Oona Out of Order

Right away I realised that this was not my usual type of book, and if I'd actually read the entire jacket before before starting, I probably would not have given it a shot. But I'm glad I did.

The protagonist has all the hallmarks of being one of these unrelatable characters that has all these gifts (beauty, wealth, normativity) while still feeling sorry for themselves, but if I was ever annoyed at Oona it was because the writer wanted me to be, and even then it didn't last for long.

The characters are so fun and physically present. The chapters/sections are a nice, medium length. The plot moves along at a great pace, and each "leap" brings about an exciting paradigm shift that has you excited to keep reading.

I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but if the premise sounds tantalising to you, you should at least read until the second chapter.

Also the last lines of the book put forward a terse little thesis that would be the perfect thing for a book club to discuss.

I started reading this book due to it being picked for a book club read-along that had a theme of involving New Years. I had heard of it a few times before so I was glad to have a reason to pick it up, and found it really enjoyable. There are a few twists thrown into the book, but they feel natural due to the time jumping and didn't seem outlandish.

My big take-away with this book was Oona's heavy struggle with depression and our basic human needs for connection with others. Even with using her knowledge of future events (i.e. hello stock market!), she has a really hard time with the jumping. She jumps forwards and backwards in time, always on New Year's Day, which leaves her with one year to try to figure things out in whatever age she's landed in.

As you would expect, there are a lot of pop culture references made that vary depending on the the year she's in. It does not feel forced as a flex for the author to tell you all the information that they know, but as a growing pain that Oona has to deal with so she doesn't appear out of place in her timeline.

There is heavy usage of drugs throughout the book, as well as a fair amount of spice sprinkled through, so just be warned of that before diving into it.

I really enjoyed this one and will likely revisit it at some point as it was a nice change from the heavy-handed books that I've been reading. If the premise sounds interesting to you, I would suggest giving it a go!