Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty (2021)
Laura’s Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
I received a signed copy of the most recent release from a favorite author of mine as a Christmas gift and tore into it just after the new year.
The Analysis:
As with many of Moriarty’s novels, this is a domestic drama, focused on family dynamics and relationships with a hint of mystery. Stan and Joy Delaney are former tennis coaches and ran a tennis school for many years. When a strange girl shows up at the doorstep one night, it is a welcome reprieve from the monotony of retirement as they attempt to help this girl. When Joy goes missing months later, her four adult children attempt to figure out whether what happened to their mother is because of this girl or because of their own father…
Liane Moriarty’s characters each have specific, identifiable characteristics, which makes it easy to keep them straight while reading. The story highlights many relatable concepts, including marital fidelity, sibling rivalry, mental health, and the societal expectations placed on wives and mothers to do it all and keep everything running without complaint. Moriarty expertly places small details that come up again later, which makes for very satisfying conclusions without a lot of loose ends. This book has some decent twists, but nothing too shocking. I did get excited for the last chapter that started off thrilling and exciting but then fell flat without a full resolution.
The amount of tennis in this book is a bit overkill. I get that it’s central to the lives of the characters, but it was a lot even for someone who mildly enjoys the sport. The book also references the COVID-19 pandemic in a late chapter, which I assume was done to make the book current, but honestly ruined it a bit for me. The pandemic was not central to the plotline and felt thrown in at the end with no real reason. The book could have existed in an unspecified year and I read this type of book to escape, not to dwell on the current (and over-covered) problems of the world. This was not my favorite book by Liane Moriarty but Apples Never Fall was well-written and was still worth the read.
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