Book Review: "Oona Out of Order" by Margarita Montimore
"Oona Out of Order" by Margarita Montimore
Synopsis: 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. - Flatiron Books
Rating (out of 5): 4.5
Trigger warnings:
Review: I had very low expectations for this book — probably because when I read the synopsis months ago, I didn’t really read it closely — but I was lured in by the cover and some instagram stories. I am so glad that I did (and really, thanks libro.fm for the ALC that got me hooked). This is the story of Oona Lockhart, a woman who lives her life in non-sequential order. Everything is normal until her 19th birthday/New Year’s Eve 1983; she’s living her best college girl life, with an amazing boyfriend, study abroad opportunities, and a gig as a keyboardist in a band. Then all of a sudden, she wakes up in the 2010s, she’s 30+ years older, and everything she’s ever known is shaken.
Yes, the premise is a little nutty, but I respect the author for not trying to provide a broader reason for it. She never even ventures to explain why Oona bops around time, and there’s no indication that Oona is part of a broader community of time hoppers. It’s just a quirk, and like every quirk with someone you love, you have to learn to live with it. Oona doesn’t tell many people about her secret — her mother, her assistant Kenzie, her husband-for-a-brief moment Edward.
This book really made me think: would I try to change my future if I could to avoid the painful moment, even if that meant missing some of the best moments? Would I try to avoid getting my heart broken by missing the wonderful part of falling in love? Honestly, I don’t think so, even though the bad parts of life can be truly gut-wrenching at times. If everything was good all the time, how would we really be able to appreciate it?
I think that’s the main message of the book — we see Oona constantly wrestle with messing around with her future to see if she can get a less painful outcome for her future self. She has a master binder, full of stock tips, and she leaves herself 1 letter to let her jumped self know exactly what’s happening when she appears in her new time (and age). I like to think I’d do something similar — live the best life I could, even if it wasn’t in order. I appreciate that Oona doesn’t spoil things for herself. That isn’t to say I wouldn’t definitely use my knowledge of the stock market and sporting events to make nine figures if I went back in time. I’m a good person, not a perfect one.
I feel a little dumb that I didn’t see the big aha! coming, but it snuck up on me. You hear me talk a great degree about world building in my reviews, but stepping into a world that an author created is one of my favorite parts of reading. I am never happier than when an author creates a realistic space (even with surreal circumstances) with great characters, and that is definitely the case here. I loved every character in this book, even when I was frustrated with them, and I wanted to see them all get to live their best lives. (Okay, maybe I didn’t love Edward, but everyone else was a winner). It’s heartwarming, it’s creative, it’s sweet — a total winner in my book.
Note: This was the first time that I’ve ever done a hybrid listen — half on my libro.fm audiobook during my commute to and from work, and half in hard copy — and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would! This was a book where it was pretty easy to go between the two without getting confused, and I really felt like I maximized my available free time. In this time of scary news and social distancing, I know many people are having a hard time focusing, and I’m going to recommend audiobooks here — they’ve made my daily walks so much more enjoyable.
If You Liked This, Try These:
“Life After Life” by Kate Atkinson (one of my absolutely favorite reads ever!)
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