Can fate be fought? That’s the question with this novel. I really liked this and couldn’t stop reading.

4.9⭐️

I’m a big fan of Liane Moriarty’s writing and this one did not disappoint. Elderly woman on a plane tells passengers when she expects they will die and at what age. Chapters alternate between the “Death Lady” and a select few passengers. Enjoyed all of the characters and could not get enough. Not a full five stars because the ending fell a bit flat. Regardless, I really, really enjoyed this and would definitely recommend.


A VERY big thank you to the author, Crown Publishing, and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The short flight from Hobart to Sidney wasn’t meant to be anything spectacular, but when an older tiny woman, begins to walk the isles setting out the fates of the passengers they collectively didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “The Death Lady” as she became known strolled through the cabin and relayed to each person the age and cause of their death. Some people laughed with aplomb - Old Age, 103! - while others that will apparently expire at any moment in a tragic accident became extremely distraught. Since people naturally find comfort in numbers a handful of these people reconnect after the flight to determine who this fortune teller was and why would she randomly set out all of these predictions. When a few deaths become reality a social media page is created and the race in on to find this woman called Cherry and change fate before they are added to the growing list. In her easy, breezy Australian style, author Liane Moriarty gives the reader a peek into each of their lives and Cherry’s mysterious past. Although most believe - what will be, will be - the small changes they make in their daily lives to avoid her terrifying predictions can eventually affect the outcome - chaos theory, butterfly effect etc. This fascinating saga is filled with both statistical consequences and the mystery of life. Although this novel is possibly a bit too long and at times confusing with the many points of view (you just have to roll with it!) it comes together nicely and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This was pretty slow-going for me but I really enjoyed it by the end. My favorite thing about Moriarty’s books is the characters and all their connections. The plot is almost irrelevant to me. I don’t think this quite had the charm that her earlier books had, but I still liked it.

But I didn’t get invested until at least half way through. Because of the way it switched back and forth so often, I sometimes had a hard time keeping track of the characters or of cherry’s storyline in general.

On a routine flight, a passenger wends her way down the aisle. She is not just stretching her legs or going to the lavatory. She speaks with each person in the cabin, flight crew and passenger alike. People enjoy the parlor trick her "predictions" about how and when they'll die, until someone receives a prediction of a violent death. The passengers and crew all go their separate ways, and most forget the encounter. Then, the strange woman's predictions begin to come true. Fans of psychological suspense will enjoy this intricately woven tapestry of suspense and mystery.

Thank you NetGalley and Crown Publishing for this advance copy.
.
Moriarty’s newest book begins on an airplane where a woman tells every passenger their cause and age of death whether they want to hear it or not. Is she a psychic? Is she crazy? The rest of the story follows the passengers on the plane as they deal with life after their “predictions” and also alternates with the life story of the alleged psychic. This whole set up created a huge sense of urgency and intrigue for me as the reader, making this quite the page turner for most of the book (although it slowed a bit in the second half). There is a large cast of characters here, but once I got into the story it was not a problem. Overall, I enjoyed this one even though the ending felt a little messy.

Passengers on a flight between Hobart and Sydney are given predictions of their cause of death and age of death by an older passenger, who afterwards doesn't remember doing it. When people begin to die, several passengers hunt for her in the hopes of changing their own futures.

An interesting story that focuses on the question of whether knowing your future can help you change it.

I was glued to the story.

It's an ordinary domestic flight between Australian cities. Everything seems normal -- a variety of people thrown together for a few hours -- a flight attendant, a single man coming home from a funeral, a newly married couple, a pregnant woman, a mother with small children, a working man, and an elderly woman. THEN the elderly woman begins walking the aisle telling the passengers the cause of their deaths and what age they will die.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I could not put it down, but the narrative is sometimes confusing. There are so many characters, and the story jumps from person to person and across timelines to fill in the backgrounds of each character. Sometimes it would take me a page or two at the beginning of each chapter to figure out which character was being featured. By the end, I was completely hooked, but I admit I didn't really care about any of the characters, but I was curious about how things would turn out. This would probably be good for a book club. I can see lots of great discussion coming from the idea of knowing time and manner of death. The best storyline was actually about the elderly lady -- was she clairvoyant or a scam artist or just lucky. I loved reading about her past.

I've read other books by Liane Moriarty and have loved her characters and that she keeps the reader guessing with plot twists. This is the strength of this book as well. This one, however, seems a bit of a departure from her others given the number of characters and timelines the reader has to juggle. Definitely worth the time, just know that it might take some effort to keep the stories straight.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book! This is the first book I’ve read in a very long time that I’ve had to just sit there with my thoughts for awhile after reading the book. This is such an intriguing store told from multiple characters. I fell in love with all the characters and their stories. This was a lengthy book but it read pretty quickly. I would recommend this book to anyone because it was such a fantastic read.

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.