Title/Author: Oona Out Of Order by Margarita Montimore

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Pages: 327

In a nutshell (Publisher):

It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens thirty-two years in the future in her fifty-one-year-old body. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she will leap to another age at random. And so begins Oona Out of Order…

Hopping through decades, pop culture fads, and much-needed stock tips, Oona is still a young woman on the inside but ever changing on the outside. Who will she be next year? Philanthropist? Club Kid? World traveler? Wife to a man she’s never met? Surprising, magical, and heart-wrenching, Margarita Montimore has crafted an unforgettable story about the burdens of time, the endurance of love, and the power of family.

My verdict: Overall a light, easy weekend read

My thoughts:

Every New Year, Oona would wake up to a different year at random, and at a different age. So she was literally living her life out of order. Her first leap was from 1982 to 2015. So imagine being 19 and waking up to a 51 year old you. You woke up to a home you didn’t recognize and strangers who were supposedly your friends. Everything else – the time period, technology, public transportation (like Uber) were foreign to you. The only person you knew was your mom.

So how would you live your life? As it turned out the future Oona who had lived the time period before her, had written her letters to warn her about certain things, but left out the spoilers, because she still wanted Oona to ‘experience’ life, which vexed Oona at times because she thought she should know things that she wanted to know, if not what was the point of these letters.

I share similar opinions as some other reviewers who didn’t quite enjoy this novel as much as many others. I had a hard time with the main character, Oona. It wasn’t that I dislike her, just didn’t like her as much as I wanted to. I almost DNF this because the character got a little frustrating as she kept repeating her mistakes even after being warned by her future self. But I loved the creative concept and wanted to know how it will all ‘end’.

Next, its execution. Writing was simple and straightforward  hence it made for an easy breezy read. The premise caught my attention and of course, the quirky cover. I thought the concept of time travel in this book was unique and creative, but its execution felt a bit weak, lacking in weight and theme, and narration relied heavily on dialogues.

Also quite a number of characters fell in and out of her life, so it was so difficult to love or even like any one of them, like, gosh I can’t even remember their names now; at the top of my mind, Cyn, Jenny, Corey, and some of her boyfriends. And those traveling scenes, honestly, I skimmed through them and didn’t miss a thing.

And it was very slow in reaching its peak. Only at about 60% shown on my kindle, that things started to pick up. Edward, her then husband who started acting distant, intrigued me and so did Kenzie. He was the easiest to like. And gradually, Oona came to her senses and started making wiser decisions and became more in control of her emotions. The book earned extra brownie points with its unexpected story on Kenzie and Madeleine, her mother. Madeleine’s story broke my heart a little.

But as you can see it took so long for anything interesting to happen that my patience almost wore off. The story could’ve made use of its interesting premise to carve out something more exciting, and develop Oona’s character a little more, even Madeleine and Kenzie. Yes, the novel did play around the idea of how would you live your life if you knew your future? But that was about it…floating just above the surface, not diving any deeper, hence making me feel a little unsatisfied. But that’s just my two cents. Do give this a gander if the theme intrigues you!

Overall, if you’re looking for a fun, decent and quick read, you might enjoy this like many others did. 

Tweet

Have you read this? What did you think? If you haven’t, do you intend to? Or have you read any time travel books which are good? Please share with me your thoughts!

Until then, HAPPY READING! Stay safe and wash your hands! 🙂