Oona Out of Order

Hardcover, 329 pages

Published Sept. 6, 2020 by Flatiron.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-23660-9

(2 reviews)

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, …

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.

5 editions

Another Hopeful Fool reviewed Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

A premise that actually pays off

3 stars

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 …

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.

loppear reviewed Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

neatly reminiscing on both sides of the 90s

4 stars

Light and easy, digs at questions of family and relationship and acceptance of our pasts. The narrowly defined and mysterious time travel is central and structuring, but also somehow gets out of the way for interesting main characters to develop.