{Disclaimer: This review contains affiliate links to Amazon.com. I will be compensated a very small amount per book purchased through the links contained in this post, at no additional charge to you.}

I finished Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers today; it was one of the most compelling, un-put-downable stories I’ve read in a long time. I think it’s one of those stories that you’ll either love or hate, and I definitely fell into the love category.

Nine Perfect Strangers refers to nine people who seek a life-changing retreat at an Australian health resort. Playing on the cliche of “perfect strangers”, Ms. Moriarty’s characters are far from perfect — they’re all suffering from some sort of psychological or interpersonal crisis. The soon learn that the retreat is led by Masha, who may be a revolutionary in her field, or who may be something far more sinister. The work is compelling, funny, heartbreaking, and so thought-provoking. At times, I feared the story was turning a little cliched — the young couple whose lives were ruined by a winning lottery ticket springs to mind — but, then again, aren’t most human problems a little pedantic to everyone but ourselves? The story is full of twists and turns, some predictable and others quite surprising. Readers familiar with Ms. Moriarty’s previous work will note that this one presents a larger scale of story with several intertwined storylines. It ranks among Ms. Moriarty’s best, like Big Little Lies and The Hypnotist’s Love Story.

I had the lovely opportunity to attend a book event for Nine Perfect Strangers last week here in Louisville. It was so fun to watch my friend and fellow blogger Anne Bogel of Modern Mrs. Darcy interview Ms. Moriarty about this book. It was particularly fascinating to hear that the story was originally conceived from a single point of view (the middle-aged, unlucky-in-love romance novelist Frances Welty, who serves as the protagonist of the story). I found this interesting because the changes in point of view allowed the reader to really see the characters as others saw them, rather than through their own lenses of self-deprecation. Ms. Moriarty was just so charming and candid that it made me love her work even more! She was so lovely when asked about the Big Little Lies series — she noted, with exaggerated indignation that her Madeline (as originally conceived in the novel) would have never had an affair, unlike “Reese’s Madeline” (the character as played by Reese Witherspoon)! It was so perfect!

Do y’all read Liane Moriarty? I’d love to hear your take on Nine Perfect Strangers, Big Little Lies, or any of her other works!

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