Apples Never Fall ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭒

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

US Publication: September 14, 2021

Print: 480 pages

Audio: 18 hours 3 minutes

Confetti Rating: 4.5 stars

REVIEW:

Do you like apples?

Well I got my favorite author back. How do you like them apples?

My relationship with Liane Moriarty has felt a little one-sided in recent years. I became smitten with her when I read The Husband’s Secret but really fell hard for Big Little Lies. I went back and read most of her previous catalog but then… Truly Madly Guilty and Nine Perfect Strangers. (AKA Truly Madly OMG-pleasestopsayingatthebarbecue and Nine Perfect WTH-isthisactuallyhappeningamIondrugs.)

I really needed a winner from my dear Liane or I was going to have to consider a breakup, and I’m over the moon that she delivered.

Apples Never Fall follows the tennis-obsessed Delaney family, which includes two recently-retired parents and their four adult children. Matriarch Joy has gone missing, so there is an intriguing “what happened to mum?” plot to keep the pages turning. The thing that Liane Moriarty absolutely excels at is characterization. She must be the most keen observer of the human condition, because she nails insightful - and accurate - idiosyncrasies that make each of her fictional creations feel truly real.

Fair warning though that there is a lot of tennis in this book. A LOT. You don’t have to like tennis to like the book, but if you love it… you’ll love it. And because you know I can’t resist a little wordplay, I’ll end with this: Liane Moriarty is back in form and serving aces once again.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Liane Moriarty comes a novel that looks at marriage, siblings, and how the people we love the most can hurt us the deepest.

The Delaney family love one another dearly — it’s just that sometimes they want to murder each other…

If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father?

This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings.

The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. They’re killers on the tennis court, and off it their chemistry is palpable. But after fifty years of marriage, they’ve finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. So why are Stan and Joy so miserable?

The four Delaney children — Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke — were tennis stars in their own right, yet as their father will tell you, none of them had what it took to go all the way. But that’s okay, now that they’re all successful grown-ups and there is the wonderful possibility of grandchildren on the horizon.

One night a stranger named Savannah knocks on Stan and Joy’s door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend. The Delaneys are more than happy to give her the small kindness she sorely needs. If only that was all she wanted.

Later, when Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question the one person who remains: Stan. But for someone who claims to be innocent, he, like many spouses, seems to have a lot to hide. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure — but as the two sides square off against each other in perhaps their biggest match ever, all of the Delaneys will start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light.