Nine Perfect Strangers
by Liane Moriarty
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I read this book for my book club. Our meeting is tonight! This will be my second meeting, and I’m super excited! Normally I would never consider reading this because it is not normally my cup of tea, but its probably good to expand my reading selections. I didn’t love this one but I am sure there will be plenty I do!
I didn’t love the premise of this book. Nine strangers are all going to a Health Resort where their lives will be changed forever. (Isn’t there a new TV show with the same premise?) Also the guests aren’t all strangers. There are two families; Husband/Wife/Daughter and Husband/Wife, so the guests aren’t all “perfect strangers.” Unless its metaphorical and the author is saying they don’t really know each other even tho they are married? Its possible but the title still bugs be.
The beginning of this story was super slow. I started reading Monday night with the plan to read half the book Monday and half the book Tuesday (so I would be finished for Book Club on Wednesday) Monday night about 1/3 of the way through the book I was super tired and bored and just wanted to go to bed. I was ready to call it quits, but I needed to read at least half of the book so I kept going. But, by the time I got halfway through, I was engrossed in the book and ended up finishing it at 3:30 am on Monday night.
Even though it took me a while to get into it, and I didn’t love the premise, I really liked some of the characters. Particularly Frances and The Marconis. Frances seemed to have the most chapters and I think she was kind of the main character? The Marconis had the saddest story and I cried almost every time we learned more about them. I would have liked to know more about Lars and Tony, but Jessica and Carmel annoyed me. Overall it was a fun group of characters and I loved all the different personalities.
I would bet that most people who read Nine Perfect strangers will like it. It seems to be a good contemporary. I personally didn’t love it, but I wouldn’t let my review deter you from reading this if you like these types of books!
Perfectly Tolerable 
Wonderful review Brittany! Slow yet ending gripping!!! And yes it’s good to go out of our comfort zone from time to time 😉
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Thanks! haha and I tend to like a lot of the books outside of my comfort zone so I don’t know why I don’t go outside of it more often 😂
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I had a really hard time with this one! It was really slow and I had some issues with the ending. I was disappointed because I normally like her books. Good for you, for keeping up with it! 🙂 How have you been??
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Until you mentioned it I had completely forgotten my thoughts on the ending! (I really should write these things down so I remember to put them in my reviews) It really bugged me how the police had a “whats the big deal” attitude. They didn’t take the whole thing nearly serious enough. I haven’t read any of her books so I didn’t have any sort of scale to judge this one off of.
I have been good! I feel like we haven’t talked in forever, I need to get caught up on your blog 🙂
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Yes! I just couldn’t get over how they didn’t take anything seriously at the end. Just like… oh… okay! It was rather strange. Her best books are, The Husbands Secret and Big Little Lies. Those are really good!
I know, I haven’t been very active here the last couple months. So, I feel like I haven’t really talked to anyone lately and I miss you guys! 💕
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Thanks for your thoughts! Doesn’t seem like my kind of book, don’t read a lot of contemporaries, but may be a good fit for someone! 🙂
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I don’t read a lot of contemporaries either haha I tend to stick to fantasy and sci fi 😀
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This is a great review! But I got to say it’s the nicest I’ve seen for the book so it still sits unread on my shelf. 🙂 I’ve definitely lost the excitement to read it but maybe when I have more time?
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Hmm it appears I was wrong when I hypothesized that most other people would like this 😂😂 I probably should have checked the goodreads rating before I posted 😂 I’m sorry you don’t want to read it anymore because you already own it, but I am a huge believer that we shouldn’t waste our time on books we won’t like because there are too many other books to read!
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I’ve read a few of Moriarity’s books and I think they are entertaining, but not my favorites. I would definitely put them in the contemporary but not too deep category. Hope you have a good book club meeting – it is definitely good to break out of reading ruts and book clubs are good for that!
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Haha entertaining but not my favorite is the perfect way to describe this book 🙂 Thanks! Haha I might complain about having to read books like this for Book Club but its totally worth it 🙂
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Agree, and I like to read books that are simply entertaining and not a heavy read. It’s good to mix it up a bit!
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Liane Moriarty has a formula (that works well for her) but I feel like everyone has the same feeling when finishing their first book by her.. “engrossing, but I didn’t reaallyyyy like it??” I have read 3 of her books (though not this one) and I never know how to feel at the end, just that I thought the ride was interesting. Anyway great review 🙂
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I’m glad that I am not the only one that feels that way! I was super confused by the fact that it sucked me in enough where I read the whole thing in one night and and stayed up till 3:30 am reading it when I had to get up for work at 7:30, but I didn’t really like it. Usually only books I love suck me in that much!! It definitely was an interesting ride haha Thanks 🙂
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Great review… balanced!
A bit off topic… but I love the cover. Lol.
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Cover comments are never off topic!! I love the colors of the cover ❤
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Lol.
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Great review! I could see this making a great book group choice. I didn’t love it, but I would have had a great time talking about it with my group (and some wine). 🙂 I’ve really enjoyed some of her other books, but the premise and the way it seemed to go completely bonkers ended up making this just a “meh” read for me.
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Thanks 🙂 It was a lot of fun to talk about it! Some of the ladies brought up great points 🙂 I haven’t read any of her other books and this one was just meh for me too 🙂
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Nine characters would be tough. Not only to write but to read.
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It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. The author focused more on some of the characters and less on others, and they were all together living at the resort so the setting didn’t change and the timeline was straight. But I would think it would be super tough to write 9 different characters with unique personalities!
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