A quirky novel about Oona who on Jan 1 of each year (her birthdate) beginning at age 18, she leaps to a different year. Sometimes she?s older than herself and sometimes younger. It is quite a ride. Kirkus: What would you say to your younger self if you could give her advice??Wise beyond their years? is an expression we?ve all heard before. But for one Brooklyn teen, that saying becomes all too real when an unexplained event causes her to begin living her adult life in random order. On New Year?s Eve 1982, Oona Lockhart is about to turn 19. Change is on the horizon, as she must decide whether to leave school to tour with her band, Early Dawning, or quit the band to continue her studies in London. Does she follow her loving boyfriend and band mate, Dale, or does she make a stable, independent decision for herself? Almost as if standing on a precipice between past and future, Oona finds it important to tell herself: ?Remember this party. Every second of it. Every person here.? When the clock strikes midnight, she opens her eyes to a reality far different from the one she'd been experiencing¥and decades later. The abrupt shift sets the pace for the rest of the bookÂ¥it turns out that even when you?re living life out of order, time passes just as quickly. Right as you settle in with one version of Oona, whether it be free-spirited, club-going Oona or middle-aged investor Oona, it?s almost New Year?s again. The effect is something like narrative jet lag, making it impossible to feel grounded in time. Which is, no doubt, the point. Montimore (Asleep From Day, 2018) is not afraid to wrench Oona from one season of life to another, satisfied with ending a year in a fashion as incomplete as this: ?She didn?t get a chance to finish her sentence.? These vignettes, removed from linear neatness, celebrate the unpredictability and imperfect nature of life. Even when Oona has the opportunity to leave notes for the next version of herself, it doesn?t always mean she?ll follow her advice. With each temporal shift, Oona is left longing for what came before, but supporting characters like Oona?s mom, Madeleine, and confidante, Kenzie, serve as talismans that guide her back to the present. In the end, we must give credit to Oona for finding joy and even humor in her situation and to Montimore for developing a complex narrative held together by simple truths. Read this to get a bit lost, to root for a character with a strong love for herself, and to connect on a deeply human level with the fear of leading an incomplete life.A heartfelt novel that celebrates its implausibility with a unique joie de vivre.

Crazy concept but very enjoyable.

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Loved Oona! Very fun unpredictable book. If you liked Rainbow Rowell's Landline you'll love this one ( )

first time reading a time travel story and overall, i thought the story was clever. but omg.. OONA DROVE ME CRAZY!! i tried to give her some slack because she was young throughout the book, like obviously 20-year-olds make bad decisions, but i just couldn't get over how whiny she was with everything. and don't get me started on the whole Kenzie situation.. everything about that plot line was over the top and i just couldn't understand that one. i was pretty disappointed as the book started out strong and it held my interest for a while, but then *poof* it was gone. Oona was a handful. but i also didn't really care for the other characters. compared to other reviews it did not bother me at all that we never got an explanation for her leaps. to me that wasn't needed to help the story. and i think it's kinda cool that she just does that! i think my biggest issue with this book is that i was emotionally disconnected from all of it. i didn't feel the highs or the lows because i didn't like Oona.

this is a hard review because although i really liked the idea of this book a lot. it's creative! i just wish it could've been executed better and that the characters were more likeable/enjoyable. giving it a 2,but making it clear that i would still read another book by Margarita Montimore ( )

I loved the concept of this book. How fascinating and challenging it would be to live the years of one's life out of order...

The execution frustrated me, though. Each year, the author focused mostly on the first couple of months and then the rest of that year was hurried through. Several years seemed fairly irrelevant to the main threads of the story.

Then too, I didn't love the main character. I hated that Oona's love life (read: sex life) seemed to be the most important thing to her. I wish we'd gotten to see more female friendships. I hated the decisions she made - really, her personality in general, because it was so different from mine.

Although it was logical to make Oona rich through future-knowing investment decisions, this also seemed to be a bit of a cop-out... the "struggles" in her life are really all her own doing, as she doesn't have to deal with average job or income issues.

My biggest irritation with this book was all the graphic sexual content. There was a lot. There was also some profanity, and plenty of drug and alcohol abuse.

I so wanted to love this book, but it fell short for me. ( )