Book Review: Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

I'll confess, despite Moriarty being a prolifically talented writer, this was only my third book of hers. I absolutely adored Nine Perfect Strangers, so I had very high expectations going into Apples Never Fall.

A knock on the door one evening brings Stan and Joy Delaney quite a surprise- a young woman named Savannah, bleeding, abused, and scared asks for their help. The Delaneys take her in with open arms-

but what is she hiding? Later, when family matriarch Joy goes missing, an investigation is launched that will bring the Delaney family apart and reveal secrets from the past. The four Delaney siblings, now all adults, have problems on their own and find themselves divided on whether or not their father has something to do with their mother's sudden disappearance.

Told over the course of roughly a year, this book is a dual timeline of both the present and the recent past.

What I loved:

1) Moriarty's way of telling stories never disappoints. This novel was equal parts edge-of-your-seat, but also contained much-needed bites of humour. All the characters are very real, very unique, and very different from each other.

2) miniature shifting perspectives throughout the book. We are treated to chapters from the perspective of side characters often, and it's a refreshing look at an outsider's perspective of the family dynamic.

What I didn't love:

1) Savannah's entire personality and storyline. Period. **spoiler** Her whole shtick is that she was treated horribly as a child and must exact revenge on the family who was cruel to her for one (1) day. AND THEY ALL JUST ACCEPTED THAT? In college, I worked for a small business that lived on the same property they ran their operation, much like the Delaney family. People would drive into their yard, knock on their door at all hours, interrupt family mealtime, and act as the entire property was theirs to be used. There was no respect for boundaries. I don't feel the least bit sorry for Savannah for doing the same and then potentially ruining careers, marriages, and mental health by exacting revenge. She accuses two members of the family of sexual assault, takes advantage of their kindness for literal MONTHS, and then shrugs her shoulders at the end and leaves the family in tatters without as much as an 'oops'? Bestie that is NOT how we treat people.

2) The sudden inclusion of COVID-19 towards the end of the book. Can we, and I mean this with every fiber of my being, not? Covid wasn't mentioned once during the first 98% of the book, so its inclusion felt abrupt, choppy, and forced.

3) A serious lack of diversity among characters. Both detectives in the investigation are POC, but there is no representation of LGBTQ+ characters whatsoever.