Apples Never Fall

By: Liane Moriarty

Narrated by: Caroline Lee

Length: 18 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

2021 AudioFile Best Audiobooks

2021 Washington Post Best Books of the Year

From Liane Moriarty, the number one New York Times best-selling author of Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers, comes Apples Never Fall, an audiobook that looks at marriage, siblings, and how the people we love the most can hurt us the deepest.

The Delaney family love one another dearly - it’s just that sometimes they want to murder each other....

If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father?

This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings.

The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. They’re killers on the tennis court, and off it their chemistry is palpable. But after 50 years of marriage, they’ve finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. So why are Stan and Joy so miserable?

The four Delaney children - Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke - were tennis stars in their own right, yet as their father will tell you, none of them had what it took to go all the way. But that’s okay, now that they’re all successful grown-ups and there is the wonderful possibility of grandchildren on the horizon.

One night a stranger named Savannah knocks on Stan and Joy’s door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend. The Delaneys are more than happy to give her the small kindness she sorely needs. If only that was all she wanted.

Later, when Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question the one person who remains: Stan. But for someone who claims to be innocent, he, like many spouses, seems to have a lot to hide. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure - but as the two sides square off against each other in perhaps their biggest match ever, all of the Delaneys will start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

©2021 Liane Moriarty (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Audiobook narrator Caroline Lee’s voice is an irresistible, visceral joy; like the best audiobook narrators, her delivery is endlessly malleable, shifting nimbly across accent, register and tone to create a sense that one is inside the story rather than peering in from the outside." (Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times)

"[Lee] adds a crisp warmth that makes for an easy and absorbing listen." (Alan Rosenberg, The Providence Journal) 

"Australian narrator Caroline Lee is an amazing performer who digs so deeply into her characters' personas that listeners will become addicted to each witty, insightful, and gutsy one." (AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award Winner)

I wanted to love this BUT.....

I wanted to love this because I am a big fan of Moriarty and Caroline Lee. I have enjoyed multiple productions by this team and was excited to download this title. In reviewing this negatively, I feel like I am talking behind a friend's back and I feel so guilty. But I have to be honest. If you LOVE TENNIS and FOOD - this might be the story you have been waiting for but for those of us who don't make our lives on the court or remember every food we ever touched, this can be a tough read. I kept hoping the tennis aspect would fade as the story developed but it stays as the core identifying connection for the characters. And the details around brownies and lambchops, etc become so redundant! I started to hate them more than her characters possibly could! 18 hours is a long time to invest in characters and stories. In comparison to the characters that anchor Moriarty's other novels, these seem 2 dimensional - only defined by their family connections and tennis with no other motivation. The story of a missing mother should be interesting but because I couldn't like any of the family members, I didn't care that one disappeared. I won't ruin the ending because, honestly, I couldn't make it the full 18 hours. Caroline Lee does a fine job, as she usually does, but the story doesn't evolve. It is hard to tell some of the characters apart. Perhaps because they aren't deeply defined in the writing, it must be difficult to differentiate them in the reading. Many may disagree with me but, for me, this is a big miss.

Author Never Fails

Liane Moriarty has done it again! I swore I was going to listen to her new book slowly because I love them so much. I wanted to spread it out over at least a week. However, I listened nonstop and finished it in two days because it is soooo good!!!! I loved the characters and story and I had to know what they were going to do next. The narrator, Caroline Lee, is so incredibly talented….I would hug her and tell her how much I love her work just as much as the author. I recommend to all!!!

Narrator is incredible

Great story and the narrator is one of the best I’ve ever heard. This made my commute so much fun

Tennis and Migraines

That's what most of this extremely long book is. I had hopes with this after last year's 9 Complete Strangers. This made never want to watch tennis ever again.

There were numerous stories you have to listen multiple times as it rotates between characters. A great author can alternate character flashbacks without doing that.

I usually only listen to the books that have narrators with accents. This narrator gets a little grating at times and does the worst Irish accent ever.

All that being said, it could have redeemed itself with a solid ending. This one does not, it's predictable and stereotypical.

Loved it!

I normally love Liane’s books, but was NOT a fan of Nine Perfect Strangers, so I was a little nervous about this one, but it really touched a chord with me. The family dynamics hit home. So glad I bought it!

Loved the story and the narration!

The narration is great. She’s narrated every other L.M. book and she’s a delight to listen to every time. The negative reviews about the performance are a touch ridiculous. As for the story- loved it! Yet another gem from a stellar author.

Don’t judge a book by another’s review…PLEASE

GET THIS BOOK. I’ve read or listened to every single book by Liane, this one? I didn’t want it to end. 18 hours of some GREAT LAUGHS, i mean really fun LOL moments, and all the while several tears. It’s a family, perfect recipe for laughs and tears. I promise you, you will love this. If you’re a fan of Liane, get this book.

Boring

It was a long, boring, and tedious book. I didn't want to finish but I stuck it out. Bummed I wasted a credit on it. And also bummed because the author used to be my favorite but with this one and Nine Perfect Strangers I can safely say she is no longer. I miss her old work.

Boring and implausible

This story is boring, and the plot is implausible and anticlimactic. There are too many events in the plot that would be unlikely to happen in real life or in relationships between real people.

Reader is Ace! Story is highly entertaining

There’s a few complaints about the reader Caroline Lee. It’s possible these people haven’t listened to prior Moriarty books, having only seen the made for TV versions. Caroline Lee is the voice of all of Liane Moriarty novels as well as other accomplished authors. Her somewhat squeaky voice gives the books a sense of personal authenticity to Moriarty’s all too human characters, mostly women, who want to be understood and accepted.

The story line is fun, the characters interesting and the writing well paced and clear. Well worth 18 hours of your time.