The Last Anniversary - Liane Moriarty

Rating: ✫✫

So, I should start by pointing out that I've read a lot of Liane Moriarty's books. Since I first read What Alice Forgot, I looked for her other novels, and I've found that she's a really good go-to author when I want something easy to read, but well written. I loved Big Little Lies and The Husband's Secret, and I've also enjoyed other novels that she has published.

This being said, I have to admit that I didn't enjoy this anywhere near as well as her others. This could be reflected in the fact that it is one of her earlier works; the plot didn't appear to me as well structured as some of her other stories, and the characters didn't appear to have any sort of development (or in many cases, any redeeming qualities!). The idea was altogether very interesting and unusual, but the plot took too long to develop, and the characters weren't particularly endearing. It is definitely my least favourite, and so I can only give it two stars. It was easy to read, and there were some great aspects, but I was quite disappointed overall.

Introduction

Sophie Honeywell gets a shock when, out of the blue, her ex-boyfriend Thomas gets in touch and tells her his Aunt Connie has left her a house. Remembering how she left Thomas right when he was on the verge of proposing to her, Sophie is in two minds about accepting the house. After reading the letter Connie left her, however, she decides to move into the house, which is on Scribbly Gum Island.

Scribbly Gum Island has a lot of history already. Connie and her sister Rose are famous for having found a baby girl in a house many years ago, abandoned by her parents, Alice and Jack Munro. Amidst this mystery, they adopted the baby, later to be called Enigma, and made a living allowing tourists into the famous house where she had been left.

After Connie's death, the family hold their last public event on the anniversary of the Munro mystery, and secrets come out that make it a night to remember.

*spoiler alert*

Style and Structure

I've already made it pretty clear that this isn't my favourite book by Moriarty. Yet to give the author her due, her style is always spot on. She knows what chick lit at it's absolute finest should be, and for all it's faults, this was very easy to read. The addition of extremely short chapters to the lengthier narrative piques your interest, as you are always left wondering what snippet of a secret you have just had an insight into. This book may have had less of the flair and polish of Moriarty's later works, but it was still enjoyable for it's clear and fluid narrative and structure. 

The Plot

I have a love-hate relationship with this plot. The beginning of the book, with the initial plot setup, I found to be very promising. Sophie being approached by her ex-boyfriend Thomas, and finding out she has been left a house by somebody she barely knew. Believable? Maybe not, but it was a lovely idea to set up the story, and that's the kind of plot point you can get away with in the chick lit genre. I did find it a bit bizarre that Thomas barely had any role in the plot after this moment, but I could see that having his character involved was an easy way to draw the reader in.

It was also intriguing from a reader's perspective to find out why Connie wanted to leave her house to someone who was almost a total stranger. We had to wait a while to arrive at this, but again, the slow pace could be forgiven because of the interesting idea. Hearing Connie talk about Jimmy was a lovely parallel, and the story was set up perfectly to show the noticeable comparison between Sophie and Jimmy. The plot was set up with a lovely beginning, if a little slow.

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The Munro baby mystery was something else entirely. Although the logical side of me can see the obvious connection between Sophie inheriting the house and the Munro baby mystery unravelling, part of me still finds it difficult to link the two occurrences. Girl gets thrown into light-hearted mystery due to crazy event. It's textbook chick lit, right? Yet the two things never really connected. Perhaps this is partly because, as I mentioned above, Thomas near enough disappears after the initial chapter. If there had been more continuity between Sophie's initial moment of finding out about the house and the actual reality of her living there, it may have appeared more fluent. As it stands, although I know the two events belong to the same storyline, they seem completely independent of each other.

But anyway. When you actually get to the Munro baby story, it is very intriguing. We are presented with Connie at a much earlier age, and we hear what she has to say about the incident to a reporter (who, incidentally, later marries her). It's a very clever idea, and it was a nice touch to add in that the entire family owed it's wealth to tours of the Munro house. The problem is that the mystery takes too long to actually go anywhere. By the time we find out more of what actually happened, we've spent so long in anticipation of the truth that it's a huge disappointment. It's such a shame, because if I hadn't been left hanging for so long, I would have been a lot more receptive. But there's only so much time wondering what there is to discover that you can take before you start to get irritated. I think when I actually got to the point where Rose revealed the truth, the note I made on my kindle was "Meh." I think that sums up my feelings perfectly.

The whole anniversary celebration was random in my mind as well. I had the realisation of why the book was called The Last Anniversary, but again, I was so deep into the book that I wasn't altogether bothered by the time I found out.

However, if the story hadn't been drawn out so long, I would have really appreciated the whole idea. I do understand that the book was lengthier in order to give room for development of so many characters, but I also believe that cutting it down would have done the whole thing a favour. The characters would have survived a bit of a chop down in their sub-plots, and it would have made the main plotline of the Munro mystery a lot less tedious. It's heartbreaking to hear that Rose was Enigma's mum, and to hear the circumstances surrounding the idea behind the mystery. I also think that had I not had to wait so long to discover the truth, I would have appreciated Rose's final revelation in the way she deserved. 'The Bread Board Murder Mystery' was a final, quirky, lovely touch. If I hadn't had to wait so long to get to this point, I might have felt more when reading this final chapter. I wish the build up to this had done her confession justice.

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There is a lot more to this book than just that main plotline. It's a good job really, seeing as I've criticised how unnecessarily lengthy the book turned out to be. I'll cover most of the sub-plots in my section about the different characters below, but there is one area that deserves a special mention here. 

Sophie's romantic life. Connie sets us up to believe that there is a man that Sophie will meet who will be perfect for her. Who is this mystery man? This was exciting, and interesting, and kept you guessing. Imagine my frustration when she only has eyes for Callum. Callum who is married. Married to Grace, who has just had his son, and is suffering from post-natal depression. This whole storyline I really had difficulties with. Part of the promise of this kind of book is that you get some completely predictable, cute, romantic comedy action in there. I waited right until the end for her to meet anybody remotely suitable and endearing for her, only to find out this last hope of a man was gay. I mean, disappointed doesn't even cover it. However, I could have got over the ending if it was all about girl power and independence, and Sophie was a new woman. She wasn't. I could have got over it if Sophie had got some much-needed development, and she wasn't just exactly as she had been in the beginning. She didn't. We ended up with single Sophie back where she started. Not particularly fun to read a whole story and have the main character make absolutely no progress.

This story was saved for me by the sub-plots of some of the other characters. Grace's scenes wrenched at my heart, and I connected with Margie and really rooted for her. The overall story really needed these smaller, intertwining stories. Honestly, these minor characters kept me going. 

The Characters

Let me start by pointing out that there were so many characters, I struggled to keep track for a long time. I'm still not convinced I know even now, after I've finished, how everyone in the family is related. I find myself having to really concentrate to remember whether it is Margie or Laura who is Thomas' mum, and it took me a while before I didn't have to remind myself that Enigma wasn't the same age as Connie and Rose. It wasn't at all explicit from the beginning, and I think some really subtle details could have made it a lot easier for the reader. Moriarty appears to have expected us to just guess correctly who everybody was right from the beginning. 

Let's start with Sophie. I started off really liking her. She was exactly the kind of character that is usually easily endearing. Smart, independent, quirky. This was absolutely ruined for me when she continued to talk about Callum. Okay, I get it, she couldn't help her feelings, but she really didn't help herself. I know it's unfair, but I do blame Sophie and Callum for Grace trying to commit suicide. I agree with Grace; if they hadn't been so easily swayed, maybe she wouldn't have gone through with it. Even at the end, I was open to their doing the right thing. And they do. Kind of. He tells Sophie at the end that Grace is his wife, he loves her and will never leave her (my mind is doing a triumphant whooping at this point). Then he tells her that if he had met her first, things would be completely different. What an awful thing to say. He sealed his fate in my eyes at that point, and I disliked Callum and Sophie completely after that.

It's cruel, really, because I loved Grace and Callum together at first. You do will them to find their way back to each other. It was so clear to the reader that Grace was suffering from post-natal depression. Sophie questions whether Grace is fully herself, then convinces herself otherwise, saying:

"Grace is a woman leading a dream life."

Never has there been a clearer point proven that you just cannot tell what is going on in a person's mind. It’s so difficult when it seems like it should be so obvious to everyone else what is going on. This was one of the main reasons that I kept going with this book - I wanted to see how things were going to work out for Grace. For the first half of the book I really wanted Grace and Callum to work it all out. For the second half, I just wanted Grace to sever ties and find someone who would appreciate her better. In my mind, this really messed with the whole point of this book. Grace and Callum appear to have their happily ever after, but that isn't really the case, is it? Perhaps this was Moriarty's point; that life isn't that easy, and that you have to really make an effort to do the right thing. I don't know. For me, I really struggled with this being the resolution for these characters after all that had happened. It was almost as though Moriarty wasn't sure how else the situation could be wrapped up in a way that was semi-reasonable, so she just took the easy route out.

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In addition to this, there's Margie and Ron.

Ron is an awful man, and there is lots of evidence to support this view. He's adamant that he isn't a misogynist, but then he isn't really sure what that means. Cue eye roll. Margie, on the other hand, I found really very endearing. Whereas Grace is battling with her mental health, Margie is running alongside her, struggling to get her physical health in check. Like Grace, this sub-plot helps to keep the book alive for me.

"And then there was Margie, pretending so hard to be happy when she'd been unhappy for years."

Margie had a triumphant ending, for which we must all be grateful, as there is very little progress for these characters in their individual lives! You find yourself rooting for her to get one over on Ron, and at the end of the novel, when she tells Ron she isn't sure if she'll be getting in touch with him, it's hard not to revel in that satisfying moment. Again though, as with the conclusion of Grace's story, this was a bit of a half ending. Margie didn't stay with Ron, but she didn't leave him either. As a reader, I felt a little that I would just have to take what I could get. This isn't the way I want to finish a novel.

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The other character with noticeable character development is Veronika. I disliked Veronika for the longest time. Now, however, I really appreciate the progress she has made. She still needs to have plenty of attention, but you can see now where things have gone wrong for her. It's very possible by the end of the novel to see a light at the end of the tunnel for her, and nobody was more surprised than me, given my feelings towards her at the beginning of the book, when I found that I wanted her to get that happy ending. That's entirely the kind of character development this book desperately needed. It's a shame our heroine wasn't extended the same courtesy.

Veronika was also the only person who ever seemed to question the Munro baby mystery. As she puts so eloquently: 

"SO OBVIOUSLY FABRICATED"

She actually cares about things - she just hides it under her blunt statements and harsh criticisms. She feels people (okay, mainly herself) deserve the truth about the Munro baby mystery, and she states very bluntly at one point how much she wishes Margie would gain the confidence to leave Ron. If you had told me at the very beginning that Veronika would end up being one of my favourite characters, and Sophie my least favourite, I would have been mightily dubious. That's what a beautifully written character development (and a poorly written one) can do to you.

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It would have been so easy for Moriarty to wrap up this story. There is not a single relationship in this book that functions properly. Grace and Callum are falling apart, but they could easily be mended in the world of fiction. Margie and Ron are together when they shouldn't be, and it would be easy to convince the reader that they split completely. Sophie is single at thirty-nine, but with a suitor waiting in the wings, according to Connie. She could so easily have pushed the mess with Callum aside and fixed her story too.

It's like I can see exactly what Moriarty was trying to do with all these characters, but it just hasn't been achieved to a satisfactory level. Was I ever really expecting everything to work out for everybody? No. Even by my standards, that would have been asking a lot. Yet Margie didn't have to just toy with the idea of leaving Ron - she could have just left him. Callum and Grace can be expected to resolve their issues, but then why was it necessary for Callum to tell Sophie that if things were different, he would have chosen her? This just made the entire scenario so much more frustrating! Either let the characters reach their final destination, or don't. Don't take it halfway. It just feels very dissatisfying.

The Verdict

I'll admit, I have given this book a bit of a battering. It's just because there was so much potential there, and some aspects of it were so close to being a lot better. There's a lot of characters in the book, and it follows that you need a decent space to establish their separate storylines. I just don't feel it needed to take as long as it did. I felt for Grace after a few mentions of her struggles. I didn't need to hear about it on several similar occasions before her plotline developed. Progression really needs to be a lot swifter if the reader is to continue taking a vested interest in the characters.

I also felt that Sophie's story was a real disappointment. I did appreciate that it wasn't the classic happy ever after. It's nice sometimes that this isn't the case. She says herself:

"Sometimes a girl has to stop waiting around and come up with her own fairytale ending."

I would have had absolutely no issues with this ending, if she had somehow redeemed herself for her mistakes with Callum. She stays away from Grace, and feels sorry for herself that she's still single. Come on. She's right back where she is at the start of the book, and therein lies my issue with her story. It didn't really seem to be wrapped up at the end. That was just it.

I did like some of the more minor characters. Grace, Margie and Veronika really held it together for me. They battled their own issues and came out stronger. That's really what I would have liked to see from Sophie, our heroine, and the person who should have been holding the story together.

I can't say that I will ever choose to read this book again. I don't regret reading it, but it hasn't really done anything for me. The plot would have been interesting if the structure had allowed the reader to get to the point a bit quicker. The characters were often very endearing and likeable, and had sub-plots that kept my interest intact. I just felt that most storylines didn't really go anywhere. They got halfway to a resolution, and that was really all we got. As far as chick lit goes, this isn't a bad book. As far as Moriarty's books go, this really wasn't what I was hoping it would be.