Member Reviews
I’ve read many books by Liane Moriarty and always enjoyed them. However, Here One Moment was a huge disappointment for me and I had to force myself to finish it. There were way too many characters plus not enough information on any of them, so you never got to know them. Perhaps if there were fewer characters and more was provided about each one of them, the story might’ve been somewhat engaging. The book centers around a woman on a plane who tells each passenger when and how they will die. It is an intriguing premise for sure, but the execution was terribly lacking.
Thank you to Net Galley and Crown Publishing for an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
I was hooked from the beginning of this story, which isn't unusual for a Liane Moriarty book. This story definitely has a little more Australian flavor than some of her other novels, and I enjoyed traveling to different parts of the country. The interwoven stories (true Moriarty fashion) are not wildly unbelievable, but the reader will find themselves wondering if the main character might have a supernatural gift. A great quick read for any one who is already a fan, or a great introduction to what her fans already love so much about her.
I love the uniqueness of this book. The character development was wonderful and the plot kept me guessing. I've already recommended this to my book loving friends.
I loved this book as it made me reflect on my own life. What would you do if you were told you were going to die soon? What would your next steps be? Would you live your life differently with that knowledge? It felt like a thought experiment inside a story.
A short flight turns into a unique experience for passengers when a fellow traveler begins to tell them their cause and age of death. Most are bewildered and brush it off, thinking it’s the ramblings of a nutty lady.
Shortly after, the predictions begin to come true and the passengers who have been told their death is around the corner start to feel increasingly concerned.
I thoroughly enjoyed the chapters with the passengers and their unique points of view. Hoping that they would beat their death predictions as I had come to grow very fond of them.
I do wish the story had been tighter and a bit shorter. Some of the chapters felt redundant and made my interest lag. Less time could have been spent at the beginning on the plane as it felt like the story took time to build its momentum.
Liane Moriarity does an incredible job writing characters. They have their own individual mannerisms and speech and are easily distinguished from one another. She also injects them with humour and insight, making you root for them and wanting them to come out of this okay.
*Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.*
2.5 stars, rounded up to 3
I’ve read quite a few Liane Moriarty books and usually enjoy them. But this one I kept waiting for something to happen, for the story to pick up, but by the end I still felt left wanting.
This story follows Cherry, a woman who predicted the age and cause of death for all the passengers on a flight, and a handful of the people whose death she predicted. At first some are unnerved, others amused and others annoyed. But, once predictions start coming true the passengers soon find themselves fighting against a future that may or may not even be real.
I enjoyed the is she or isn’t she aspect of this story where we’re never quite sure if these predictions are true. We follow, in depth, Cherry’s life story which was filled with love and loss.
Her story is both heartbreaking and uplifting because no matter what is thrown her way, Cherry always prevails and continuously picks herself up off the floor, never giving up on herself.
My problem with this book is that there are just too many POVs with too little depth. Besides Cherry, we follow Ethan, a young man who’s in love with his rich female roommate, Allegra, the flight attendant and Leo a workaholic father, all of whom were given predictions of their death within the next year. We also follow Sue and her husband, both retirees, Eve and her husband Dom, newlyweds and lastly the mother of two, Paula.
That’s SIX POVs besides Cherry’s. And while we get more depth in Cherry’s chapters, the others will have very short chapters, some only a few pages. And then we don’t get another chapter from them before we hear the POVs of the other five characters. Especially at the start, it was extremely confusing. And even throughout the book, because of the short chapters we never get to have a real connection to these characters.
I would’ve loved to have maybe half the POVs so we could’ve had more in depth chapters.
The message of living your life in the moment, accepting the unknown of our future, and how we’re all intertwined in one way or another, was really beautiful. And at the center of this book, that is what it’s about. Finding peace within yourself and enjoying the adventure of life, because time is never guaranteed.
I truly did like the concept of this book, it had so much potential.
I just didn’t enjoy the execution.
Thank you so much NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Highly recommend! I truly enjoyed this novel by Liane Moriarty. While I usually like her novels, this one was my favorite to-date! The multifaceted plot was interesting, as were the characters!
The story beings on an ordinary flight, when mid-flight, a nondescript woman gets out of her seat, goes down the aisle and starts predicting each passenger’s age and cause of death. While people are initially shaken up, they don’t necessarily think too much about it until 1, then 2, then 3 people die just as the psychic predicted. The impact on and journey each passenger takes from that point on - trying to oppose fate- is fascinating. And the ‘psychic’ Cherry’s story is also interesting! Quirky characters, moving writing that is also so witty/funny make this a delight to read!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review an advanced reader copy.
I usually love this author’s work, but this book just wasn’t for me. It has an interesting premise: a woman tells passengers on a mutual flight how and when they are going to die. I did like the different viewpoints from the various passengers, and the “death lady” had an intriguing story arc. The way the book was written lost me, especially the beginning where, rather than showing me the story and letting it develop, the author kept repeating over and over that the mysterious woman was not like this or not like that. Hard to explain, but it was very repetitive and choppy to the point where it was annoying.
Either way, I will still read her next book! Thanks for the opportunity to read in advance!
This book was ok. I think the idea is interesting but was disappointed in the speed of the book and distracted by Cherry’s story.
Thank you NetGalley and Crown Publishing for this eARC of “Here One Moment” by Liane Moriarty.
Imagine you are on, what you believe to be, a normal flight when all of a sudden a woman stands up and begins to walk down the aisle predicting the age and manner of death of everyone person on the plane. This concept was a good one however the story felt hard to follow due to all the jumping around of characters. While I think this would make for some good conversation surrounding whether or not you would change your life choices after being more aware of your “time left” on Earth? Would you want to know these things? Etc. It fell flat for me. I really wanted to love this book but I felt it was just okay.
2.5, rounded up for Goodreads.
It’s not easy to talk about <i>Here One Moment</i> without spoilers, but I’m going to try.
In this book a plane passenger predicts how and when her fellow passengers are going to die. The story is told from the perspectives of multiple passengers, so as readers we see how they reacted at the time of the prediction and how they dealt with it afterwards. The life story of Cherry, the woman who made the predictions is woven through the present day story.
I really enjoyed this book. The unusual premise worked really well within the structure of the book. It was interesting to see how different people deal with this kind of information, and to what extend they believe the predictions. I thought all the characters were interesting, but for me Cherry’s story is the backbone of the book. I also liked how things were connected at the end, and the overall resolution. The book made me laugh and made cry, which is something all of the best books do imo. So great book and I really recommend it.
Having read a few of Moriarty’s other books I was super excited I was approved for this ARC. The premise sounded like nothing I had read before and I was intrigued to find out the fate of each character who received a death and date prediction from “The Death Lady”.
I was super invested in the first 75 pages of this book wanting to know how each person felt and how their actions changed once “knowing” how and when they would die. However, the alternating chapters from the point of view of Cherry’s (the Death Lady) really slowed things down for me a bit and I found myself always stopping at a Cherry chapter. I think the whole life history could have been summarized into 100-150 less pages. Some of the things sad seemed redundant and really didn’t add a lot of character development or relevance to the present storylines of the characters who received predictions.
I did appreciate the overarching theme of “how would you life your life differently if you knew when and how you were going to die”.
Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing Group for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Thank you NetGalley, Liane Moriarty and Crown for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Expected Publication Date: September 10, 2024.
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Brief Synopsis: “The Death Lady” an unremarkable woman was boarded alongside many other passengers on a delayed flight from Hobart to Sydney. It was an “ordinary” flight until she began moving around the cabin and predicting age and cause of death to everyone. It shook up many guests, while others did not take her predictions seriously… until some of the predictions became true. “Fate won’t be fought”.
My thoughts: I really enjoyed learning about each character and their destiny. There are many characters and details to follow, so I actually had to take notes. I was not a fan of how the chapters were set up as it did not specify who was narrating, which made it harder to follow and remember who was telling their story.
This book is told in alternating points of view from a few of the passengers on the plane. We meet Leo, a 42-year-old Civil Engineer. Leo was told he would die from a work-related accident at the age of 43. Then there is Ethan, a shy and reserved man who was approaching his 30th birthday. He was told that soon after he turns 30, he will die by assault. Paula, a mom of two, learned that she would die at the age of 84, from COPD; however, her baby Timmy would drown at the age of 7. Sue and Max, a retired couple in their 60’s was told that Max would live until he was 84 from heart disease yet Sue was approaching her demise at 66 from Pancreatic cancer. We meet newlyweds Dom and Eve. Dom can expect to live until he’s 93 due to respiratory issues but Eve will die from Intimate Partner Homicide at the age of 25. Lastly, flight attendant Allegra, who is turning 28 that same day was told she would die that same year from self-harm.
We do not learn until Chapter 24 who Cherry, “The Death Lady” is or much information about her. I am not sure how I feel about that, but it works as each chapter Cherry narrates we learn more about her life and how she became the person she is.
This book gave me Final Destination-Manifest vibes. I felt a little confused about the ending and wanted more information about the characters I was invested in. Overall, I liked the story. It kept me wanting to read more and find out what happened next.
I loved this book! 5⭐️ It’s definitely my favourite by the author, and I’m sure this one will be turned into a movie / mini-series (I can already picture it 😊). There were so many interesting characters that could easily have had their own book yet somehow this author expertly weaves them all together in the perfect way. It’s not exactly a typical mystery, but you will want to know what’s going on and what’s going to happen next. I could have easily read another few hundred pages about these characters and yet the ending was perfectly timed and satisfying.
Thanks to Crown Publishing and Netgalley for the gifted ARC.
I enjoyed this book. It kept me turning the pages. When I first dove into this one while they were on the plane I thought this is gonna be so good. I had a certain direction in my mind that this one was gonna go, well it didn't go that way. It went a totally different direction than what I was thinking. The character development was really good. Me personally I enjoyed the storyline of the other passengers over the death lady. I did give the book 4 stars and will recommend it to others.
One of my favorite Liane Moriarty books to date! The character development was phenomenal. I especially loved Cherry. Emotional, yet still some humor.
A very origi al and interesting premise for a novel. Cherry is on a plane and walks up to strangers and can predict the time and way of death. From there we follow her story and those that she made predictions about. It was an enjoyable read.
I'm a big fan of Liane Moriarty's books but I just could not get into this one. Too many characters and just too slow to keep my interest. I looked over some of the reviews and it seems like most people either love this book or just don't care for it. I'm in the latter category.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Laine Moriarty has once again written an engrossing page turner! Weaving together stories of poeple w might come across everyday and connecting them in a way that seems so natural. The story makes you wonder how small the world is and how the poeple we come across are closee than we think with just a few degrees of separation. Does fate play a part in our future or do our everyday decisions decide our fate?
Thank you to NetGalley for a chance to review this before publication.
The worst that can happen when flying is getting delayed. Right? Could there be something worse than that? For this full plane, it can and does get worse. Mid flight a woman stands. She begins to walk the aisle, telling each person how and when they will die. Everyone assumes she is crazy, well maybe they should make some changes just to be safe, but when some passengers predictions come true, things begin to get a lot more scary.
Ok so I will start by saying this book took me a while to read. Not just because it is a chunker, but it was also a bit more character driven than I usually read. That said, I really enjoyed this one! I cannot imagine someone just walking up and telling me when and how I would die! I really enjoyed following the stories of how the passengers changed their lives after receiving the prediction. I read in fear every time a character had an upcoming age of death, and needed to know if it would actually happen. This story was unique and truly captivating, and I took my time reading to really take in each and every page.
Thank you to @crownpublishing for my gifted copy of this book!
I have loved every single one of this authors books and this one didn’t disappoint. It made me really think about and was so interesting. She is SO good at character development and really brings you into each character’s life. She has such a witty sense of humor and I genuinely love her writing!