Review: "Truly Madly Guilty" by Liane Moriarty

My rating: ★★★☆☆

"There is no special protection when you cross that invisible line from your ordinary life to that parallel world where tragedies happen."

If you're already a fan of contemporary women's fiction, then this is your next favorite.

Otherwise, I'd say you skip it.

The reason I picked this up was because it won the Goodreads Choice Awards last year as the best book in Fiction. It's my attempt to understand the hype behind Australia's celebrated author Liane Moriarty, best known for her hits "The Husband's Secret" and "Big Little Lies".

So yes, this is my first Moriarty. I can see why her fans are loyal. Her writing style works particularly well for "Truly Madly Guilty", which essentially plots the dissolution of seemingly strong bonds in the aftermath of what started out to be an ordinary barbecue day with the neighbors. For such a clear-cut premise, Moriarty covers aplenty: guilt, resentment, addiction, hoarding, pole dancing, IVF, even PTSD.

SIX RESPONSIBLE ADULTS. THREE CUTE KIDS. ONE SMALL DOG. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

2nd Anniversary Bouquet (Hydrangeas!)

Review: "Everything You Want Me to Be" by Mindy Mejia

My rating: ★★★★☆

"She had multiple personalities; it was the only explanation. She was dangerous, calculating, diabolical, and . . . brilliant. She was fucking brilliant."

The central narrative of this psychological thriller revolves around the question of whether you can truly know someone or not, even if you claim to be close.

That someone in this book is Hattie Hoffman, 18, who has everything any girl her age wants but thinks she'll fit better in a bigger pond than small-town Minnesota. She has it all figured out: She'll move to New York right after graduating high school to pursue her dreams of becoming a professional actress. Yet as chapter two opens, we see that her promising future was expunged just months before graduation when her body was found brutally stabbed to death. The news shook the entire town. As the plot thickens, we learned that she has been involved in an online relationship that might make or break her already fractured psyche, having transformed herself into whatever everybody wanted her to be her entire life. One minute we witness the great lengths she's willing to go in order to get what she wants, and then we're bemused by her charming wits the next. It's not difficult to summon this irresistible, hauntingly beautiful girl to mind - she's her teacher's pet, a good daughter, a great listener to all her friends, and her boyfriend's obsession - she can be everything you want her to be. But as we move closer to revealing the killer's identity, readers will no doubt ask themselves: Is she the victim, or the villain?

"You say you're just acting, but you're fracturing yourself into a thousand pieces, and every time I see another piece, you're gone again. You turn into someone else, a crowd of someone elses, and it makes me wonder if there's any such thing as Hattie Hoffman."