Big Little Lies

How it reads

Big Little Lies is mystery (domestic mystery, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in a suburban setting, in the present day, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are family, secrets and class and society. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 458 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's a mega-bestseller — the book everyone seems to have read.