Apples Never Fall

i rlly enjoyed reading this one!! it’s pretty fun and entertaining but it felt so dragged out… and i didn’t need to know the sex lives of everyone. i got invested in their family dynamics because they have such interesting characters lol so i couldn’t put down the book and finished fast

Wow, could not put down and smother great holiday read

Caroline Lee and Liane Moriarty are my favourite narrator/author pair. Listening to this story told with an Australian accent really enhanced the experience. I loved the family dynamics and the way all of the details and characters ended up playing into the grand finale.

Blah... Much too long, much too boring, ridiculous ending, just…. blah.

⭐️2.5 This book was okay for me, nothing special. The characters felt layered and complex, which made it easier to invest in their individual backstories, which is something I find lacking in many mystery/thriller books. Savannah was the one character I didn't quite connect with. Her actions came across as over-the-top and forced, depriving the book of tension and making her a weak, unconvincing character. However, the characters were well written for the most part. It was also enjoyable to see how the family drama unfolded and how messy things got. However, the pace of this book was excruciatingly slow and could have easily been cut by 100 pages or so. Being this long for a mystery thriller, in terms of pages, is honestly a little insane to me. Reading it felt like a chore at times. Even though I don't mind long books, this one was pointlessly long, with many slog sections (constant mentions of tennis, food, migraines and more tennis) that could be cut entirely without impacting the plot. Despite not minding the 'tennis' talk, it dragged the book down. The anticlimactic ending makes this book even more disappointing. Despite the long, slow build-up and mystery surrounding Joy's abrupt disappearance, I found the ending disappointingly unsatisfying. Then we get an additional 70+ pages to include the COVID pandemic, which was unnecessary and baffling. Being my first Liane Moriarty book, I wasn't impressed.

Yes, a month to wrap this up BUT only because I started reading this in Italy and I decided to forget my Kobo in Napoli, so I had to wait for it to come back (and also because I was going through the worst reading slump ever). Miss Liane Moriarty, you certainly are back. After the crash and burn that was Nine Perfect Strangers, Apples Never Fall was a greeeat surprise. I love me some suburb family drama and this book gave me exactly that, with a side of crime and mystery, and an ending that drove me to tears. Great read, can't wait for the next Liane Moriarty.

3.5

This was a disappointment beyond. I had to force myself to finish it. I was so hopeful based on a lot of the reviews but it was boring and anticlimactic with the token Covid chapter thrown in to make it even less appealing.

I have many thoughts about this book, not a lot of them are good. This is another one where I went in and thought it was going to be more of a mystery but it was a lot about family issues. Which is fine, but I wasn’t really ready for it. The ending is also horrible, this book was 700 pages and the ending was just that she went on a trip and didn’t tell anyone. It was such a waste of time, but at a certain point I was 300 pages in and I wanted to know how she died. Again, turns out she didn’t. All of the evidence had just magically worked out to be a misunderstanding. I think it was kind of marketed as a mystery when in reality it should be a family drama. Obviously there was the missing persons case at its core but the other 600 pages of this book was just the family fighting.

I found very engaging and fun to read, even if a bit slow paced.

Lianne Moriarty has a fierce and loyal fanbase. While I had previously heard of her, I had not yet read one of her books. My book circles included so many people so enthusiastic about this book, I felt it was my duty to read it, a sacrifice I shall make for my love of literature. I monitored the availability on my library’s elibrary site and found it was highly sought after, having at least a 16-week wait for a hold. So I bit the bullet and purchased this one, a very rare move for me. I justified the purchase (because somehow I still feel like I need to justify buying books) by saying I needed to remain abreast of the most anticipated new releases. At the risk of being stoned to death for my opinion (recall my mention of Moriarity’s fierce fans), I’m kinida wishing I had spent my money on something else. It’s not a terrible book at all, but having been billed as a thriller, I was expecting more…well…thrill. This book built the tension throughout every chapter, then it blandly fizzled. I felt like a middle-schooler who put a whoopi cushion on her teacher’s chair and waited with baited breath for that teacher to sit down…only to have the whoopi cushion malfunction. I was waiting for malevolent goings on, and brutality, or even infidelity, but nope. Nothing of that sort happened. It just ended on a misunderstanding and an odd little girl who is broken and lost. I was hugely disappointed. I was expecting a grand fireworks display and instead received a smoke bomb. I was pleased, however, that Stan got rid of that carpet. That was a lovely display of affection.

A fun albeit a very lengthy mystery dealing with decades of engrained family trauma, gossipy neighbours and the violence men can do to women. There's also a lot of tennis. It took me awhile to get into the story with its seemingly never ending cast of characters, but within a few chapters I was hooked and the story really took off. I wish the momentum would have held right through the end of the book, because the last quarter is a bit weak.

Good plot, it was very enjoyable, however I found it was quite long and dragged out a bit.

I have read and listened to many of the author’s books and generally enjoyed them. This one, for me, started off boring. I put it aside because I didn’t care about the characters. When I started it for a second time (because it was a book club selection), it soon became a mess of multiple and occasionally far-fetched storylines that were not particularly compelling. The author can write, and there are some messages in there about family and trust. Overall a 2.5 rounded up.

Meh. I wanted something exciting and explosive and I didn't get it. It was a fine book, but it was anticlimactic. I thought it could, and should, be better for the hype the author gets.

I was going to give this 5 stars, I thought finally there was another Moriarty book that almost lived up to Big Little Lies, but then in the last few chapters there’s suddenly covid and I hate when books do that. Why do I want to read about covid? And especially why do I want to read about it suddenly jammed into the last fifty pages? But if I just pretend that didn’t happen, this is definitely almost as good as Big Little Lies. I love the way Liane writes characters, and mysteries, and how everything folds out perfectly and nothing is rushed or overlooked and every time a little tiny detail fits into place it’s like you’re seeing a little tiny bit more of the whole picture, and how much symbolism she puts in normal, every day things because that’s what normal, every day people do. I loved it :) (just please no more covid in fiction i can’t cope)

4.5 stars. This was an unexpected gem. Possibly my favourite Liane Moriarty novel, I needed to know what happened from the very first page. The characters were all so well developed and interesting, loved this one.

I don't often review books beyond just the star rating, but this time I do need to say it would've been a higher rating if this book didn't contain a huge pet peeve of mine: women lying about sexual assault for money, and here also for revenge and manipulating a man, with a focus on how horrible and terrifying it is for this man. Bruh. Hated that. Which is a shame, because I liked the other stuff, but this specific thing stained my experience enough for me to significantly lower my rating. Too bad.

It was ok, just way too long

I was interested from the start about what the big twist was. I was looking for clues all over and I never did predict the twist, which was underwhelming. The main characters were very old (which is fine) but the ages and things just didn’t add up to me. I still enjoyed it, just kinda disappointed.

I had to split my reading of this because of library holds, but Liane Moriarty generally does not disappoint when you’re looking to get sucked into a mystery. A lot of my guesses were wrong, but they usually are. Without spoiling how (honestly maybe this is more of a trigger warning as we’re all living through this collective trauma), this is the first fiction book that I’ve read that’s partially set during the pandemic. A definite page turner, more like 3.75 stars, rounded up.

A woman goes missing, a police investigation ensues. Investigators, when talking with the 4 children and father, begin to unravel a secretive past incident—in which a female alleged victim of domestic violence shows up at the home of the woman and her husband, and begins to radically alter the dynamics of entire family—a few months prior. As the narrative cuts back and forth between the past and present, wildly different conclusions suggest themselves to the police. It’s also fascinatingly comprehensive in its psychological underpinnings. Every character has a B plot that intersects with one another, and ties into the A plot. But more than just being relevant and tying into it, the entire plot actually hinges on seemingly innocuous interactions that are further explored as the book progresses. It’s actually astounding how much everything matters and how well-crafted everything about this is and feels. The voice is so distinct and masterfully interweaves every person, even as it head hops and maintains a personable and curious gaze. The interconnected effects of subtle moments that land on the characters illicit a gamut of emotions and consequences. There are no easy answers and there are a lot of complex themes at work. People as contradictory creatures, displaying absolute love and horrid betrayal, characterized prismatically varied, depending on character point of view. The narrator is absolutely perfect in the audiobook too. I found it very affecting, enjoyable, and unique.

3.5. I love a dysfunctional family story. And of course little details came together in the end that are always clever. My biggest issue is that it is just too long. Like 100-150 pages too long. It was a little anticlimactic but I also think I set my standards too high for mysteries. Also so much tennis.

Felt overwritten to me. No major spoilers that bad me truly shocked and the whole thing felt anticlimactic. I’m usually a huge fan of hers and while this whole book was not bad per say it just gave me nothing.