“There would be bad days, there always would. But she’d collect these good days, each one illuminated, and string them together until they glowed brightly in her memory like Christmas lights in a mirrored room.”

-Margarita Montimore

My experience with Oona Out of Order was one of those things that’s super funny retroactively.

The plot revolves around Oona, who, one New Year’s, starts waking up every January 1st in a different year of her life. One year she might be 19, the next 55, the next 32. She’s going out to nightclubs, living her golden years, getting out of a bad marriage, all…out of order.

At first I was frustrated by this plot (even knowing what I was getting into), because how would Oona get anything done. How would any conflicts resolve in a meaningful way? And then about a third of the way in, the book clicked for me. I was enjoying Montimore’s writing and the fast pace well enough, but a few “years” in I felt like my feelings were really synced with Oona’s, and she became so much more of a character for me then. Yes, it’s hard to resolve external conflicts when your years are out of order, but Oona still finds a way to grow as a person and develop the relationships with the people who mean the most.

Funny, unpredictable, and surprisingly moving. I hope it gets turned into a movie, although you’d need a hell of a cast to pull it off!