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Book Summary and Reviews of Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

Here One Moment

by Liane Moriarty

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  • Sep 2024, 512 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

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.

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

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as "The Death Lady."

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn't exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn't drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

Liane Moriarty's Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can't-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
  1. Would you do anything differently if you knew the exact date you were going to die?
  2. How did your opinion about Cherry change from when you first started the book to when you finished it?
  3. Cherry calls herself "the butterfly" and "the agent of chaos." What does she mean by that?
  4. How do the passengers handle Cherry's predictions in the days, weeks, and months after the flight? Do you think their lives would have unfolded differently had it been an uneventful trip? Whose story—or fate—did you feel most invested in?
  5. Do you believe that fate can be fought? Can it be changed? Do you think Cherry's predictions were based on fate or helped put events in motion?
  6. What might make a person take stock ...
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Reviews

Media Reviews

"The story is a brilliant, charming, and invigorating illustration of its closing quote from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (we're not going to spill that either). A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"The exquisitely rendered characters earn readers' full investment as they contemplate how much credence to give the Damoclean sword hanging over their heads, and the pinwheeling narrative maintains near-constant tension. Moriarty has outdone herself." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A riveting story so wild you don't know how she'll land it, and then she does, on a dime." —Anne Lamott, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"Funny, frightening, heartbreaking, and life-affirming. I adored Here One Moment." —Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of All the Colors of the Dark

"Liane Moriarty is a genuine genius. Here One Moment is off-the-scale brilliant." —Marian Keyes, international bestselling author of Watermelon and Again, Rachel

This information about Here One Moment was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Jill

Captivating Read
HERE ONE MOMENT by Liane Moriarty

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing | Crown for the ARC ebook of Here One Moment


The intriguing premise of this book is a psychic onboard a plane and predicting passengers causes and ages of their deaths. Of course this stirs a commotion onboard when this strange lady is walking throughout the plane and pointing at passengers while repeating the phrase, “fate won’t be fought.” You get the backstory of each character as they reckon with their alleged fate. You will get to know Cherry, the Death Lady, and the life that brought her to this day on the plane. Here One Moment is a captivating read from the start and the tension builds and is maintained throughout. I liked how Liane Moriarty wrapped up the end of this story. A long book, but with short chapters that make it not seem so long. Always look forward to what she will write next.

Touching upon grief, free will and destiny, loneliness, love, family, and choices.

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Author Information

Liane Moriarty Author Biography

Liane Moriarty is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Truly Madly Guilty, Big Little Lies, The Husband's Secret, The Hypnotist's Love Story, and What Alice Forgot. She lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband and two children.

Link to Liane Moriarty's Website

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