I am a huuuuuge fan of Liane Moriarty. I came to her as I’m sure a lot of people did, with her breakout hit Big Little Lies and I’ve never looked back. I am yet to find a book of hers that doesn’t completely capture my attention, as I forego all responsibilities and obligations in favor of reading. This book was no different, as it had me spellbound, though it was a bit more of a headscratcher than her previous books, with more mystical and magical elements than her standard fare. I spent a little more time trying to get into this book than I normally do, but enjoyed what turned out to be a soulful, heartfelt and uplifting story about mortality and what we make of the time we have.
In this novel, travelers on an airplane are at first confused, and then horrified, as a seemingly harmless older woman walks through the aisle, pointing at passengers and making ominous proclamations “expected, cancer 58” foretelling the death of every person on the plane. But it can’t be real. Or can it? After the plane lands and everyone goes their seperate ways we follow several characters as they manage their feelings regarding the predictions they have received. And then the first death happens, and everything changes and they become desperate to find “The Death Lady” to get answers and clarity.
This novel jumps character POV and time as we follow several passengers on the plane after their harrowing journey, but we also go back and forth in the past and present of “The Death Lady” and come to understand who she is, and how she came to be on that plane. There is, as suggested on the cover, a bit of a “butterfly effect” in this novel, a chicken or the egg of decisions and consequences as the passengers struggle to understand whether a prediction is a destiny, or just one of many possibilities. Moriarty deftly explores the fear of a life unlived and shows us that when our backs are against the wall, we just might be able to make a differnce in our own lives and do the hard things that matter.