In Liane Moriarty’s tenth novel, she once again throws her characters into spontaneous crisis. The book opens with a scene we are all familiar with. A flight delay. The cause doesn’t really matter. It just sets the reader up to relate to what starts out as a very common day we’ve all experienced and then abruptly becomes a life changer.

When finally in the air,, a fairly non-descript older woman stands up and slowly approaches each passenger to calmly tell them how and when they will die. The predictions seem credible. A toddler will drown as a young child, a man will die in a workplace accident, a suicide, cancer, old age. The passengers we are introduced to are, of course, rocked by this.

It is structured in alternating chapters. We get to know some of the characters on the plane and how they are coping (or not) with this new ‘knowledge.’ The in-between chapters take us through the entire life of the woman who made the predictions.

It may be a somewhat coincidental but I’ve noticed a pattern of books published on the coattails of previous successes. Remember how after Girl on a Train, how many girl on a this or that came out? Although in an interview, Moriarty said she had this idea while sitting on a plane, I think there is something to having this book follow the success of Nikki Erlick's The Measure. Knowing what has always been the great unknown is a captivating idea and there a myriad of ways to explore it. The thought that one day we actually may know our time of death is plausible in an AI future. And knowing would definitely impact how we choose to live our lives.

Back to the book...

It was a very slow slog through. None of the idiosyncratic characters were particularly appealing and much of what we learned about Cherry, the woman who catapulted the action, is long and boring and unnecessary. I didn’t think I’d ever finish and just now learned that the book was over 500 pages. It’s sometimes a good thing that page numbers are an unknown when reading on Kindle. Knowing how far I really had to go would really have been disheartening.

The ending should have been a save but for me it was too neatly packaged. The reveal wasn't worth the trip.

This is a subject that has so much possibility in fiction. I hope if a slew of new books do come out exploring this, they are more original and unfold at a quicker pace.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Crown Publishing for the opportunity to read this advanced reading copy and honestly review it.

This one will challenge readers who are uncomfortable with topics around death, as a main focus is on the lives of the passengers of a flight in the aftermath of receiving predictions on when and how they will die. When the predictions start coming true, some of these passengers are thrown into even more of a tailspin. There were certain perspectives that were more challenging to read than others, and while I found the ending of this to be overall satisfying (I really, really appreciate the scene the author chose to end the book with), I did want a little more resolution on a few of the characters. That said, it did feel every bit as long as its 500+ pages.

I've read all Liane Moriarty books and this is one of my favorites right up there with What Alice Forgot. Here One Moment hooked me from the first page until the last. It kept my interest wondering if Cherry would be right in her predictions and if the characters could alter their destinies by being more conscious of their decisions and surroundings. What I loved most about the book is the message to live like you may die soon and this is powerful. A lot of times we take things for granted because we feel like they will always be there. I highly recommend this book for everyone.

3.5 stars.

Do you believe your fate is predetermined? Can a bad fate be avoided? These questions lie at the heart of Liane Moriarty's new book.

The passengers on a flight from Hobart to Sydney, Australia are having a bad day. There have been unexpected delays that have left them waiting on the plane with screaming babies, fretting over missing connecting flights or being late for important commitments.

Then towards the end of the flight, an elderly woman in the first row stands up and starts pointing her finger at the passengers, telling each their cause of death and age of death as she makes her way down the aisle.

Some laugh it off thinking she's crazy; some are delighted because they are told they will die at a ripe old age of natural causes. But others are shocked--they are the ones who are told they will meet a violent and untimely death. Or their young babe in arms will...

Terrific start to a suspense novel, right? The story is told from multiple points of view--those wanting to find some way to avoid the prediction they were given. Can it be done or is fate inevitable? News stories and Insta posts spring up. Who was that woman, that agent of chaos they are dubbing 'The Death Lady?' If they could find her, could they convince her to revise her prediction, say she was wrong and give them a better one?

The main character of the story is of course 'The Death Lady' herself and her backstory, what led her to that moment on the plane, is interspersed amongst the stories of those trying to avoid their fate. We learn she was born Cherry Hetherington, and is the only child of the fortune teller, Madame Mae.

All these stories are interesting but perhaps overly long so that the exciting premise of the plot gets bogged down in too much detail. However what led Cherry to the moment of her terrible act on the plane is well-developed and believable.

Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an arc of this new novel via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

I liked this book. However, I think it could have benefited with some sort of reference to the "speaker" of each chapter. There were a lot of somewhat major protagonists and I had to pay close attention between chapters (some of which were only a paragraph) to figure out who was speaking. I can't imagine finding out your death date and cause and this intrigued me to want to read this. I was slightly disappointed with the ending, but I did like seeing things tie together.

The concept of this book was really interesting and intriguing. I liked how there were lots of different POVs and you got to see how the impact of "death prediction" impacted different people in different ways. This book had moments of dark and moments of light that made the story relatable and really made me think about by own choices and beliefs.
The main problem I had was this book felt really long. I also didn't enjoy the interspersed chapters that told Cherry's story. I think these chapters had a totally different vibe and felt like they were from a different book. I wish more time was spent on the passenger POVs and these stories were developed even more with less of Cherry's story. I didn't' understand how Cherry's story added to the point of the book.
Overall, this was a really interesting, and though provoking book that balanced dark humor and joy in a way that really made me think.

Liane Moriarty does it again! Her newest book will not disappoint her legion of fans. The cast of characters is large, yet each person has a compelling story. Exploring questions of fate and whether we can change our lives’ trajectories will keep readers thinking about this book long after they’ve finished it.

The premise of this book - a whole plane learning the year and cause of their death - is very intriguing, and the first 25% I was hooked. But after the set up, things started to wander and unravel and the book felt long and difficult to get through. I think the primary reason for this was the alternating chapters with Cherry, which were often meandering and didn’t add much to the story. We could have gone to her storyline much fewer times with greater impact.
There were a lot of characters from the plane whose backstories I really connected to and wanted to hear from, and I appreciate Liane Moriarty’s quick, dark, humorous writing. So for that I give this book 3.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed. A mysterious woman starts giving out predictions to each passenger about their age of death and also the manner in which they will die. Some are a very old age, but a few are very soon. Everyone leaves the flight in a a bit of a panic and scared about their future. Within months, a few of the passengers do indeed die as predicted, and the tensions skyrocket from there. Who is this mystery "Death Lady" and is she for real??? Some of the passengers connect with each other and work to try to figure it out. We also flash back to the past of the mystery woman and slowly start to learn who she is.

There are a lot of characters and I thought I might have trouble keeping them straight, but the author does a great job of keeping them straight for you along the way. There are also a lot of little threads that she weaves through the story. You just keep wondering where this is going and how it's all going to end up. Let me just tell you that she masterfully weaves them all together at the end, so satisfying! It was a very good and emotional ending and I loved it! The chapters were also short and super propulsive, causing a whole lot of "just one more chapter" late nights in bed.

This one really makes you think. Would you want to know? And if you did know how much that knowledge changes how you live your life. No way, now how, would I want to know! The story is very thought provoking and I think it would make for great book club discussions. I highly recommend adding this one to your Fall reading. Publication date 09/10/2024.

Thank you to @netgalley and @crownpublishing for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty did not disappoint!
A mysterious slow-burn that I absolutely loved.
I was absolutely enthralled with Here One Moment, the latest release from Liane Moriarty.
I thought the story was brilliant- smart, clever, intriguing and entertaining.
A very well-written, engaging story.

⭐️3
We think we want to know our future, or at least parts of it. But do we really? And can we truly comprehend the cost of such knowledge?

The premise of this one was intriguing, and let’s be honest, it’s Liane Moriarty. It alternates between the psychic Cherry and the other passengers as they go about their lives holding this daunting knowledge.

For myself, this one had too many POV for my liking and when a novel has more than 500 pages, that tends to be a bit much for me.

If you liked the Measure by Nikki Erlick, this one has a similar overall vibe to it.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6783014437

Pub date: September 10, 2024

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review

Liane Moriarty has the great ability to lay open the lives of numerous strangers and have them interconnect in the most amazing design. In Here One Moment, a domestic flight within Australia is full of passengers that are met by a mysterious old lady and given a "reading" of when they will die and by what means. Most receive the news they will live to an old age, but there are several that are stricken by the short life span they are given. Several of the passengers keep in touch as one, then two, then three of the occupants of the fated flight fulfil their predictions.

There are a number of passengers that the reader is exposed when they receive their death predictions, however, only a handful are followed for the rest of the novel. Each of these characters is expertly unraveled to expose their current life dilemmas and how they attempt to avoid their prophecy coming true. Cherry, also dubbed the "Death Lady," is a narrator of the story, and we learn her background and how she has come to that fateful flight.

Almost every offering I've read from Moriarty has been excellent. She is masterful at weaving so many stories into one without it being too confusing or boring. The glimpses into the lives of these characters and how they deal with their lives and those of their loved ones is very thought provoking. What would you do with your life if you knew when and how you would die?

Thank you to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the audio recording for this book.
The book begins on a plane, and we are introduced to several passengers. In the middle of the flight, a woman stands up and begins predicting the cause and age of death for everyone. Once the plane lands, they brush it off until a couple predictions start to come true. The story follows the lives of several of the passengers and how the predictions affect them. I found the beginning to be very choppy. The point of view shifts every chapter, and it was a little difficult to track before the hooks of the plot sank in. This may lose some readers who enjoy a smoother narrative.

Oh Cherry! Cherry turns everyone on a delayed flight upside down when she walks the aisle and predicts the year and manner of their death. This moves between her story and the story of the various people she touches-Allegra, Paula, Ethan, Leo, and Sue- and how they change as a result of hearing her. Each one has their own chapters, each one a clear personality, each one is relatable and you can see and feel them. You'll feel differently about Cherry too by the end and about the chaos she created. It's an interesting read that will make you think about how you would handle this sort of thing (let alone what you might do if you knew you, or your child, might only have months). Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good read.

Thank you Netgalley and Crown publishing for providing me this ARC.

In this novel, an elderly woman on an Australian domestic flight reveals to each passenger exactly how and when they will die, setting the stage for an extraordinary and thought-provoking story. The alternating chapters offer unique perspectives, with Cherry’s being particularly touching. The characters are well-developed, and the plot delves into deep questions about life, death, and how we choose to live.

Liane Moriarty’s signature blend of humor and depth shines through in this book, balancing the heavy themes with lighthearted moments. The ending was incredibly satisfying and emotionally impactful, leaving me both warmed and teary-eyed. This is a book that stays with you long after you’ve finished it.

This book was fantastic! All of the characters were well thought out and kept the story interesting. I was so engrossed in each POV and how they reacted to the shared experience. This was a complicated story to write and it was done wonderfully to keep the readers interest and wrap up in such thought provoking way.
Thank you NetGalley and Crown for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

Would you want to know how and when you will die? Would you believe it? Try to avoid it? Here One Moment explores these questions, delving into the gamut of ways a plane full of passengers react. Full of heart, with grief, love and laughter. Another can't miss from Liane Moriarty.

An older woman airline passenger, mid-flight, in an almost sleepwalking trance, walks row-by-row pointing to every person on board, predicting their ages at death and how they will die in Liane Moriarty’s creepy psychological fiction, “Here One Moment.”

Like many somnambulists, upon arriving at her destination startled in her seat, Cherry has absolutely no memory of the incident or of her predictions.

However, every person on the flight remembers her forecasts and are literally scared to death. When the internet soon notes that three people on the flight have died just as the woman foretold, panic among the other passengers is heightened.

This is a unique novel filled with ensemble stories of many characters. Mainly it is a message about love and loss. It is about death and dying. It is also about redemption and atonement. It is a plead to live life to the fullest. It’s a poignant revelation that each day is a gift, and that each person who we love is also a gift—that these are blessings that cannot be taken for granted.

JoyReaderGirl1 graciously thanks NetGalley, Author Liane Moriarty and Publisher Crown for this advanced reader's copy for review.

I really liked this new book by Liane Moriarty. It has been quite some time since I have read one of their books, but I truly enjoyed the mystery to this and all of the twists. Nothing ever is what it appears with Liane, and I truly enjoyed that.

I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the Liane Moriarty novels I have read in the past. Unfortunately I could not force myself to get into this one. I am super upset with myself for not finishing but there are too many books out there I want to read so spending my time reading a story I cannot enjoy or get into is not enticing to me. Perhaps I'll try again in the future and hope I get sucked in.