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. (Pub Date: Sep 10, 2024)
3.5 rounded up to 4.
I love Moriarty's writing. Even though I wasn't so invested in the story itself, the way she puts things, the way she builds her characters, it gives me such a pleasure to read. But it's still not her best work.
During a moment of weakness, Cherry starts making predictions of how and when each passenger in her flight will die. She may be the daughter of a fortune teller, but she's led a completely different life, so some temporary insanity couldn't really have any base, right? Then one of her predictions comes true. And two others.
The story tells us of some of those passengers' lives and also Cherry's. I was obviously much more curious to know how each of the predictions would come true, if they were, so for a while the suspense of when those characters would die glued me to the pages. Then we start understanding where Cherry is coming from and I gradually got curious about the why and the how.
Moriarty's control of the text was impeccable. We've got so many different characters but each choice makes a lot of sense and each person is a different person you do care about. I really didn't want any of them to die. But as beautiful as some aspects of the story may have been, as a Liane Moriarty book, it was a rather average work (for her, I repeat). I hoped for more fun. Not as in a funny book, I should make the distinction clear. I was sure the story was leading somewhere more, as I feel I should expect of someone with such great works.
This is probably a silly complaint, but I was also disappointed at how many times Moriarty made use of coincidences. Every character had some superstitious mother or best friend. Everyone seemed to make regular appointments with fortune tellers—personally, I've never heard of anyone who does that, so I can't see the chances of all those characters knowing people who do. And seeing from the way she built each character to be unique, I expected better planning for how it would come together in the end. Most of the book, there seemed to be this voice telling us: I know where I'm going. Then it ended, and though she probably knew that, it was underwhelming.
Don't be fooled by my slight disappointment; this is perhaps a better story than my last reads by this author. And it's always such a pleasure to read anything she writes! It's also one of the books that got me more hooked among this year's releases. That said, of course I'm recommending this, but keep your expectations in check.
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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