Celeste from “Big Little Lies” was never meant to be tall. Madeline was never described as blond. But as Liane Moriarty began writing her new sequel “Big Little Truths” (out now from Crown), she couldn’t stop picturing Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon.
Though her books continue to be adapted into movies and recurring series, Moriarty has always hesitated to write a sequel. But fan fervor over the 2017 HBO series continues, pleading for the show's star-studded cast to return for one more season of drama and ambient crashing waves.
When she published “Big Little Lies” in 2014, Moriarty wanted to memorialize her own (considerably less dramatic) journey of parenting schoolchildren. As her kids grew into teenagers, she found a “wealth of material”
and began writing a mystery novel set at a high school. But when a new swell of support for Season 3 came in, she wondered what the children from “Big Little Lies” would be like at that age. She wondered how Celeste, Madeline, Jane, Renata and Bonnie would cope with it.
When she sat down to write, Moriarty couldn’t ignore the influence of the show. In some cases, she lets this sequel stand separately. It’s still set in Pirriwee, a fictional town in Australia. Madeline still has three kids, different from the show’s two. And Tom, the cafe owner from Season 1 (Joseph Cross), never left.
But Moriarty also kept hints of the unpublished novella she wrote for David E. Kelley to use for Season 2, including Meryl Streep’s character Mary-Louise. And Renata, initially a side character, gets a bigger spotlight because of scene-stealing Laura Dern.
At a certain point, “I just let (the characters) morph together,” Moriarty says. “I was also very aware of the fact that readers might be doing the same thing.”
In ‘Big Little Truths,’ the kids are growing up
“Big Little Truths" follows a similar formula to its bestselling predecessor, but set 10 years later. Something unthinkable has occurred, but you don’t know how it happened or who was involved. This time, it’s a severed finger arriving at the principal’s office. And the kids are the ones in the interrogation room.
Chloe, in high school, is predictably Miss Popular. Max plays it cool. Josh is nursing a crush on Skye. Amabella “defies definition,” according to Skye. And Ziggy is running an underground vape black market. They reunite after Madeline’s disastrous 50th birthday party.
Though none of the children are like her own kids, Moriarty says she drew inspiration from their slang.
“(My daughter) said something the other day, she said ‘You know, I’m lowkey neglected.’ And I said ‘Oh, why didn’t you say that earlier?’ That’s so funny!” Moriarty quips.
But she was careful not to go too far. She never would have put in “that 6-7 thing,” she says. She needed the lingo to sound just foreign enough that it would harken back to the experience of parenting teenagers in the digital age.
Big kids, bigger problems
But other than teenage shenanigans, Moriarty inserts heavy topics in “Big Little Truths,” namely consent. The kids learn about it in school. Their parents worry about it. Without spoiling anything, it’s a major theme of the book. How do you teach teens about consent? What does it mean? Who is capable of giving it?
It’s hard not to think back to Jane’s story, the major twist of “Big Little Lies.”
Moriarty says she never sets out with a message for her readers, instead interested in what they take from it. But she looked at Jane in a different light when writing this book.
“Sometimes people would refer to Jane's rape and I would say, ‘Well, it wasn't a rape. It was more of an assault.’ But then when I went back and read the book again, I thought, ‘Oh, actually I would call that rape now,’” Moriarty says. “Is that because I didn't actually remember how I've written the scene? Or is it because I've now changed as we all do as the culture changes and my understanding of consent has changed?"
The adults are also grappling with their own changes now that they’re in middle life. Perimenopause, cancer diagnoses, divorces and dating are top of mind for the five.
Mary-Louise returns, even though Moriarty only crafted her for Season 2. She named her after Streep’s birth name. Moriarty calls it a “career highlight” that Streep actually wanted to play her. In Season 2, Mary-Louise comes crashing into Celeste’s life after Perry’s death, eager to take custody of her grandsons and unable to see that her son was an abuser.
She has a lot more reckoning to do in “Big Little Truths,” which Moriarty credits in part to the actress herself.
“I realized she still felt protective of her character, and I think that's what actors do, even the villainous characters they find a way to inhabit and understand,” Moriarty says. “I think that's what we all do through life, and (what) I want to do with my characters is constantly reexamining how you feel about something.”
Expect Laura Dern in motorcycle leathers in ‘Big Little Lies’ Season 3
With other characters, it’s obvious that Moriarty is just having fun. Renata, post-divorce from her fraudster husband Gordon, takes up motorcycle lessons and a fling with a workout instructor.
“It’s all Laura Dern’s fault because she was so amazing as Renata, it was impossible for me to not give her a bigger role also in this book,” Moriarty previously told USA TODAY. “You couldn’t put Renata in a corner.”
While we certainly hope that Dern gets to strut around Monterey Bay in a full-leather motorcycle suit, Moriarty says she only ever wants to be an “interested bystander” in the adaptation process.
That also means she didn’t want any input on the plot of “Big Little Truths,” even though she says she’s so far gotten “some really lovely comments” from the producers, which include Witherspoon and Kidman. She knows things will change for the screen. But she does hope they keep the ending climax, which happens at a school history presentation night. She’s just not sure it’ll be as visually iconic as Season 1’s Audrey-and-Elvis trivia night.
Would she ever write another “Big Little Lies” book, beyond Book 2 and Season 3?
“I don’t know,” she says. “But now I love the idea of what would happen as their children get older again. What happens when they all become grandparents?”
Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find heron Instagram, subscribe to our weeklyBooks newsletter or tell her what you’re reading atcmulroy@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Big Little Lies' is back, but this time the kids are in the interrogation room
