Book Review / Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

 

If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.”

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.

2 STARS

For more information, check out the Goodreads link below:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/208516656-here-one-moment

MY REVIEW

Liane Moriarty is an author I have been wanting to pick up for literally years now.  This story intrigued me so much I just had to get on with it and pick it up.  Now, this review makes me kind of sad really and is more of a reflection on my reading tastes rather than the actual book. 

I really didn't have a good time reading this and I think the main reason for this is the multiple character perspective aspect.  There are a lot of characters in this story and a lot of perspectives and views to follow.  I really struggled to follow and care for any of the characters, no matter what they do. 

Also, the story for me dragged.  It took god knows how many pages at the start (probably too long) sitting on the plane for the introduction.

I am glad I picked this up and gave it a change but I am going to mark this as a not for me type of book.