Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Apples Never Fall, the new book by Liane Moriarty is the very definition of empty calories with no redeeming value. Liane Moriarty is talented, skilled and experienced and thus produces a professional product even though upon any kind of close examination this novel is less than the sum of its parts. Moriarty has been very successful writing good domestic thrillers but this reader got the impression that Moriarty needs new challenges for her prodigious talents. I hope she finds them but Apples Never Fall isn’t it. Just what is wrong? Shallow characters, no character development and muddy motives mar every section of the book. The plot is nonsensical and the lack of comprehensible plot growing out of character actions makes the entire book fall flat. Because of these flaws the book is neither a domestic thriller or a literary examination of family dysfunction. The book ends up being nothing much at all. I’m tired of the taste for O’Henry endings, but the supposed twist just isn’t believable and is telegraphed from the beginning. Because Moriarty is so skilled the reader doesn’t notice unless thinking critically. It is the literary equivalent of drinking soda or eating a candy bar, but not as a special treat. Instead this book is the kind of thing you’re sorry you ate as you struggle with disappointment and nausea. This reads like a waste of time, money, calories and treats. Apples Never Fall is a true disappointment because Moriarty has excelled at balancing genuine insight into people’s behavior with an engrossing read in the past but she failed here.