Books › Oona Out of Order
Oona Out of Order
352 pages
A bittersweet, decade-hopping puzzle that explores the beauty and heartbreak of living life entirely out of sequence.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like riding an emotional rollercoaster through the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, complete with the whiplash of sudden change and the comfort of familiar faces. The narrative moves at a brisk, engaging clip, propelled by the sheer curiosity of what era and circumstances the next chapter will bring. Yet beneath the playful pop-culture nostalgia and the disorienting magic of its premise lies a deeply poignant exploration of aging, identity, and the illusion of control. The prose is warm and accessible, grounding the high-concept structure in raw, relatable human emotion. It is a vibrant, bittersweet experience that will delight readers who love character-driven stories about unconventional families, enduring love, and the messy, beautiful reality of living in the moment.
- Mood
- nostalgic
- vibrant
- poignant
- disorienting
- Tone
- earnest
- playful
- bittersweet
- reflective
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- the illusion of control · living in the present · unconventional family bonds · aging and identity · enduring love
- The writing
- Accessible and warmly engaging, the writing balances sharp pop-culture nostalgia with tender emotional introspection.
- The arc
- The journey shifts from frantic disorientation to a profound, bittersweet acceptance of life's unpredictable rhythm.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave character-driven magical realism that uses high-concept premises to explore deeply human emotional truths.
Content notes
- grief
- substance abuse
- illness
- death of a loved one
About the book
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.
Description from Open Library.
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