Book Review: Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
Are there certain tropes or themes in books that never fail to catch your attention?
For me, one of them is time travel. I love a good mind-bending time travel story, whether it's a thriller or literary fiction or romance. Gimme all the time travel stories, please.
That's why I was so thrilled to read and review an advanced copy of Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore on NetGalley. (Thanks, Flatiron Books!) Spoiler alert: I loved it.
Synopsis from the publisher
Oona Out of Order is a remarkably inventive novel that explores what it means to live a life fully in the moment, even if those moments are out of sequence.
Just because life may be out of order, doesn’t mean it’s broken.
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 thoughts
Blame me for being a 90s kid/millennial, but I love looking back on how culture has changed so much in the past few decades. This book nailed those changes. Can you imagine growing up in the 80s and then fast-forwarding to 2020? Technology alone would be mind-boggling. Not to mention the language. And pop culture. Really, everything.
Oona Out of Order could have been kitschy and quirky, just a shallow time travel romp. But there's depth in the story, too. After all, Oona is jumping in and out of people's lives and never feels in control. I would hate to spend a year getting used to my life and the people in it, only to jump to a completely different year after that. I'd be an emotional wreck.
Here's what you can expect from Oona Out of Order:
family drama
fish-out-of-water humor
time travel shenanigans
time traveling in New York, which changes a lot as you can imagine
the feeling that you need to get your act together and start making every day count because what if this happened to you tomorrow??
tears
If you love time travel stories like me (Back to the Future, Looper, Terminator, About Time, Click, etc.) you'll most likely enjoy Oona Out of Order.
Rating: 5/5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for providing me with an advanced copy to read and review!
Oona Out of Order releases on February 25, 2020!