I wanted to love this but it was a little too quirky for me, very long-winded and honestly it felt depressing. I couldn't get into it, I wanted it to be like The Measure (which I loved), but this felt very performative.

Liane Moriarty does it again! She keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout a 500 page book -- each chapter a cliffhanger! Moriarty is such a good storyteller, her writing is so smooth and compelling. She keeps the reader wanting to come back for just a little bit more -- just a little bit more -- until you just decide to sit down and read the whole book!

This story is about a group of people on a short plane flight in Australia. The flight goes smoothly -- however -- while they are on the plane, an elderly woman goes around to almost every passenger, pointing to each one and telling them their “date of death and cause of death.” Needless to say, she causes quite a stir! Is the woman a psychic? Is she just a crazy person? Should she be believed?

The real story begins after the passengers return to their everyday lives and decide how they are going to handle the information told to them by the woman on the plane. They must decide if they believe, if they want to change anything in their lives, if they are going to live in fear -- but can they really just forget what they heard about what might be the end of their lives? This leaves the reader to query: what would I do if I thought I knew exactly when and how I was going to die?

This one was thought-provoking, making it very interesting to see how each person handled their situation. And, of course, with Liane Moriarty, the reader doesn’t find out what is truly going on until the very end -- but it’s worth the wait!

This one was really good, and I highly recommend it!

I’d like to thank NetGalley, Liane Moriarty, and Crown Publishing for the advanced reader’s copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty is a very highly recommended psychological thriller that explores existential questions regarding free will versus destiny. Here One Moment asks the questions: What would you do if you knew when you were going to die? Would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

After a long delay, a short domestic flight proceeds smoothly from Hobart, Australia, to Sydney. This ordinary flight turns extraordinary when an unremarkable older woman wearing a brooch stands up, counts to three, and then proceeds to walk down the aisle while proclaiming the cause of death and age at death for each passenger she encounters before the cabin crew intervenes. She also states, “Fate won’t be fought.”

For some passengers the date is far in the future and they laugh it off, but for some passengers their predicted deaths are not far away at all. Allegra Patel is predicted to die at 28 from self-harm on her 28th birthday. Ethan Chang, 29, will die at age 30 from assault. Leo, 42, will die at age 43 in a workplace accident. For Dom and Eve, a young couple on their honeymoon, she is predicted to die young at 25, from "intimate partner homicide." Sue and Max O’Sullivan are told he will into his 90s while she will die soon from pancreatic cancer. Paula Binici learns her baby Timmy will die at age 7 from drowning.

A few months after the flight one passenger, Kayla, dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die as she predicted. The woman making the predictions is now nicknamed “The Death Lady” and no one is laughing off her predictions. In fact, they are trying to find out who she is. Her real name is Cherry Lockwood. She grew up with a mother who was a psychic who went by the name of Madame Mae, but does she actually posses any psychic ability?

Here One Moment is a well-written, intriguing, articulate, and compelling novel that follows a series of characters as they deal with the predictions handed to them by The Death Lady. It is a long book, but the short chapters make the length feel more reasonable and the pages fly by quickly. The chapters alternate between the point-of-view of the different characters, keeping the tension is high throughout the novel as you wait to see if someone dies and how they are dealing with everything.

The diverse cast of characters are all fully realized individuals whose flaws and strengths are clearly developed realistically as they deal with their predicted demise. I was invested in the lives of these characters. Cherry's life and background is also presented in much detail, making her a real person and not the horrific Death Lady that she is presumed to be from the flight. Her chapters could have been edited a bit to lessen the length of the novel. And, in actuality, I was more interested in the other characters dealing with the question of their impending fate.

The final denouement of Here One Moment is pitch perfect and pulled it all together nicely. Thanks to Crown Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

You need to read this book. The Butterfly Effect has always fascinated me. One different choice, leaving one minute later, moving one inch in the other direction could all change where you are right now. WHO you are right now. It's mindblowing to think about. This book was done absolutely brilliantly. I laughed, cried, and everything inbetween.

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a masterful blend of suspense and introspection, where a seemingly routine flight becomes the backdrop for an extraordinary revelation. With a narrative as unpredictable as it is riveting, Moriarty crafts a tale that keeps readers on edge, questioning fate and free will. The plot's twists are deftly handled, leading to a conclusion that's as surprising as it is satisfying. Moriarty's skillful exploration of destiny, grief, and human connection makes this novel both thought-provoking and thoroughly engaging. A must-read for anyone who loves a story that challenges the boundaries of reality and fiction.

Thank you Liane Moriarty, Crown Publishing, and Netgalley for the advanced copy!

On an ordinary, short, domestic flight from Hobart to Sydney, Australia, the wildest thing happens - an unremarkable passenger, one everyone barely noticed, began to predict the age and way each person aboard the flight would die. Most people wrote her off as a crazy person, while others began taking steps to avoid her predictions from coming true. Everyone, however, thought differently once some of her predictions started to come true.

What a fun concept! It kind of reminded me of The Measure but with more details and obviously a different spin on things. This book was certainly a slow burn but as is typical with Liane Moriarty's style, it features a colorful cast of well developed characters. I thought the book was a tad long and drawn out, we really didn't need as much of Cherry's backstory as we got and while I liked some of it, I found a lot of it to be unnecessary. I also found the ending to be a little anti-climatic, even if it was realistic. I'm not a murderous person in real life but throughout this book what truly kept me going was the waiting to see how everyone's deaths would play out! So on that front I was a little let down, I just wish the novel as a whole was a bit more thrilling.

Overall I enjoyed this one but I predict that it's going to have mixed reviews based on the length and pacing of the story. I do recommend it if you like character driven slow burns!

Imagine being on an airplane, when one of the passengers goes from seat to seat telling your age of death and cause of death. What if you are that age now? Or it is your child that will die young? Would you see if you could do everything you can to try to prevent it? This is an interesting book that makes you look at life a little differently faced with an expiration date. Some people are thankful that she told them and they caught their disease while it could be cured. But why would someone do that? And when the premonitions start coming true, is she for real?

Great characters and a very interesting plot.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in return for my honest opinion.

I am a huge Moriarty fan, and her latest did not disappoint. Here One Moment starts with a woman, Cherry, going down the aisle of a plane and telling all the other passengers how and when they will die. Even reading the opening chapters I felt this was going to be such a unique book of perspectives. Moriarty has such a gift for character development and dialogue, and conveying interpersonal relationships, you get so invested in them and the story. And then the story will have you puzzling over big life questions, and this is not a bad thing. Highly recommend for your next read. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

What starts out as an annoying post boarding flight delay turns into a life changing experience for all. After a long wait for a technical issue, the passengers are enjoying a relatively short routine flight. That is until an elder woman stands and begins to inform each passenger how they will die and at what age it happen. Naturally, this creates a stir and leaves the passengers unnerved but as the woman says "fate won't be fought".

The interesting part of Here One Moment beyond the premise is the multiple POV. We get to see what several passengers are feeling before and after the predictions are made. We get to see their mental state before a stranger tells them in some cases death is coming sooner than they had hoped. Some are told they will die in terrible manners, while others hear of long lives beyond their imagination. There are several who are unfazed by the ramblings of an old woman while others are thrown by her words.

The flight takes up a good quarter of the book and really gets the reader into the minds of the woman as well as the other passengers and even one of the flight attendants. It isn't until halfway through the story we see the first prediction come to pass. But in that first half of the book the connections to the characters become strong and as a reader you become invested in their stories. Following the deaths of several passengers, they begin to worry about their futures. Do they take steps to fight their fate? Is there anything they can do? I found myself hoping for character to be saved from their destined deaths.

It is not often a book gets you to thinking about your own life and mortality. I loved the connections to characters of Here One Moment. Liane Moriarty took us on a ride of sadness, loss, fear as well as hope, happiness and even humor all in a story about death. That is rare and a very much appreciate read.

A powerful book that makes you question fate. This book was a little out of the box but I was excited to read it. How would you live differently if you know the age and cause of your death? Overall, I thought there were way too many characters to juggle in this book. The chapters bounced around in perspectives and it was hard to keep everyone’s names and stories straight. I enjoyed most of the stories and enjoyed how things were somewhat interconnected, but it was definitely a heavier and slower read. Not exactly my cup of tea but there was a lot to appreciate about it.

I don't recall if I've read anything by this author before, so I was going on blind. I did quite enjoy this book. It's a very interesting concept for a story, something I've not come across yet. Overall I really enjoyed it

Lianne Moriarty has a knack for writing a propulsive page turner and Here One Moment is no exception. Like many of her other novels, there is a host of characters, and they are all connected throughout the book. I enjoyed the various storylines once I sorted everyone in my mind. The story itself was very interesting and unlike anything else I have read, so major points for that! It felt a tad long at parts, especially the first half. But overall it was a fantastic book and I highly recommend! Best part is it drops tomorrow, so you don’t have to wait! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

This read threw me off kilter at first because of the Third Person POV, however WOW! I cannot wait to read more of this author.

I’m a huge Liane Moriarty fan and have read all of her major novels, but this is now my absolute favorite. I found the premise of Here One Moment to be original and thought-provoking. The plot of the novel centers around Cherry, a psychic who creates long-term chaos in the lives of her fellow passengers on a flight from Sidney to Hobart by predicting each person’s cause and age of death. Quite honestly a couple of the predictions were hard to read, but that is what makes the book un-put-downable from the beginning. We follow the passengers as they become aware that some of the premonitions are beginning to be fulfilled, and become more and more invested in their lives. Despite the havoc she creates early on in the novel, I found Cherry to be quite an endearing character as tells her own story with wit and sarcasm. This is a story that is sad and moving at times, but also laugh-out-loud funny. I flew through the 500+ pages of this book because I could not wait to see what happens next.

Thank you to Net Galley and Crown Publishing for the advanced readers copy of this book.

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.