On a flight from Hobart to Sydney, a strange woman goes up the aisle delivers unnerving predictions to the passengers about when and how they will die. At first the passengers dismiss it as some kind of stunt, try to put it out of their minds – until the first deaths begin.
When I reveal that I enjoy reading tarot cards, people inevitably ask if I actually think I can predict the future with them. Actually I am not really sure if one can, but I’m not also sure one can’t, and at least in the meanwhile it’s fun to interpret the cards. I will admit, though, that I’m wary of asking them about anything very important, in case the answer makes me anxious. I thought a lot about this while reading this book.
Here One Moment is hard to describe past the opening without giving things away, and it is definitely the kind of book that is best enjoyed without spoilers. We follow a handful of characters of a period of months, another over her lifetime. We explore the themes of fate versus free will, seeing how the various characters are influenced by their belief or lack thereof in the validity of the prediction, and how those small choices ripple outward into major changes.
Rather common themes perhaps, but here Moriarty elevates them with the way she gets you truly invested in the characters and the way she keeps you off balance. The way things ultimately click into place was really something.
Your enjoyment of this book will definitely depend on how much you enjoy Cherry’s chapters though. Over the course of 512 pages, I did come to enjoy her story, but combined with the slow start and my interest in the storylines of the passengers and their predictions I found myself wishing that we could just get on with things. I’d also have liked to get a closer glimpse of some of the other passengers, but that could have just as easily overweighted the delicate balancing act of the story, so then again maybe not – seems apt for a book that is in part about roads not taken.