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thealexarachelle's review against another edition
4.0
There are a lot of negative reviews, but I enjoyed reading this. The story was interesting, but maybe because I’m a health retreat type of person. Ha! It was a nice look into different people’s lives and personalities. I love when books change POV with each chapter and this delivered that. If I did get bored at any moment, it changed quickly because I would be reading about someone new in the next chapter. That made it easy to get through.
charrington1120's review against another edition
3.0
Really good, got strange but wrapped up nicely!
katyrain1's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this book and found the premise entertaining. It definitely is a good finding the humanity in all people kind of books. For some reason, I wasn't wrapt or particularly taken with it, but a good read.
almond's review against another edition
4.0
I love Liane Moriarty, but this wasn't my fav. Still good, just felt a little slower. This was a reread after watching the TV adaptation that didn't jive with my recollection of the story. I was really disappointed with how much they changed, and I felt like some of the important connections were lost.
kamharellano's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I'm glad I bought this at a secondhand shop for 50php because if I'd purchased this at full price, I would be pissed as hell.
Easily one of the most ridiculous books I've read in my lifetime, let alone this year. The funny thing is, it's almost as though Liane Moriarty expected that the reviews of this book would not be favorable. There's an entire subplot about how one of the protagonists, a clear stand-in for the author herself, is deeply hurt by a scathing review that calls her work trite, clichéd, sexist crap (which Nine Perfect Strangers absolutely is). And at the end of the book, there's a little aside about how that reviewer lost all her money in an Internet scam. Um...okay? Weird hill to die on Liane, but okay.
Despite the fact that the synopsis of this book makes it sound like a thrilling mystery reminiscent of And Then There Were None, with the added modern-day appeal of being set at an exclusive health spa, I genuinely can't wrap my mind around the fact that there is literally nothing going on. In addition to that, the characters are all practically cardboard cut-outs, caricatures of real living breathing humans. Also, I'm not making any accusations as I can't really tell for certain what Liane Moriarty had in mind while writing this, but I can't shake off the feeling of a touch of xenophobia, racism, homophobia, and sexism in the way certain characters (Masha, Yao, Carmel, Heather, Jessica, and Lars) are portrayed.
Ending up reading this book with how Yao was written on the first day of Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month feels like a hate crime.
If you live in Manila and are a Liane Moriarty fan, please get in touch with me and I will literally send this to you free of charge and I'll pay for shipping as well. I genuinely cannot stand the thought of having this book under my roof.
Easily one of the most ridiculous books I've read in my lifetime, let alone this year. The funny thing is, it's almost as though Liane Moriarty expected that the reviews of this book would not be favorable. There's an entire subplot about how one of the protagonists, a clear stand-in for the author herself, is deeply hurt by a scathing review that calls her work trite, clichéd, sexist crap (which Nine Perfect Strangers absolutely is). And at the end of the book, there's a little aside about how that reviewer lost all her money in an Internet scam. Um...okay? Weird hill to die on Liane, but okay.
Despite the fact that the synopsis of this book makes it sound like a thrilling mystery reminiscent of And Then There Were None, with the added modern-day appeal of being set at an exclusive health spa, I genuinely can't wrap my mind around the fact that there is literally nothing going on. In addition to that, the characters are all practically cardboard cut-outs, caricatures of real living breathing humans. Also, I'm not making any accusations as I can't really tell for certain what Liane Moriarty had in mind while writing this, but I can't shake off the feeling of a touch of xenophobia, racism, homophobia, and sexism in the way certain characters (Masha, Yao, Carmel, Heather, Jessica, and Lars) are portrayed.
Ending up reading this book with how Yao was written on the first day of Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month feels like a hate crime.
If you live in Manila and are a Liane Moriarty fan, please get in touch with me and I will literally send this to you free of charge and I'll pay for shipping as well. I genuinely cannot stand the thought of having this book under my roof.
jansbookcorner's review against another edition
4.0
Another book that seems polarizing - either loved or hated. I am in the loved category and debated giving it 5 stars. A character driven story and interesting plot. The reason I couldn't hit that fifth star is it did become a little too narcissistic (for lack of a better word). I understood all of the characters though - their personalities, faults and positive areas and found myself thinking of them after the story ended.
nataliamar's review against another edition
3.0
Esse livro é completamente maluco. A Liane devia estar mto doida quando escreveu.
rereader33's review against another edition
1.0
Question: What was the point of this novel?
Answer: To remind the masses that the world is populated by assholes and you probably shouldn't get married because you'll either end up divorced or in a profoundly unhappy marriage. Unless you're the main character, then you get a happy ending because THAT TOTALLY HAPPENS IN REAL LIFE, RIGHT?! RIGHT?!?!
No, seriously, that's pretty much what this book is about. Everyone is an asshole (until the end when you UNDERSTAND their pain) and marriage is a FUCKING TERRIBLE IDEA. Oh right, I forgot to mention that everyone is judgmental AS FUCK and the men are constantly sizing up women because it's not this is 2018 (when it was published) and we can't write better male characters, we have to write them as rude, judgmental douche canoes because REALISM, RIGHT?!
On top of the rude male characters (except Napoleon, he was fine) the SHEER AMOUNT of body-shaming drove me UP THE FUCKING WALL. Guys, you can write a book dealing with body issues WITHOUT having women AND men body-shaming others and themselves. I get it Moriarty, people have body insecurities regardless of age, CAN WE MOVE THIS ALONG?!
Still going off of characters, can we talk about Masha and how insensitively her character was handled? Never mind the fact that she's only one of TWO ethnically diverse characters in this novel (Yao was just a sheep, couldn't care less about him) but she is so clearly a Russian stereotype that I actually cringed MULTIPLE times during this reading endeavor. The biggest issue I had with her, and quite frankly this book as a whole, is one message that's never properly addressed and I can only imagine Masha is meant to be in human form-the idea not all pain is equal or valid.
Here's the thing, guys: pain, specifically emotional pain, is not quantifiable. It's easy for people to say, "oh well, I shouldn't complain about what I'm going through, someone else is probably going through something worse," and if you are someone who says that, YOU SHOULD FUCKING STOP. Pushing aside the fact that that mentality is what a lot of abuse victims use to justify their situation and their abuser's behavior, the simple truth is that ALL PAIN IS VALID. You can't compare a bully victim to a terrorist attack survivor or the victim of a robbery to a victim of an attempted murder because THERE'S NOTHING TO COMPARE BECAUSE ALL OF THAT PAIN IS VALID. I know I'm harping on this but this is a very serious issue that is RARELY addressed and it why a lot of people won't speak up if they have problems because they're constantly thinking, "well, someone could have it worse," or people are TELLING them, "it's not as bad as it could be," and THAT'S WHY so many people never seek professional help and IT NEEDS TO FUCKING STOP. The fact that Moriarty, who's usually so spot on in her depictions of real-world issues and has a tendency to call out bullshit, CHOSE to create a character that is basically saying, "none of you idiots should be crying, I've had it far worse," AND IS NEVER CHALLENGED OR QUESTIONED pisses me off more than you can imagine. I don't care that everyone got their fucking happy ending (don't even get me started on that horseshit), everyone was pretty told to "handle it their own way" and did which is NOT a healthy message to send in literature. Fuck, Napoleon was the only one who got counseling when frankly EVERYONE should have and it's okay because everyone else just kind of moves on? Without any professional help? He's the only one who needed it? Yeah, fuck that shit.
On a separate note, I know everyone complained about the "plot twist" and how they stopped liking it after that because everything got too weird. I don't disagree with them on the weird part, my problem is the idea that what was revealed was an actual plot twist. I kid you not, when I read other people's reviews and they talked about that part, the first thought that came to me was, "wait, that was a plot twist?" I say this because, and maybe this makes me old fashioned, to me a plot twist is something the book has been building up to this point, meaning there were CLUES up until that point to lead to the big reveal. Not only were there ZERO CLUES that lead to the reveal, it didn't seem like a plot twist. Nothing changed in terms of the narrative, it just revealed what a whack-a-doodle Masha was. So yeah, plot twist my ass.
I'm not going to on about all the fucked-up aspects of this book because I would honestly be here all day, so I'm going to end it with this. Is this book worth your time? NO. Big Little Lies and The Husband's Secret were infinitely better. If you want to read one her books, I'd recommend those. And if you have already read those and her other previous books? Still skip this one, it's not even close to the quality of her previous books.
Answer: To remind the masses that the world is populated by assholes and you probably shouldn't get married because you'll either end up divorced or in a profoundly unhappy marriage. Unless you're the main character, then you get a happy ending because THAT TOTALLY HAPPENS IN REAL LIFE, RIGHT?! RIGHT?!?!
No, seriously, that's pretty much what this book is about. Everyone is an asshole (until the end when you UNDERSTAND their pain) and marriage is a FUCKING TERRIBLE IDEA. Oh right, I forgot to mention that everyone is judgmental AS FUCK and the men are constantly sizing up women because it's not this is 2018 (when it was published) and we can't write better male characters, we have to write them as rude, judgmental douche canoes because REALISM, RIGHT?!
On top of the rude male characters (except Napoleon, he was fine) the SHEER AMOUNT of body-shaming drove me UP THE FUCKING WALL. Guys, you can write a book dealing with body issues WITHOUT having women AND men body-shaming others and themselves. I get it Moriarty, people have body insecurities regardless of age, CAN WE MOVE THIS ALONG?!
Still going off of characters, can we talk about Masha and how insensitively her character was handled? Never mind the fact that she's only one of TWO ethnically diverse characters in this novel (Yao was just a sheep, couldn't care less about him) but she is so clearly a Russian stereotype that I actually cringed MULTIPLE times during this reading endeavor. The biggest issue I had with her, and quite frankly this book as a whole, is one message that's never properly addressed and I can only imagine Masha is meant to be in human form-the idea not all pain is equal or valid.
Here's the thing, guys: pain, specifically emotional pain, is not quantifiable. It's easy for people to say, "oh well, I shouldn't complain about what I'm going through, someone else is probably going through something worse," and if you are someone who says that, YOU SHOULD FUCKING STOP. Pushing aside the fact that that mentality is what a lot of abuse victims use to justify their situation and their abuser's behavior, the simple truth is that ALL PAIN IS VALID. You can't compare a bully victim to a terrorist attack survivor or the victim of a robbery to a victim of an attempted murder because THERE'S NOTHING TO COMPARE BECAUSE ALL OF THAT PAIN IS VALID. I know I'm harping on this but this is a very serious issue that is RARELY addressed and it why a lot of people won't speak up if they have problems because they're constantly thinking, "well, someone could have it worse," or people are TELLING them, "it's not as bad as it could be," and THAT'S WHY so many people never seek professional help and IT NEEDS TO FUCKING STOP. The fact that Moriarty, who's usually so spot on in her depictions of real-world issues and has a tendency to call out bullshit, CHOSE to create a character that is basically saying, "none of you idiots should be crying, I've had it far worse," AND IS NEVER CHALLENGED OR QUESTIONED pisses me off more than you can imagine. I don't care that everyone got their fucking happy ending (don't even get me started on that horseshit), everyone was pretty told to "handle it their own way" and did which is NOT a healthy message to send in literature. Fuck, Napoleon was the only one who got counseling when frankly EVERYONE should have and it's okay because everyone else just kind of moves on? Without any professional help? He's the only one who needed it? Yeah, fuck that shit.
On a separate note, I know everyone complained about the "plot twist" and how they stopped liking it after that because everything got too weird. I don't disagree with them on the weird part, my problem is the idea that what was revealed was an actual plot twist. I kid you not, when I read other people's reviews and they talked about that part, the first thought that came to me was, "wait, that was a plot twist?" I say this because, and maybe this makes me old fashioned, to me a plot twist is something the book has been building up to this point, meaning there were CLUES up until that point to lead to the big reveal. Not only were there ZERO CLUES that lead to the reveal, it didn't seem like a plot twist. Nothing changed in terms of the narrative, it just revealed what a whack-a-doodle Masha was. So yeah, plot twist my ass.
I'm not going to on about all the fucked-up aspects of this book because I would honestly be here all day, so I'm going to end it with this. Is this book worth your time? NO. Big Little Lies and The Husband's Secret were infinitely better. If you want to read one her books, I'd recommend those. And if you have already read those and her other previous books? Still skip this one, it's not even close to the quality of her previous books.
alatinaandherbooks's review against another edition
3.0
As always unpredictable.
The individual characters stories weren't juicy enough for me, they were boring. The only thing that kept me in until the end was learning how the retreat ended if they really were going to be "transformed"
The individual characters stories weren't juicy enough for me, they were boring. The only thing that kept me in until the end was learning how the retreat ended if they really were going to be "transformed"