The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

I usually find Liane Moriarty novels superlative, but this one fell short for me. Here’s my main problem with The Last Anniversary: it’s fairly clear from the outset that Grace has post-natal depression, yet at no time in the proceedings does she acknowledge this as true. It’s absolutely maddening. I also haaaaated Laura. I suppose her unhappiness was supposed to be punishment enough, but I thought the way she raised Grace was completely fucked up. I was also irritated by Margie’s problems all being solved as soon as she lost weight, and also by her “not exactly” affair. No, Margie, it wasn’t an affair at all; people are allowed to have friends of the opposite sex, you know. It was also very hard to figure out what Audrey (who was yay, Malaysian!) saw in Veronika, tho I suppose one could just chalk that down to the vagaries of love.

Anyway, there were too many headscratching moments in an otherwise terrific novel (that ending! So sneaky and satisfying!) for me to rate it as highly as the rest of her oeuvre, but the mystery was really well done and I did stay up far too late reading it, the hallmark of a very good book.