A review by cubaitlubin
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.75

First off, know that none of this is your fault. Or anyone else's.

There was no science experiment gone wrong, no other explanation for it. And there's no way to prevent or fix it. Here's what's going on:

Every year, on your birthday, right at midnight, you travel through time to inhabit your body at a different point of your life.

For exactly one year. Then you "leap" to another random age you haven't lived before (could be older, could be younger). You're physically and mentally healthy, but you're experiencing your adult life out of order.

Thus begins the wild sweetness of this book. Seven leaps go by quickly but the author does a nice job building a world of characters that come and go, and some that stick around. It took me a bit to adjust to the rules/communication of the time jumping system and a few moments were too on-the-nose for me, but there's lots to think about and discuss here, and I had a strong mental movie of this playing out. Some great elements of 13 Going On 30, Freaky Friday, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and other timey-wimey media. Of course the author has a bomb Spotify playlist for this one too.