The Questers -- July 13, 2023

The Questers discussed Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty for the July meeting. The four Delaney siblings have different memories of their years growing up in their parents' tennis academy than Joy and Stan, who insist that they didn't realize their children were uphappy in their formative years. This is not a tale of bitter kids blaming their parents for all their shortcomings, however. Overall, they all love each other, they just don't always like each other, and they definately don't always understand each other. Add Savannah, a complete stranger who shows up on Joy and Stan's doorstep with bruises on her face, to the mix and tensions begin to rise between parents and children. The more Savannah integrates into their lives, the more confused the kids are about what their parents are doing and why this stranger enjoys cooking them dinner so much. When Joy goes missing, and the police suspect Stan of her murder, this strange young woman seems to be the missing piece to the puzzle to either exonerate or condem their father. 

The novel provided a lot to discuss, but most discussion members who were familiar with Moriarty's other novels agreed that it was not her best offering. The characters were engaging and the end provided an intesreting, yet dark twist, but there were too many aspects of the plot that were unrealistic to garner a lot of respect for this novel. For example, key to the storyline was that Stan and Joy welcomed this stranger into their home for weeks, and most members found that unbelievable. Everyone did agree, however, that we wanted to keep reading it to find out how it ended. The book earned 2.84 stars out of 5 from The Questers.