The Last Anniversary: A Novel

My 5th read by Liane Moriarty - I can call myself a true fan now! - ended up being yet another fantastic read. The Last Anniversary started off at a more mellow pace compared to her other books, and I almost lost interest after the first chapter on Sophie, the protagonist, when we were doing the flashbacks to Connie & Rose and their secret past. Moriarty is not your typical romance/chick-lit novelist. She really isn't. I am not saying that because I don't see myself as the type to gravitate toward those books. In fact, I'd like to start appreciating ALL genres! But I say it because all her surface-level chick-lit novels (the 5 that I have read: The Husband's Secret, Big Little Lies, The Hypnotist's Love Story, What Alice Forgot and The Last Anniversary) have underlying themes of great depth.Liane Moriarty doesn't just bring a variety of characters to life in order to spice up her novels. She seeps into the subconscious layers of thought and emotion and motive for every character and spits them out with such realness that you forget it's all fictional. She can bring to life an upstanding citizen with a horrible 20-year secret burning inside of him, a beautiful woman, adored by her husband and mother to a gorgeous baby and yet completely suicidal, a detached husband who suddenly fears that his wife may be cheating on him (she isn't), a bereaving mother who disappears into her grief and becomes obsessed with finding and killing the murderer of her child, an irritable teenager, a woman who has lost a decade of her memory and so on. All I can say is that when you start a Moriarty novel, you will not be let down. All of her novels have a great sense of humor, a lightness of heart, a shade of eccentricity and a deep layer of truth. Laughing and crying are guaranteed. Although, with The Last Anniversary, it was mostly a lot of chuckles and hardly any tears, at least for me.Having said all that, The Last Anniversary isn't my favorite novel by her because her later novels are so much more complex and developed and intriguing. You can feel the progression of a great artist in the making. I started with her latest work and went backward. Still, she's pretty awesome.Possible Spoiler Warning:I loved Sophie Honeywell's character. She reminded me of a friend with whom my friendship sadly fell apart, and I'm actually thinking about calling her. Sophie is put in a delicate situation when she inherits a HOUSE in an island from her ex-boyfriend's great aunt, someone she had met only a handful of times. We follow Sophie, who can be described best as the nicest, politest, kindest little charming creature you could imagine, as she moves into Aunt Connie's house and finds herself tangled up with the Munro Baby Mystery. The plot is clever. Very clever. The ending is well-done, and the novel got better and better as I kept reading.As I write this, I'm sitting in the Hong Kong airport lounge, and my next flight is to Sydney, where most of Moriarty's novels are based, including the novelist herself. What fun it would be to make one of her events. I never thought I'd be drawn to a female Australian contemporary novelist, and this experience has shown me that we must be open to reading new genres, new authors, new styles of writing, and let our heart and mind - rather than reviewers or critiques - decide after the fact how we really feel about the work. As for how I feel about Liane Moriarty, she's now ranking in my top most five favorite writers.

A wonderful story of secrets, families, hope, regret, relationships and the way in which the actions of past can impinge upon the present from Liane Moriarty. Set on an island (Scribbly Gum) in the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales, Australia, it centres around Sophie Honeywell, a sweet-natured woman who reflects upon her life and decides that because she is in her late thirties, single and childless, she may have made some huge mistakes, including letting the man who asked her to marry him, Thomas Gordon, get away years earlier.When she is left an extraordinary bequest by Thomas’ Aunt Connie, one that sees her relocating to Scribbly Gum Island and becoming part of the commercial enterprise that is the Munro Baby mystery – a mystery that harkens back to the 1930s when two residents of the island, Alice and Jack Munro dramatically disappeared, leaving behind a baby which the then island residents, Alice and Connie, raised as their own - she is flung back into Thomas’ life and that of his rather eccentric family. Befriending them all over again, Sophie is forced to reassess her life and her opinions of those who both seek to include her in the Munro baby enterprise but also those who feel that as an outsider, she has no right to be on the island and upsetting the status quo.The longer Sophie stays, the more she begins to understand herself, what she wants from life and the “enigma” that is the Munro mystery.While this book doesn’t quite have the sophisticated plot and characterisation of Big Little Lies, it is a delightful, light-hearted examination of people and the way we form and maintain or break relationships as well as how decisions made on the spur of the moment can have a huge impact upon the future. Often funny, moving and with a serious side, it’s an easy read and a great way to pass the time. Moriarty paints the characters so well, even the minor ones are three-dimensional and, just like real people, can be alternately annoying, fascinating and adorable. I read this while on holidays and reluctantly tore myself from it. While some of the narrative is predictable, there is a marvellous twist at the end that I never saw coming and found eminently satisfying. Another good read from a simply fabulous writer.

Overall, it was a enjoyable book. It was very slow at times though and more than once I caught myself pushing through it just to finish. I was invested enough in the story to want to know what happen, but it was a struggle to continue reading at times. There were a lot of plot holes in the story once the truth was revealed, which made the story harder to believe. The character development was decent and I liked most of them, but I didn't feel a strong connection to any of them. I only sort of cared what happened to them as their actions were often hard to relate to and harder to believe that people who actually do the things these characters did. Several of them made sudden and poorly explained complete behavior changes which is just not realistic. And not to spoil anything, but the ending was weak. I was reading along, not realizing how close I was to the end, and then it was just over. I felt like I had fallen off a cliff - no warning signs, no preparation, just gone. While I don't regret reading this as it did have some very good points and did give me an interesting perspective on life, I likely won't be picking up another book by this author anytime soon. I didn't hate it, but I certainly didn't love it.

Such great characters and scene setting. Always a good twist

Tardó un poco en atraparme, pero una vez enganchada en la lectura, me encantó. Un libro con temática diferente e importante. Me hizo reír, reflexionar. Recomendable.

A very improbable (and funny!) story written in a way that will make you believe it could happen anytime... Hilarious and relaxing (at least for me). Brilliant job, LM.

I love all of her books!!! Great stories, wonderful characters, I laugh and cry ... they are funny, insightful, entertaining ... she is my new favourite author.

I truly loved reading thins book. OK, it can be long sometimes, but if you like being completely embrased by an atmosphere and the caracters you'll love it. I was sad when the book finished because I loved all of the caracters.