Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

Description from Amazon:

On a plane bound for Sydney the unassuming woman from seat 4D walks down the aisle making unsettling predictions about the passengers.

And six strangers find their lives unexpectedly crossing.

Each tries to put the experience behind them. But, just weeks later, they can't any longer.

Because not believing a prediction is easy, Until it comes true . . .

 

I had seen some of the adaptions of her books and enjoyed a few, so was hoping this would have the same appeal. Unfortunately even though it started with a great premise, it fell really flat. This book took a lot longer than it should have taken to read because it felt like a slog to get through.

 

So the “death lady” on the plane predicts how people will die and at what age. Once they land, the book splits into each person’s story and how they cope with the prediction. Obviously many don’t want to believe it, but when a few people start dying, they now want to take it seriously. It’s a case of do I want to live my life fullout if I know I’m going to die, or do I take the predictions to heart and do all I can to avert them. So it’s really a morality issue and not a fabulous new concept.

 

It gets a bit confusing switching between so many characters, and while the death lady’s history was interesting, it was a lot of info, and it would have been more fascinating having leaned to the supernatural. I suppose in the end the point she is trying to make is that fortune telling is more of a case of what people need to hear not what they want to hear and is done through subtle suggestions.

 

I was hoping for an amazing ending that tied it all up, but it petered out and left you feeling rather unsatisfied. I’ll try one more of her books, but there are so many more authors to discover!

 

One thing that was odd was that the title of the book was printed in such a way that in a certain light, if you moved the book quickly, the title would “jiggle” as one image. Spooky!