"L" and I read Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty. It was a good read.
Right up front, we both agree -- 4 out of 5 stars. That's good, right?
Each chapter introduces a new character, nine of which will be the "strangers" who will stay at a posh health retreat. Think: mansion in the middle of nowhere. Peace, massages, serenity, massages, healthy food, massages ... yes! Sign me up!
Anyway, we get to know the characters and their backstories, then we see them interact at the retreat.
L found it a bit hard to get into the story at the beginning. It is A LOT of people & stories to keep straight. But once you're in, you're in.
The story line is original. There are surprises, good and - Oh my! And - Gasp!
My reason for dinging Moriarty on the stars is because of her overuse of the word, "literally." No writer should ever, literally, use any word in, literally, so many instances. By about the third appearance of this adjective, I thought, hmmm, perhaps it's the speech quirk of one of the characters. But no. Moriarty literally loves using the word "literally" about every 30 pages or so. And this book is nearly 500 pages.
Without giving spoilers, L felt that the book could have ended about 30-40 pages sooner. We see this too often where a writer pads the manuscript a bit, because a bigger page count warrants a bigger price point for the book :-(
However, I wasn't too bothered by the extra "padding" at the end. Could've done without it, but didn't hate it. Does that give spoilers? NO! We recommend this book. We found it original and kept us guessing.
Ps. I'm not always up for books that are nearly 500 pages, thus, as L moves on to another Moriarty book (What Alice Forgot), I'm going for something shorter, and will read more Moriarty maybe again in a few months. Ciao!
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