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A review by laaurenculpan
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
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
5.0
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!
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!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Car accident
Minor: Alcoholism, Vomit