Title: Truly Madly Guilty
Author: Liane Moriarty
Genre: Fiction,
Contemporary
Time: 6.4 hours
Rating: 9 out of 10
here's a short description of the book in goodreads.
"You could jump
so much higher when you had somewhere safe to fall." This is a quote in the book that spoke to me.
The book description kinda reminds me of Little Big Lies. In Little Big Lies, there was a gathering/party
where something happened that altered the lives of the main characters forever. Then the book did flashbacks so we can get to
know the characters and their relationship dynamics, we learn that things are
not what they seem and there is so much more beyond the surface. Then the big reveal of what happened in the gathering
(with a plot twist) will happen at the end part.
I’m gonna do the same thing I did with the previous post of
writing my reactions as I go along the book:
I'm in the middle of chapter 4 and still no clue yet as to what exactly happened during the barbecue. It does sound ominous. It was hinted that someone confessed something. Did someone commit murder and finally admitted it? Or is more of a betrayal like an affair between the spouses? I am only still 7% into the book and I don't know how much longer I would last before I'll cave and skip to the last part just to find out what happened. I love a good mystery but if it goes on and on without at least giving me morsels as to what is, I'm gonna lose patience and just skip to the end part.
About to start chapter 5 and the book seems to be using a dual timeline thing. One timeline is the “current day” the other timeline is “on the day of the barbecue”. The two timelines are alternated every other chapter. I can't remember though if Little Big Lies did the dual timeline thing. I think it was more of a split narrative. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the dual timeline writing style coz I sort of get a disjointed feeling everytime the timeline switches. I gain a momentum on one timeline and then suddenly I am transported into a different timeline. It’s a bit jarring and I don’t like it.
So I decided I’m going to read one timeline first then when I’m done with that, I’ll read the other one. I’m starting with the “on the day of the barbecue” timeline coz it makes more chronological sense. I’m now somewhere in Chapter 17 and I can already sense that Clementine's friend is right. Her friendship with Erika might be toxic. The thing with toxic friendships is that it could be that both persons aren't necessarily bad or evil per se but it's just that their personalities don't jive that it results in toxic environment for both parties.
I’m in Chapter 22 now apparently this book is not just written in dual timelines but it's also written in split narrative style. I'm fine with split narratives coz it can give me different perspectives of a whole. It's the switching from one timeline to another that throws me off.
Chapter 40: Crazy how it’s already Chapter 40 and “the incident” is still not yet revealed.
So I finally finished the “day of the barbecue” timeline and I am now starting the “current day” timeline. It’s basically tells us the aftermath of “the incident” and it slowly reveals a more in depth story of the characters like their emotional baggage. Here are a few:
- Erika's mom is a hoarder but her biggest secret is that she has a kleptomania thing going on. She’s been doing this ever since she was a kid but she only takes Clementine's things.
- Oliver’s parents are alcoholics. That's how he and Erika the connected—two damaged kids trying to be normal despite of their highly dysfunctional upbringing.
- Clementine has a love-resent relationship with Erika. Yes, I was right, their friendship is toxic. Half the time she feels like she is only being her friend because her mom told her so. Clementine’s mom, Pam, and Erika have close somewhat “mother-daughter” relationship triggers jealousy in Clementine.
- Sam suffered PSTD after the whole drowning incident which caused problems in their marriage for a while.
- Dakota thought it was her fault that Ruby drowned coz she thought she was supposed to be watching them. To deal with her guilt, she started shutting out people and stopped reading as her atonement. Eventually she caved and told her parents about the guilt she was felling.
- We all already know that Tiffany was a stripper before she started flipping houses. But someone from her past pops up in her new life. She used to have a "special" client during her stripper days who coincidentally also had a daughter enrolled in the same school as Dakota. They met during the parents' orientation and she freaked out coz he was the only client she ever slept with for money. She thought he wasn't serious so she named a ridiculous price. He said yes. She went thru with it and used that money to start her house flipping business. It was with that money she used to bid on the property that she met again Vid. She never told Vid about sleeping with the guy.
- Vid actually figured out she slept with him. Apparently Tiffany has a tell when she lies. What we don't know is that Vid has some questionable connections. He sent thugs to scare of the guy into making himself scarce or else his knees would get broken. The guy mysteriously has an opportunity in Dubai where he needs to uproot his family for 5 years (enough time for Dakota to graduate from the school). Tiffany was none the wiser.
- Grumpy neighbor Harry has a tragic backstory. His wife and kid died in an amusement ride accident caused by negligence. Dakota reminds him of his kid that's why he gets pissed off whenever he sees her. He was the one who first noticed Ruby in the fountain from the 2nd floor window. He banged on the windows to get Erika's attention and motioned towards the fountain for Erika to look there. She didn't react right away, so Harry thought he had to do it himself. He ran downstairs but his knees aren't what they used to be. He tripped and died. But his body was only discovered by Oliver and Tiffany like 4 weeks after.
How Does It End?
From the long post I’ve written so far, it already covers
much of the “how does it end” part. As
you have all figured out by now, “the incident” was Ruby drowning. Clementine, Sam, Vid and Tiffany were all
distracted because they were all flirting with each other and it happened when
Tiffany was giving Clementine a lap dance.
Dakota already went to her room to go back to her world of books. Oliver was in the bathroom at the time and
Erika was getting dishes. It was Harry
who saw the whole thing from the second floor of his house. He alerted Erika, so she sprang into action
to save her. She and Oliver did CPR
until EMTs arrived and transported Ruby to the hospital. Ruby makes it but everyone is (to quote a
word kids use these days) shookt. Clementine
says yes to being a surrogate parent to Erika and Oliver’s kid but Erika in the
end changed her mind. They decided they
would foster older kids. They think they
would be able understand damaged kids because they’re damaged as well. They decided to take a long trip first
leaving Erika’s mom to fend for herself.
Kinda her way of saying, she’s not gonna enable her anymore. Clementine gets the job she was practicing to
audition for.
The plot twist: Holly pushed Ruby into the fountain.
Although I suspected it when it was mentioned that Ruby was playing with
Holly's bag full of rocks. Holly admitted this to Oliver and Grandma
Pam. Pam tried to make her think that she did not do this. For a
while I thought maybe this memory tampering would cause Holly some sort of
psychological issues growing up but later on in the book she seems to move on
from the whole ordeal.
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