Oona Out of Order
2020 • 339 pages
Ratings33
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings33
Average rating3.6
A remarkably inventive novel that explores what it means to live a life fully in the moment, even if those moments are out of order.
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.
Reviews with the most likes.
Kind of gave me 13 going on 30 vibes. It's a cute idea about time travel and age, though I wasn't as engaged as I went in hoping I would be (especially since I love 13 going on 30 so much).
Took a while to get to what seemed like the actual plot of the book, but then it got interesting. Unfortunately, it ended not too long after that, just as it was growing on me. The logic of the time travel was particularly hard to grasp, so I gave up trying to understand it and let go of my hope that we'd get an explanation for why Oona was subjected to it. Once I did that, it was entertaining.
I spent this entire book railing against Oona's every decision, but each time I reminded myself she was literally just acting her age. Each jump could be years or decades in the past or future, but what a unique experience to learn about Oona's life while Oona is learning about it too. What a ride! My only regrets are: I wish the book were longer, and I wish there was a sequel about Madeline's life as she dealt with Oona's timey-wimey condition.
