A review by maya_kaur
Liars and Saints by Maile Meloy

3.0

It feels strange to give three stars to a book that left an impression on me after reading it, but here's why I did. As many people have stated, this book tells an intergenerational story of a family, where we meet each character and visit integral moments in their lives and how it affects them and the dynamic of the family. Maile endeavours to do this in just 260 pages...and here, for me, is where lies the problem. Although I admire her ambition, it still felt that the book was lacking in many ways. There were times where I couldn't relate to Jamie's relationship with his parents because of the lack of context given which would allow for motivations to be understood. As much as I love dysfunctional characters, the amount of major events and plot points made the impact lessen and lessen as I progressed through the book; it almost, became unbelievable (especially the last major character plot point) and really left me feeling distant from the story rather than enthralled. Overall, it is a brave novel that tries to tackle a lot of familial issues, however, sometimes less is more.