REVIEW: OUR LITTLE LIES, BY SUE WATSON

 

Marianne has a life others dream of. A beautiful townhouse on the best street in the neighbourhood. Three bright children who are her pride and joy.

Sometimes her past still hurts: losing her mother, growing up in foster care. But her husband Simon is always there. A successful surgeon, he’s the envy of every woman they’ve ever met. Flowers, gifts, trips to France – nothing is too good for his family.

Then Simon says another woman’s name. The way he lingers on it, Caroline, gives Marianne a shudder of suspicion, but she knows she can’t entertain this flash of paranoia.

In the old days, she’d have distracted herself at work, but Marianne left her glamorous career behind when she got married. She’d speak to a friend, but she’s too busy with her children and besides, Simon doesn’t approve of the few she has left.

It’s almost by accident that Marianne begins to learn more about Caroline. But once she starts, she can’t stop. Because what she finds makes her wonder whether the question she should be asking is not ‘should she be jealous’, but… ‘should she be scared’?

 

My Thoughts: It didn’t take very long for me to hate Simon, with his criticisms, his bullying, and his crazy-making behavior, but Marianne was so damaged and so beaten down from this behavior and from her childhood that she was also difficult to endure.

Our Little Lies is a journey into the dark dynamics of a truly toxic marriage, and sometimes I just wanted one of these characters to step up and make some changes.

On the edge of my seat, I rapidly turned pages and wondered which of them would truly go nuts and do whatever they had to do to stir the pot until it boiled over.

The back and forth between the two marital partners grew more and more tedious, for me, as I couldn’t believe that they could sustain that level of animosity without doing grave harm to each other…or to someone else. Finding out what would ultimately happen did keep me reading. 4.5 stars.

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