Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

13 reviews

emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was a decent new entry into Liane Moriarty's ouevre. While not the strongest of her books, it was a literal plane read for me and hit all the notes I would expect: excellent pacing, compelling characters, accessible language etc.

I found that I was most drawn to the first-person narrative of
the Death Lady and her background, especially the parts that described living as a young person in Sydney in the 1960s and 1970s.


 It was probably the largest cast of characters she's had in any of her books, and I think they suffered slightly as she didn't have time to explore all of them to their full potential. The ending of the novel, and the big twist, didn't feel entirely earned. 

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mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

i love liane moriarty. her writing is just phenomenal and i am always so captivated by her writing and her storytelling. i was disappointed last year with ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ so i am so pleased that this one, for me at least, was brilliant. it reminded me of ‘Big Little Lies’ and ‘What Alice Forgot’.

the premise was interesting and not one i’d read before. as someone who often thinks about death/dying, it posed an interesting question of “what would you do if someone told you when and how you would die?”. i found myself worried for these characters, hoping that fate would change and that their ‘predictions’ wouldn’t come true. i was immediately invested in all of their stories and i was keen to read on to see what would happen to each. i grew attached to each of the characters quickly and was worried that they would meet the fate given to them and i didn’t want any of them to die! i think my favourite characters were Allegra, Ethan and Leo but to be honest, i liked all of them. a few characters did get pushed to the side but you expect that when you’re focusing on 7 main characters. but saying that, at no point did i feel like i’d been ‘cheated’ out of their tale.

the story, like so many of Moriarty’s books, has a twist which you feel like you should see coming and can’t believe you didn’t guess. the pacing was great and at no point was i bored or wishing for it to hurry up. if anything i took longer to read this because i didn’t want it to end! 

this book hit me a lot more than i was anticipating. it had a lot of mention of death, of course, but was so much more about grief and the dealing of loss. i probably could have done with a few trigger warnings on this one as a LOT of it hit incredibly close to home but that’s just personal preference. i would say that, (and slight spoiler alert here), Moriarty writes OCD and compulsions incredibly well! not many people understand it but this was done brilliantly. 

i laughed, i cried, i sighed huge breaths of relief throughout. i thoroughly enjoyed it and hope she doesn’t keep us waiting for her next novel!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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dark hopeful lighthearted mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I almost quit the book when it was 6-8 chapters in before the big event that set off the rest of the plot was revealed. Overall, I found the pace to be extremely slow and the book to be way too wordy—this book could have been 200 pages shorter. I did appreciate the character development as you felt like you knew each of these people intimately. The narration switched back and forth between third person and first person for the character Cherry, and while I found her to be corny, she did offer some lightheartedness to a plot that lended itself to thinking about heavier topics. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Elements 
Heartfelt- 💔💔💔💔 
Love aka Romance- 💋💋
Predictability- 🔮🔮🔮& 1/2
Spice-  1/2  of a 🌶 
Tear- 😭😭 & 3/4
Thrill-😲 😲 & 1/2
Humor-1/2 of a 😜

  I found it pretty easy to figure out what was going on with the "death ladies" predictions by about halfway through the book. However, the journey of the book was still fairly enjoyable. 
  I did like the ending and the how/why she ended up doing that on the plane. As well as all the frank discussions of mental health.
  Overall, it is a decent read, and quite emotional. 


Narrators' Rating: 4.5 stars
   My only complaint with the narrators was some of the voices they used were annoying or repetitive in different characters. 

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emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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inspiring lighthearted sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Slow to start, and at first gives you the feeling of “where is this going”, but wholeheartedly enjoyable. Loveable characters, witty & funny moments, and by the end you’re crying. 
Definitely a little different to Moriartys other books in my opinion, not as much of a mystery, and definitely more lighthearted, but I enjoyed it a lot. A book that really makes you appreciate life, and also inspires you to go do the things you want to do in life.

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

 I wasn't really quite sure what to expect out of this book, but by the end of it I was in love with it anyway. I really enjoyed the themes of life being what you make it, not taking anything or anyone for granted, and not simply resigning yourself to what you think is inevitable. This was a bit different than the other books I've read by this author, but in a really good way and I would definitely recommend this book for anyone looking for something they can just slow down, sit and enjoy for the sake of i 

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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