3.5 Stars

Review to come! ( )

3.5 Stars

Review to come! ( )

Digital audiobook narrated by Caroline Lee
3.5***

From the book jacket: San and Clementine have a wonderful, albeit busy life. Clementine and Erika have been friends since they were little When Erika mentions a last-minute invitation to a barbecue with her neighbors, Tiffany and Vid, Clementine and Sam don’t hesitate. Two months later, it won’t stop raining, and Clementine and Sam can’t stop asking themselves the question: What if we hadn’t gone??

My reactions:
As much as I’ve grown tired of dual timelines, I have to admit that Moriarty excels at this device. And, as she has done with previous novels, here she also uses changing points of view to explore the basics of our lives: marriage, friendship, sex, family, guilt and forgiveness. She shows how even the strongest relationship can be shaken by a single event, and how what we do or say can sometimes be overshadowed by what we do NOT say or do.

Moriarty’s characters are wonderfully revealed through their conversations and actions. Having the dual timeline and changing points of view keeps the reader guessing about what actually happened and who was responsible. This technique reminded me of the first of her novels I read - Big Little Lies.

Who among us hasn’t been plagued by “what if…”?

Caroline Lee does a marvelous job of narrating the audiobook. She has a lot of characters to handle, and she gives them unique voices. I particularly liked the way she interpreted Vid. ( )

This story started as a 2 or 3 for me and i am glad that I did not DNF this story. Eventually, the pace picked up and I was able to connect with the characters.
The further I got into this book, the more enjoyable the story became. I will definitely look for more of Liane Moriarty's work in the future. ( )

This book centers around a group of 6 friends/neighbors in Australia. They all attend a barbecue at one of the neighbor's homes. There is an "accident" that occurs at the barbecue, but you do not find out what happens until about 3/4 of the way through the book. The chapters alternate between the day of the barbecue and weeks afterward but also provides the background on some of the characters.

The relationship between Erika and Clementine is difficult. When guilt gets thrown into the mix, it slowly fractures their friendship. Pack some patience when reading this book....it takes a while for the characters to develop and to get to the barbecue. ( )