~4.5ish 
 I originally picked up BIG LITTLE LIES from my public library, on a shelf of titles recommended for book clubs. While I'm not part of a book club, I really had nothing else in mind to read at night before bed, so I dove into this novel without any information at all about the story. 
 I was definitely pleasantly surprised by the thoughtfulness the author displayed in crafting both the characters and the plot line, and I ended up dragging out the novel for almost a month, like a dieter pinches off small pieces of a delicious chocolate bar, trying to make it last as long as possible. 
 The story centers around three strongly developed female characters; Madeline, an outspoken, self assured woman who is dealing with the fact that her young teenage daughter would rather go live with her free love, hippie step-mother than to stay in the house with the mother that raised her. We also meet Celeste, a beautiful, wealthy wife and mother who hides a history of physical abuse under a seemingly perfect facade. And, finally, there is Jane, a young, single mother who has newly moved to town and who finds herself immediately ostracized by a community of bullies based on a false assumption that her young son, Ziggy, is a class bully. 
 I thoroughly involved all three story lines, which generally doesn't happen in the majority of the novels of this type that I find myself reading. I could sympathize with each woman individually, and I loved the way that alternating plot lines were woven together so thoughtfully, while still maintaining a story that was incredibly interesting and absorbing from start to finish. 
 There really wasn't a single character that felt flat or uni-dimensional, which is more than a reader may expect from this type of literature usually classified as "women's fiction." Quotes from a police investigation provided creative flashbacks, sprinkled throughout the novel, which alluded to a mysterious murder that would later be explained in the final chapters. The only tiny thing that detracted a bit from a higher rating, I think, was the fact that the story felt a tad rushed in the scenes during and after the murder scene. While I would have enjoyed for things to be a little more fleshed out towards the conclusion of the novel, I can appreciate that the chaotic pace of the writing did serve to convey the hectic nature of the events at hand. 
 If you love thoughtful stories about strong women, or if you generally just enjoy reading books from the "women's fiction" section of your library/bookstore, I definitely think you should give BIG LITTLE LIES a chance. I look forward to reading others from this author in the future, for sure.