments of getting older. They are still tight friends who will do anything for each other and I just loved the strong friendships. The kids are no longer as close as they once were, but a new history teacher has them all excited to learn about the past.
This is another chunky novel and yet I flew through it. It was all so familiar, coming back to such well loved characters again. It was highly relatable as a mother who has been through those high school years, it is hard work for the parents as well. Dealing with parents that are getting older, illnesses and mental health, it is all so easy to feel seen reading this.
We get to hear what the children are thinking through their counselling session , that builds up the intensity of the story. We know something bad has happened, but we don’t know what until the last 100 pages or so. I was hooked and just needed to know.
Thank you Liane for bringing us back to Pirriwee and into the fold of these ladies once more.
And thank you to Macmillan Australia for allowing me to read this before Tuesdays publication day.
It has been 10 years since we were last in Pirriwee Peninsula and the kids are now teenagers. Madeleine, Jane, Celeste, Bonnie, Renata are dealing with high school dramas and the ailments of getting older. They are still tight friends who will do anything for each other and I just loved the strong friendships. The kids are no longer as close as they once were, but a new history teacher has them all excited to learn about the past.
This is another chunky novel and yet I flew through it. It was all so familiar, coming back to such well loved characters again. It was highly relatable as a mother who has been through those high school years, it is hard work for the parents as well. Dealing with parents that are getting older, illnesses and mental health, it is all so easy to feel seen reading this.
We get to hear what the children are thinking through their counselling session , that builds up the intensity of the story. We know something bad has happened, but we don’t know what until the last 100 pages or so. I was hooked and just needed to know.
Thank you Liane for bringing us back to Pirriwee and into the fold of these ladies once more.
And thank you to Macmillan Australia for allowing me to read this before Tuesdays publication day.
July 30, 2026
I only recently read Big Little Lies (though had seen the TV series) and really enjoyed it, and Big Little Truths is an excellent sequel.
Set 10 years after the first book, the friendship between Celeste, Madeline and Jane continues, and into the friendship group comes Renata, Bonnie and new history teacher, Melody Montclair. The dynamics between the women is excellent - they're supportive and fun, but have no qualms about telling each other what they really think, especially Madeline (I think she's my favourite)!
Alongside all the drama going on in each of the women's lives, as with Big Little Lies, Big Little Truths also deals with a very serious issue which is eventually brought to light by all of the women's (now teenage) children. We hear snippets from the teenagers throughout the book, aswell as an act which is being investigated by the police. The tension of this underlying story was built so well that I couldn't get through the final 100 pages quick enough - I was so eager to see what was going on!
I'm not a big reader of crime and thriller novels but I am genuinely now a Liane Moriarty fan! The way she has woven these women's lives together is so beautifully done, and the serious nature of what goes on in both books I feel is dealt with sensitively.
Although Liane Moriarty states herself that Big Little Truths can be read as a standalone, I highly recommend reading Big Little Lies first if you haven't done so - they're both brilliant!
Set 10 years after the first book, the friendship between Celeste, Madeline and Jane continues, and into the friendship group comes Renata, Bonnie and new history teacher, Melody Montclair. The dynamics between the women is excellent - they're supportive and fun, but have no qualms about telling each other what they really think, especially Madeline (I think she's my favourite)!
Alongside all the drama going on in each of the women's lives, as with Big Little Lies, Big Little Truths also deals with a very serious issue which is eventually brought to light by all of the women's (now teenage) children. We hear snippets from the teenagers throughout the book, aswell as an act which is being investigated by the police. The tension of this underlying story was built so well that I couldn't get through the final 100 pages quick enough - I was so eager to see what was going on!
I'm not a big reader of crime and thriller novels but I am genuinely now a Liane Moriarty fan! The way she has woven these women's lives together is so beautifully done, and the serious nature of what goes on in both books I feel is dealt with sensitively.
Although Liane Moriarty states herself that Big Little Truths can be read as a standalone, I highly recommend reading Big Little Lies first if you haven't done so - they're both brilliant!
August 5, 2026
No notes. If you loved Big Little Lies (the book), you will love this. It felt so heartwarming to be back in Pirriwee with the characters I loved from the first book. It’s a mystery, don’t go into it expecting a thriller. I would absolutely recommend
Read
July 5, 2026Loved going back to Pirriwee and hanging out with the gang again. Less explosive than BLL but just as delicious. Big little slay from Liane.
July 15, 2026
Not quite as thrilling or suspenseful as “Big Little Lies” but still a very enjoyable read. What a pleasure to meet up with these characters again.
August 27, 2026
Outstanding!
I absolutely loved this book. It was phenomenal to revisit some of my favourite literary characters, and their now teen off spring.
The plot is excellent and deals with so many contemporary issues and challenges. By two-thirds of the way I knew my day was going to involve nothing but reading to the end. And I really didn’t want it to end either.
Here’s hoping we get to see this lot in a Book Three!
(PS I am so looking forward to an evening with Liane Moriarty on the Gold Coast next week).
I absolutely loved this book. It was phenomenal to revisit some of my favourite literary characters, and their now teen off spring.
The plot is excellent and deals with so many contemporary issues and challenges. By two-thirds of the way I knew my day was going to involve nothing but reading to the end. And I really didn’t want it to end either.
Here’s hoping we get to see this lot in a Book Three!
(PS I am so looking forward to an evening with Liane Moriarty on the Gold Coast next week).
August 27, 2026
Ten years on from the trivia night, the Pirriwee mothers have swapped one school WhatsApp group for another, and the children who were five are fifteen now and half a head taller than their parents. That is the setup of Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty, and it is cannier than it sounds. The first novel was about what women hide from each other. This one is about what everybody, in every direction, has stopped bothering to look at.
It opens with a severed human finger arriving at the high school by post, addressed to the principal, a teacher's name on a label inside the box. A ludicrous object. Moriarty knows exactly how ludicrous, and then spends four hundred pages earning it.
Where Big Little Truths Sits
This is the direct sequel to Big Little Lies, and an author's note at the front is unusually firm about which version it continues. The book, not the television series. Pirriwee rather than Monterey, the Australian vowels intact, Madeline's eldest son Fred restored to a family the screen quietly wrote him out of. Moriarty is warm about the adaptation and honest that two performances earned their characters more room here than the novels had given them, which is why Renata and Mary-Louise both get considerably more to do.
Reading order is short: Big Little Lies first, then Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty. Nothing else in her catalogue connects. Her last two, Here One Moment and Apples Never Fall, are the nearest relatives in method rather than plot.
What Big Little Truths Adds
Structure, mostly, and it is the best decision in the book. Madeline, Celeste and Jane still take turns in close third person. Braided through them are four other registers: a detective's chapters ticking toward a date the characters have named D-Day, the principal's magnificently pompous all-parent emails, the Year 10 group chat, and one mandated hour of student counselling in which six teenagers narrate the whole affair to a woman called Brenda.
That transcript is the engine of Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty. Chloe, Skye, Amabella, Ziggy and the twins interrupt each other, correct each other's idioms, take credit, assign blame, and reveal the plot roughly forty pages before their parents get there. It also lets Moriarty withhold. One of the six says almost nothing for most of the book, and the silence is doing work.
The thematic spine is a woman called Melody Montclair, a new history teacher who arrives and makes herself indispensable to every household on the peninsula. She fast-tracks a biopsy. She talks a school-refusing boy back through the gate. She takes a lonely woman dancing. Only Renata, who trusts nobody, keeps asking what she wants. The novel's real subject, which it approaches slowly and then states without flinching, is the sexual exploitation of teenage girls by an adult everyone has decided to love, and the machinery of charm that makes it possible for years at a time.
What Works
The reader gets groomed too. For most of its length the book supplies genuine evidence that this woman is wonderful, then makes you sit with having believed it. That is a harder trick than a twist.
Consent is argued across three generations without a lecture. A fifteen-year-old insisting she said yes, a mother who cannot say the thing that happened in her delivery room, a car park full of parents announcing that teenagers know exactly what they are doing.
Two medical plots rhyme. A cancer drug manufactures a monster out of a kind man; an antihistamine manufactures dementia out of a sharp woman. Both are read as character before anyone checks the packet.
The comic apparatus is precision-cut. A reply-all catastrophe from the principal's office, and a group chat that responds to the possibility of a criminal investigation with four deleted messages and a question about band practice.
Mary-Louise. The small domestic antagonist of book one is handed interiority, grief and the final chapter of Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty, and the novel declines to tell you what to think about her.
Where Big Little Truths Gives Ground
The villain stays a mechanism. No point of view, no interior life, one gestured-at fragment of backstory. Defensible, since she works as a hole the other characters pour themselves into, but everything around her is better drawn than she is.
The coincidence engine runs hot. The one man in Australia investigating her happens to start dating one of the four friends. The book notices, and hangs a lampshade on it, which is not quite the same as fixing it.
The last act hands down a verdict that the courtroom the book has spent its final pages promising was better placed to deliver.
It is overstuffed. A motorbike, an engagement, a broken hip, a phone scam, a vape business and a local gangster. Enjoyable, largely decorative, and worth perhaps a hundred of the pages Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty spends on them.
It cannot be a first Moriarty. Nearly every relationship here is drawing on ten years of credit the reader has to have banked.
Content Notes
Organised grooming and the sexual abuse of minors, described at length by adult survivors; coercion using photographs; a teenager's account of her own abuse; cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy; involuntary psychiatric detention and forced sedation; alcoholism and alcohol poisoning; retrospective domestic violence; a mutilated corpse; a serious road accident; a reference to abortion.
Do You Need the Earlier Books?
Yes. Not as homework, but genuinely. The friendships here carry a decade of accumulated debt, and the reason Bonnie standing in a fountain at midnight is unbearable rather than merely odd is that you were on the balcony at the trivia night. Read Big Little Lies first. It is short, and Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty is better for it.
The Last Word
The showcase at the centre of the book asks the students to argue whether a historical figure was a villain or a hero, and the teacher who set the assignment opens the evening dressed as Marie Antoinette, explaining that the queen never said the line everyone quotes at her. History is interpretation, she tells them. Truth is a matter of perspective. It is a lovely lesson, and the children have been paying closer attention than she realised.
That is what Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty is finally about: who is allowed to write the account, and what happens when the people with the fewest legal rights in the room decide to write it themselves. The adults spend the novel being competent about the wrong things. The teenagers, who cannot drive and are not believed, build the only piece of evidence that matters. Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty is messier than its predecessor and less disciplined, and it is angrier in a way that suits the subject.
It ends on a wet road at six in the morning, with a woman who has decided she is finished looking backward.
It opens with a severed human finger arriving at the high school by post, addressed to the principal, a teacher's name on a label inside the box. A ludicrous object. Moriarty knows exactly how ludicrous, and then spends four hundred pages earning it.
Where Big Little Truths Sits
This is the direct sequel to Big Little Lies, and an author's note at the front is unusually firm about which version it continues. The book, not the television series. Pirriwee rather than Monterey, the Australian vowels intact, Madeline's eldest son Fred restored to a family the screen quietly wrote him out of. Moriarty is warm about the adaptation and honest that two performances earned their characters more room here than the novels had given them, which is why Renata and Mary-Louise both get considerably more to do.
Reading order is short: Big Little Lies first, then Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty. Nothing else in her catalogue connects. Her last two, Here One Moment and Apples Never Fall, are the nearest relatives in method rather than plot.
What Big Little Truths Adds
Structure, mostly, and it is the best decision in the book. Madeline, Celeste and Jane still take turns in close third person. Braided through them are four other registers: a detective's chapters ticking toward a date the characters have named D-Day, the principal's magnificently pompous all-parent emails, the Year 10 group chat, and one mandated hour of student counselling in which six teenagers narrate the whole affair to a woman called Brenda.
That transcript is the engine of Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty. Chloe, Skye, Amabella, Ziggy and the twins interrupt each other, correct each other's idioms, take credit, assign blame, and reveal the plot roughly forty pages before their parents get there. It also lets Moriarty withhold. One of the six says almost nothing for most of the book, and the silence is doing work.
The thematic spine is a woman called Melody Montclair, a new history teacher who arrives and makes herself indispensable to every household on the peninsula. She fast-tracks a biopsy. She talks a school-refusing boy back through the gate. She takes a lonely woman dancing. Only Renata, who trusts nobody, keeps asking what she wants. The novel's real subject, which it approaches slowly and then states without flinching, is the sexual exploitation of teenage girls by an adult everyone has decided to love, and the machinery of charm that makes it possible for years at a time.
What Works
The reader gets groomed too. For most of its length the book supplies genuine evidence that this woman is wonderful, then makes you sit with having believed it. That is a harder trick than a twist.
Consent is argued across three generations without a lecture. A fifteen-year-old insisting she said yes, a mother who cannot say the thing that happened in her delivery room, a car park full of parents announcing that teenagers know exactly what they are doing.
Two medical plots rhyme. A cancer drug manufactures a monster out of a kind man; an antihistamine manufactures dementia out of a sharp woman. Both are read as character before anyone checks the packet.
The comic apparatus is precision-cut. A reply-all catastrophe from the principal's office, and a group chat that responds to the possibility of a criminal investigation with four deleted messages and a question about band practice.
Mary-Louise. The small domestic antagonist of book one is handed interiority, grief and the final chapter of Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty, and the novel declines to tell you what to think about her.
Where Big Little Truths Gives Ground
The villain stays a mechanism. No point of view, no interior life, one gestured-at fragment of backstory. Defensible, since she works as a hole the other characters pour themselves into, but everything around her is better drawn than she is.
The coincidence engine runs hot. The one man in Australia investigating her happens to start dating one of the four friends. The book notices, and hangs a lampshade on it, which is not quite the same as fixing it.
The last act hands down a verdict that the courtroom the book has spent its final pages promising was better placed to deliver.
It is overstuffed. A motorbike, an engagement, a broken hip, a phone scam, a vape business and a local gangster. Enjoyable, largely decorative, and worth perhaps a hundred of the pages Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty spends on them.
It cannot be a first Moriarty. Nearly every relationship here is drawing on ten years of credit the reader has to have banked.
Content Notes
Organised grooming and the sexual abuse of minors, described at length by adult survivors; coercion using photographs; a teenager's account of her own abuse; cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy; involuntary psychiatric detention and forced sedation; alcoholism and alcohol poisoning; retrospective domestic violence; a mutilated corpse; a serious road accident; a reference to abortion.
Do You Need the Earlier Books?
Yes. Not as homework, but genuinely. The friendships here carry a decade of accumulated debt, and the reason Bonnie standing in a fountain at midnight is unbearable rather than merely odd is that you were on the balcony at the trivia night. Read Big Little Lies first. It is short, and Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty is better for it.
The Last Word
The showcase at the centre of the book asks the students to argue whether a historical figure was a villain or a hero, and the teacher who set the assignment opens the evening dressed as Marie Antoinette, explaining that the queen never said the line everyone quotes at her. History is interpretation, she tells them. Truth is a matter of perspective. It is a lovely lesson, and the children have been paying closer attention than she realised.
That is what Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty is finally about: who is allowed to write the account, and what happens when the people with the fewest legal rights in the room decide to write it themselves. The adults spend the novel being competent about the wrong things. The teenagers, who cannot drive and are not believed, build the only piece of evidence that matters. Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty is messier than its predecessor and less disciplined, and it is angrier in a way that suits the subject.
It ends on a wet road at six in the morning, with a woman who has decided she is finished looking backward.
Want to Read
April 27, 2026Freaking tf out!! I cannot wait!!
June 25, 2026
Loved this sequel. Easy read. Liane moriarty is back on top form.
August 27, 2026
4.25 ⭐️
I was so happy to be back with Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie. It felt like catching up with old friends. I also loved the 10-year time jump. Instead of trying to recreate the same elementary school drama, I liked how Moriarty moved everyone into a completely different stage of life, teenagers, aging parents, marriages, changing friendships, and all the fun little nuances of middle age. As a middle-aged woman myself, SO much of this was relatable.
For me, the characters were the heart of the story. I especially loved that the kids have their own storylines now. It’s not just about Madeline, Celeste, and Jane being moms anymore. Their kids have grown up and have their own problems. Their own secrets. Their own drama. All of which made this feel fresh while still having everything I loved about Big Little Lies.
There’s A LOT going on, maybe too much at times but I loved it and was completely invested. I also loved how current it felt, especially with the themes of consent, grooming, teenagers being exposed to adult situations, family secrets, loss, emotional trauma, and parents realizing they don’t always know what’s happening in their kids’ lives. Heavy stuff. However, Moriarty still manages to mix in the humor, gossip, and drama that I love about her books.
My only complaint…THE LENGTH!! Just like Big Little Lies, this was wayyyy too long for my preference. And yet somehow, after all those pages, I still didn’t want it to end. Hahaha. That probably says it all.
I highly recommend this one, especially if you relished in Big Little Lies. I absolutely loved being back in this world. (Audio)
I was so happy to be back with Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie. It felt like catching up with old friends. I also loved the 10-year time jump. Instead of trying to recreate the same elementary school drama, I liked how Moriarty moved everyone into a completely different stage of life, teenagers, aging parents, marriages, changing friendships, and all the fun little nuances of middle age. As a middle-aged woman myself, SO much of this was relatable.
For me, the characters were the heart of the story. I especially loved that the kids have their own storylines now. It’s not just about Madeline, Celeste, and Jane being moms anymore. Their kids have grown up and have their own problems. Their own secrets. Their own drama. All of which made this feel fresh while still having everything I loved about Big Little Lies.
There’s A LOT going on, maybe too much at times but I loved it and was completely invested. I also loved how current it felt, especially with the themes of consent, grooming, teenagers being exposed to adult situations, family secrets, loss, emotional trauma, and parents realizing they don’t always know what’s happening in their kids’ lives. Heavy stuff. However, Moriarty still manages to mix in the humor, gossip, and drama that I love about her books.
My only complaint…THE LENGTH!! Just like Big Little Lies, this was wayyyy too long for my preference. And yet somehow, after all those pages, I still didn’t want it to end. Hahaha. That probably says it all.
I highly recommend this one, especially if you relished in Big Little Lies. I absolutely loved being back in this world. (Audio)
July 19, 2026
Oh calamity indeed.
Read
August 13, 2026#Gifted
Big Little Truths is the long awaited sequel to international bestseller (and tv series starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, amongst others), Big Little Lies.
I read that book and enjoyed it, and watched the first season of the show. Moriarty is a natural storyteller and I think if you loved Big Little Lies then you’ll love this too.
We head back to the Pirriwe Peninsula, Australia, ten years after the shocking events of the first book unfolded.
Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie have formed a tight bond but are disappointed that their now-teenage kids are not as close.
They’re all relieved when a new history teacher starts working at the school who seems to bring out the best in the kids, but when a severed finger is delivered to the principal, it literally points to her; a mystery everyone struggles to solve.
All the women are dealing with their own issues alongside this weird occurrence; health worries, career fears, caring for elderly parents alongside their mercurial teens, and none of this is helped by the sudden appearance around the town of a strange man with an apparent interest in the local high school’s pupils.
It’s finally time for the five friends to confront the big little truths they’ve been holding back from their families, and each other.
And shes back!! I love Liane Moriarty. There’s such a skilled ease to her writing, it just flows along so well.
The book is told from different perspectives and jumps timelines but it all works together perfectly. While it sensitively deals with some dark themes, it’s also funny and warm. I loved meeting these women again, and their kids.
Moriarty has expertly woven these characters lives together and it feels realistic, like dropping in on old pals. I didn’t want it to end but simultaneously raced through it to find out what was going on. I’d love to check back in with them all again in another ten years (or well before then, preferably!)
I loved Big Little Truths; highly recommend!
With many thanks @penguinbooksireland @michaeljbooks for my early copy. All opinions are my own, as always. Big Little Truths will publish on the 27th of August.
Big Little Truths is the long awaited sequel to international bestseller (and tv series starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, amongst others), Big Little Lies.
I read that book and enjoyed it, and watched the first season of the show. Moriarty is a natural storyteller and I think if you loved Big Little Lies then you’ll love this too.
We head back to the Pirriwe Peninsula, Australia, ten years after the shocking events of the first book unfolded.
Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie have formed a tight bond but are disappointed that their now-teenage kids are not as close.
They’re all relieved when a new history teacher starts working at the school who seems to bring out the best in the kids, but when a severed finger is delivered to the principal, it literally points to her; a mystery everyone struggles to solve.
All the women are dealing with their own issues alongside this weird occurrence; health worries, career fears, caring for elderly parents alongside their mercurial teens, and none of this is helped by the sudden appearance around the town of a strange man with an apparent interest in the local high school’s pupils.
It’s finally time for the five friends to confront the big little truths they’ve been holding back from their families, and each other.
And shes back!! I love Liane Moriarty. There’s such a skilled ease to her writing, it just flows along so well.
The book is told from different perspectives and jumps timelines but it all works together perfectly. While it sensitively deals with some dark themes, it’s also funny and warm. I loved meeting these women again, and their kids.
Moriarty has expertly woven these characters lives together and it feels realistic, like dropping in on old pals. I didn’t want it to end but simultaneously raced through it to find out what was going on. I’d love to check back in with them all again in another ten years (or well before then, preferably!)
I loved Big Little Truths; highly recommend!
With many thanks @penguinbooksireland @michaeljbooks for my early copy. All opinions are my own, as always. Big Little Truths will publish on the 27th of August.
Read
August 27, 2026I was so curious about what this 10-years-after sequel to Big Little Lies was going to be like. I had the HBO series in my mind so I decided to go back and re-read BLL before starting BLT.
If you want a concise summary of book one with a character list, I have that here.
Content advisory:
The book, set in Australia, was more comic and women's fiction-adjacent than I remembered. Moriarty's books started out firmly in the women's fiction lane, but often incorporated some kind of mystery (Apples Never Fall involves a missing woman).
Big Little Truths uses the same structure and feels even more darkly comic than the first book. It opens with a severed human finger being sent to Pirriwee High School. Whose finger? Who sent it and why?
Like BLL, BLT alternates between past and present, starting with a flash forward and then taking the reader back to explain how they up there. Both books also contain epistolary elements. In BLT, these are mostly texts, group chats and message boards, and emails.
To me, the mystery of the finger was much less interesting than seeing all these characters ten years later.
Moriarty did a great job of forwarding them all ten years: the women, their children, Ed, and Mary-Louise, who is the only addition from the HBO series. In her author's note, Moriary clarifies that this is a sequel to the book, not the movie, and acknowledges that the adaptation added in a lot more "money, glamour, and sex."
I will link my Readers Guide and book club questions soon.
If you want a concise summary of book one with a character list, I have that here.
Content advisory:
The book, set in Australia, was more comic and women's fiction-adjacent than I remembered. Moriarty's books started out firmly in the women's fiction lane, but often incorporated some kind of mystery (Apples Never Fall involves a missing woman).
Big Little Truths uses the same structure and feels even more darkly comic than the first book. It opens with a severed human finger being sent to Pirriwee High School. Whose finger? Who sent it and why?
Like BLL, BLT alternates between past and present, starting with a flash forward and then taking the reader back to explain how they up there. Both books also contain epistolary elements. In BLT, these are mostly texts, group chats and message boards, and emails.
To me, the mystery of the finger was much less interesting than seeing all these characters ten years later.
Moriarty did a great job of forwarding them all ten years: the women, their children, Ed, and Mary-Louise, who is the only addition from the HBO series. In her author's note, Moriary clarifies that this is a sequel to the book, not the movie, and acknowledges that the adaptation added in a lot more "money, glamour, and sex."
I will link my Readers Guide and book club questions soon.
August 29, 2026
Set ten years after the events of Big Little Lies, our favorite moms Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie are back - and now their kids who were in kindergarten in that first book are 15! In typical Liane style, the book proceeds on multiple tracks - it starts with “D Day” when a package containing a finger arrives at the kids school, before rewinding back to the beginning of the school year from the women’s viewpoints, but interspersed with the detective investigating and a transcript of a session with the kids explaining their side of the story of what led up to that day as well.
And boy was this a fun read! I have actually read every single Liane Moriarty book as I discovered her long before most people with her second book The Last Anniversary. I read Big Little Lies all the way back in 2014, and while I watched the tv adaptation, that was also many years ago, but it wasn’t a problem at all jumping into this without a reread. Liane notes in an introduction to the book that this is a sequel to the book, not the show. She also says it can be read as a standalone which perhaps is true since I had forgotten some of the details - but I’m not sure you’d get as much out of it as there are a ton of references to the plot of the first book, plus some of the fun was just being back with these characters!
I was not lucky enough to get an advanced copy of this book (not sure if anyone did) but I was lucky enough to get it from the library in pub week and I absolutely raced through it, reading it in barely more than 24 hours despite its more than 450 page length. And I so enjoyed every minute - and possibly annoyed my husband by constantly laughing out loud while reading! Definitely her best book since Big Little Lies, and I have no doubt that fans of the first book will love this one too.
4.5 stars
And boy was this a fun read! I have actually read every single Liane Moriarty book as I discovered her long before most people with her second book The Last Anniversary. I read Big Little Lies all the way back in 2014, and while I watched the tv adaptation, that was also many years ago, but it wasn’t a problem at all jumping into this without a reread. Liane notes in an introduction to the book that this is a sequel to the book, not the show. She also says it can be read as a standalone which perhaps is true since I had forgotten some of the details - but I’m not sure you’d get as much out of it as there are a ton of references to the plot of the first book, plus some of the fun was just being back with these characters!
I was not lucky enough to get an advanced copy of this book (not sure if anyone did) but I was lucky enough to get it from the library in pub week and I absolutely raced through it, reading it in barely more than 24 hours despite its more than 450 page length. And I so enjoyed every minute - and possibly annoyed my husband by constantly laughing out loud while reading! Definitely her best book since Big Little Lies, and I have no doubt that fans of the first book will love this one too.
4.5 stars
August 27, 2026
Smart, juicy, and deliciously messy!
𝐁𝐈𝐆 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐒 is a witty, twisty, utterly addictive return to the world of Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie, ten years after the events of Big Little Lies. As their children grow older and new secrets begin to surface, the women find themselves pulled into another tangled web of friendship, family drama, deception, and hidden truths.
The prose is sharp and clever. The characters are flawed, complicated, and endearing. And the story is filled with humour, heart, suspense, and unexpected twists.
Overall, 𝐁𝐈𝐆 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐒 is an entertaining, engaging, compulsive read by Moriarty that I absolutely loved and which perfectly captures the complexities of friendship, motherhood, and the secrets we keep.
𝐁𝐈𝐆 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐒 is a witty, twisty, utterly addictive return to the world of Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie, ten years after the events of Big Little Lies. As their children grow older and new secrets begin to surface, the women find themselves pulled into another tangled web of friendship, family drama, deception, and hidden truths.
The prose is sharp and clever. The characters are flawed, complicated, and endearing. And the story is filled with humour, heart, suspense, and unexpected twists.
Overall, 𝐁𝐈𝐆 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐒 is an entertaining, engaging, compulsive read by Moriarty that I absolutely loved and which perfectly captures the complexities of friendship, motherhood, and the secrets we keep.
August 26, 2026
Nothing will ever top BLL1 for me, it’s moriarty at her absolute finest in my opinion. However this is an excellent and quite dark and twisty sequel. Again i don’t know how she does it but in some moments of real anxiety and stress you can just feel how much and how intensely the characters would be feeling. Madeline and Renata absolutely shine in this one, i feel like Bonnie, Jane and Celeste maybe didnt have as well-fleshed out stories in my opinion. Still a banger. Would reread
August 3, 2026
give me 5 more books about this cast im actually attached
August 28, 2026
If you loved Big Little Lies, this won't disappoint!
August 26, 2026
Amazing!
July 29, 2026
4.5 rounded up
I never read Big Little Lies, only watched (and loved) the tv show and I fell so easily into this book! Liane does a seamless job at picking up ten years later. The layering of the plot was gripping, the problems were high stakes and complicated, and the teens were hilarious! Can’t wait to see this turn into season 3.
I never read Big Little Lies, only watched (and loved) the tv show and I fell so easily into this book! Liane does a seamless job at picking up ten years later. The layering of the plot was gripping, the problems were high stakes and complicated, and the teens were hilarious! Can’t wait to see this turn into season 3.
Read
August 14, 2026I don’t think the book is bad, but I didn’t particularly like the overly light and comedic tone with which certain topics are handled.
I thought the focus this time was going to be on the children and on how they would deal with the trauma and consequences of what happened in the previous book, now that they were older and could better understand what had happened. However, the story continues to focus mainly on other aspects, and the teenagers’ scenes tend to have a more comedic tone.
The few times we get to see how being the children of someone abusive and violent affects them—such as when Josh doesn’t want to go to school or when Ziggy hears Amabella make a comment about what happened to his mother —the conflicts resolve themselves almost immediately and are barely mentioned again. In Josh’s case, everything is solved with a rather ridiculous lie his teacher tells him, while Ziggy’s conflict is resolved through a superficial conversation with his mother that never develops into a genuinely honest discussion about what happened.
Skyes is apparently the one who suffers the most from what happened, but even in her case, we mostly see her struggle from the perspective of the people around her, from the outside. We never really get to delve into what she is feeling or how she is actually processing everything that happened. In the end, her conflict is also practically resolved on its own, relying on the character’s maturity, and I feel like this misses an opportunity to explore in greater depth the consequences all of this has on her.
Chloe does play an important role toward the end, particularly in the resolution of the main mystery, but she doesn’t get much character development either. And Amabella is practically nonexistent in the book. It’s a shame, because she probably has the most interesting and enigmatic personality within the group, but, like the other teenagers, she is ultimately reduced mostly to comic relief.
As for the main characters, Jane, Madeline, and Celeste were fine, but I feel like there is too much filler and too much comedy. On top of that, the characters seem to keep going in circles around their own traumas, to the point where many of their storylines start to feel repetitive. Perry’s ghost is still haunting them, but that is something we already know. What would have been more interesting would have been to explore that trauma from a different perspective, especially considering the passage of time and the "arrival" of a new generation. I also would have liked the lack of communication between mothers and children to be explored in a deeper way, instead of constantly being reduced to “they’re teenagers,” “it’s just a phase,” or “it’s not that deep.” Precisely because the children are older now, it would have been interesting to see them beginning to understand what happened and how that changes their relationships with their mothers and with the trauma they themselves have inherited.
Toward the end, the story takes a darker turn. I won’t give any spoilers, but I wasn’t convinced by the execution. The D-Day they talk about throughout the book felt rather underwhelming to me. The mystery is resolved through an exposition that feels like the ending of a Scooby-Doo episode, where the gang unmasks the villains by explaining, one by one, everything they did throughout the story. The ending itself is fine, but I don’t think the way it gets there lives up to what the story sets up.
I’m quite curious to see how they adapt the book for the show’s third season. I hope they tone down the humor a little and give the children more depth, especially when it comes to exploring how everything that happened in the previous book has affected them. I also hope Renata gets more screen time, because she was excellent in the second season and didn’t have nearly as much of a role in the story here. Laura Dern is an incredible actress: even in seemingly comedic scenes, she manages to give them a sense of pathos and drama that makes them genuinely moving. The drama is never lost, but at the same time, it’s impossible not to smile.
That said, I don’t think the book is bad. I had a good time reading it and laughed quite a bit at all the dark humor. I simply expected something a little less superficial and slightly darker. And yes, I know the final reveal is intense, but for me, the problem lies in the execution and in how the story gets there.
I thought the focus this time was going to be on the children and on how they would deal with the trauma and consequences of what happened in the previous book, now that they were older and could better understand what had happened. However, the story continues to focus mainly on other aspects, and the teenagers’ scenes tend to have a more comedic tone.
The few times we get to see how being the children of someone abusive and violent affects them—such as when Josh doesn’t want to go to school or when Ziggy hears Amabella make a comment about what happened to his mother —the conflicts resolve themselves almost immediately and are barely mentioned again. In Josh’s case, everything is solved with a rather ridiculous lie his teacher tells him, while Ziggy’s conflict is resolved through a superficial conversation with his mother that never develops into a genuinely honest discussion about what happened.
Skyes is apparently the one who suffers the most from what happened, but even in her case, we mostly see her struggle from the perspective of the people around her, from the outside. We never really get to delve into what she is feeling or how she is actually processing everything that happened. In the end, her conflict is also practically resolved on its own, relying on the character’s maturity, and I feel like this misses an opportunity to explore in greater depth the consequences all of this has on her.
Chloe does play an important role toward the end, particularly in the resolution of the main mystery, but she doesn’t get much character development either. And Amabella is practically nonexistent in the book. It’s a shame, because she probably has the most interesting and enigmatic personality within the group, but, like the other teenagers, she is ultimately reduced mostly to comic relief.
As for the main characters, Jane, Madeline, and Celeste were fine, but I feel like there is too much filler and too much comedy. On top of that, the characters seem to keep going in circles around their own traumas, to the point where many of their storylines start to feel repetitive. Perry’s ghost is still haunting them, but that is something we already know. What would have been more interesting would have been to explore that trauma from a different perspective, especially considering the passage of time and the "arrival" of a new generation. I also would have liked the lack of communication between mothers and children to be explored in a deeper way, instead of constantly being reduced to “they’re teenagers,” “it’s just a phase,” or “it’s not that deep.” Precisely because the children are older now, it would have been interesting to see them beginning to understand what happened and how that changes their relationships with their mothers and with the trauma they themselves have inherited.
Toward the end, the story takes a darker turn. I won’t give any spoilers, but I wasn’t convinced by the execution. The D-Day they talk about throughout the book felt rather underwhelming to me. The mystery is resolved through an exposition that feels like the ending of a Scooby-Doo episode, where the gang unmasks the villains by explaining, one by one, everything they did throughout the story. The ending itself is fine, but I don’t think the way it gets there lives up to what the story sets up.
I’m quite curious to see how they adapt the book for the show’s third season. I hope they tone down the humor a little and give the children more depth, especially when it comes to exploring how everything that happened in the previous book has affected them. I also hope Renata gets more screen time, because she was excellent in the second season and didn’t have nearly as much of a role in the story here. Laura Dern is an incredible actress: even in seemingly comedic scenes, she manages to give them a sense of pathos and drama that makes them genuinely moving. The drama is never lost, but at the same time, it’s impossible not to smile.
That said, I don’t think the book is bad. I had a good time reading it and laughed quite a bit at all the dark humor. I simply expected something a little less superficial and slightly darker. And yes, I know the final reveal is intense, but for me, the problem lies in the execution and in how the story gets there.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 28, 2026
It’s always such a treat to read a book by Ms. Moriarty. I try to savor them instead of devouring them but alas that is just too hard. And this one ugh this one is a sequel to one of my favorite all time books. Big Little Truths drops us right back in to the Fab Fives life ten years after the events of that trivia night that bonded them for life. Life has changed for all of them and I love how at the end the author doesn’t tie everything up with a bow and call it a day. Some life situations are left open ended and you know what that is life. I enjoyed seeing the children we met as five year olds evolve in to their teenage selves and also the mums settle in to their older self’s. I have to say I’ve read the first book and watched the first two seasons of the show and this book again cemented that my favorite two characters are Renata and Mary Louise. I love how we got to see a different side to Renata in this book but she was still the same in a way. Also Celeste’s growth in this book is phenomenal. I think this may replace The Last Anniversary as my favorite Liane Moriarty book. And now that I’m finished with this I cannot wait for the next one by LM.
August 27, 2026
I'm obviously a minority here, but I'll try to explain why. This is nowhere near as good as Big Little Lies. I loved checking in with the characters we all love: their relationships with their now teenage children, their problems with their parents, their marital issues; it felt like catching up with good friends. and the writing is exactly is sharp, as funny, as bitchy, as snarky as in Big Little Lies. It's almost worth reading it for that alone. But that's where it ended for me. The story is extremely thin on the ground, with almost all of it consisting of daily grind and more daily grind, the types of things we all have running somewhere in our own lives. There's also some 100% unsuspenseful plot running very slowly somewhere underneath most of it, with the villain identifiable from almost the first time she appears on the page. That's why I don't even label it as thriller, suspense, or mystery or whatever other readers do. There's no suspense at all. If it hadn't been written so well and involved characters I wanted to catch up with, I don't think I would have managed to finish it.
August 27, 2026
The highly anticipated sequel to Big Little Lies is here and it's incredible! I smashed this in two sittings because I did not want to put it down!
We're back in Pirriwee Peninsula with the same familiar characters, only they're older now, still very complex, and dealing with a whole different set of dramas.
I loved Celeste and Mary-Louise.
Liane is undoubtedly one of the greatest writers of our time. This story draws you right in from the very beginning. And her seamless writing means everything ties together so nicely.
I loved the formatting, particularly the short chapters, councillor interviews and group chats sprinkled throughout.
This is one of my favourite books of 2026!
Don't worry, you don't need to re-read (or even have read) the first book to jump right into this one.
We're back in Pirriwee Peninsula with the same familiar characters, only they're older now, still very complex, and dealing with a whole different set of dramas.
I loved Celeste and Mary-Louise.
Liane is undoubtedly one of the greatest writers of our time. This story draws you right in from the very beginning. And her seamless writing means everything ties together so nicely.
I loved the formatting, particularly the short chapters, councillor interviews and group chats sprinkled throughout.
This is one of my favourite books of 2026!
Don't worry, you don't need to re-read (or even have read) the first book to jump right into this one.
August 28, 2026
3.5 rounded. I love the main narrator who was the same as the first book! I didn’t enjoy who narrated the kids because they spoke so low and much faster. This book had the same style as the first in terms of life lessons and ponderings wrapped up in great dialogue. I personally didn’t enjoy “the crime” (that’s not a spoiler) part of this book and the history and such about it. It felt a little unnecessary to the book tbh and just a very big turn in terms of vibes and feel of the book. I also just didn’t connect to the kids as much many because they were so young in the first book. Overall I still enjoyed it, but would have liked a different focus as to the crime.
August 26, 2026
Amazing book and continuation of the first book. One of my favorite authors!
August 27, 2026
o meu gaydar é tão bom que eu sabia q a amabella era lesbica desde o primeiro capítulo (ela tem 5 falas o livro todo)
August 28, 2026
This was exactly what I wanted it to be.
July 28, 2026
Very lucky to get my hands on a proof of this (Thanks, Gaby!) .
Witty, heartfelt, thought provoking. An absolute page turner.
Witty, heartfelt, thought provoking. An absolute page turner.
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