Page Turners – September 2024 review

In September the Page Turners read another book by Australian author Liane Moriarty. This time we chose the 2018 novel ‘Nine Perfect Strangers‘, which was shown as a television series in 2021 starring Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy.

In this book nine people meet at an expensive health and wellness resort, including a romance novelist whose own romance has failed, a family weighed down by tragedy, a young couple whose marriage is faltering, a one-time football star, a mother who lost her self esteem and confidence when her husband left her and a divorce lawyer with his own reasons for only representing wives. All hope that ten days of luxury, light exercise, diet and meditation will transform them into better, healthier versions of their former selves. It is all overseen by the enigmatic director Masha, who, we discover, is also battling her own demons. As the retreat progresses the nine gradually find that the regime is not quite what they were expecting. Masha’s methods are unorthodox and extreme. However, by the end, everyone is truly transformed, leaving us wondering if the results justified the way they were achieved.

The majority of us enjoyed the book. The story had foundations in real life, although events escalated in a way that we hope would only happen in a fiction book! We liked the way the book introduced the characters and their backstories gradually and different chapters told the story from the point of view of different people, enabling us to get a more rounded view of them and the events that occurred.

Much of our discussion in the meeting centred around health and lifestyle choices and how too many people make poor choices and then need to seek support to undo the damage.

As always, some of us have copies of the book to share. Do get in touch if you would like to swap our page turner for one of your own.

Deborah Wallis, convenor