Nine Perfect Strangers

Being on holiday, the go to activity for me (that for some reason I seem to have no time for in every day life..) is reading.

For this year's annual GTFOTUK (get the fuck out of the United Kingdom), I’ve bought 4 books. The one that I decided to start with is Nine Perfect Strangers.

In all honesty, I can’t remember what it was exactly that drew me to the book as I wandered round Waterstones, because all the blurb says is:

One luxury retreat in the middle of nowhere. Ten days in which no one can leave. Nine strangers seeking perfection. And each discovering the perfect lie.

It’s possible that it could have been that I saw it was a Liane Moriarty book and I'd thoroughly enjoyed Big Little Lies (though I didn’t quite get round to finishing it..), but it’s more likely that it was the only other book included in the buy one get one half price deal that looked mildly appealing.

With such little to go on from the blurb, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started the book. The chapters are all from the perspective of each person that in attending the luxury health resort ‘Tranquillum House’. As the story goes on, you learn more about why each character has decided they need to be ‘transformed’. Though her story is far from the most interesting, the main protagonist seems to be esteemed romantic novelist, Frances Welty. I say this because she has the most chapters. The other guests include a family lawyer, a high school teacher, his wife (who is a midwife) and their student daughter, a divorced stay at home mum, an insanely wealthy young couple and a former athlete. You also have the eccentric resort director and her 2 minions, one of whom seems to think she can do no wrong.

The pace with which the actual storyline unfolds would feel slower had each character not had an interesting back story: you want to read on to find out what happened after the robbery that changed their lives, or what happened to Paul Drabble. You also want to read on to find out exactly what unconventional treatments - referenced throughout the beginning of the book - are used.

As well as having interesting back stories, it’s also interesting to see the slight change in language Moriarty uses for different characters, for example, the writer uses a more descriptive tone, whereas the former athlete uses much simpler language. The change in writing style to reflect the various characters mixes things up a bit and makes for an enjoyable read.

Just as you think the book is coming to a slow and unsatisfying end, the twist (about 150 pages from the end) made it more difficult to put the book down. At the time of reading, it was so baffling it made it easier and easier to turn those pages but now, looking back having finished the book, it was actually quite far-fetched.

I also found the ending slightly rushed, leaving a handful of questions about a couple of the characters (what did they end up doing? Did the two that I really wanted to get together get together?). By the end of the book, I did feel slightly bored of Frances’ romanticising and knew as soon as Tony turned out to be the man that had stopped at the side of the road with her, something was going to happen there.

All in all, despite the slightly drawn out first half of the book (that was, I suppose, setting you up for that bizarre twist), and the rushed ending, I did enjoy the book. It’s one of those that you can see being made into a movie or TV show the more and more you get into it, so I'd definitely recommend giving it a go before it becomes the next go to series on Amazon Prime.