Review: Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

What a dreadful book - from beginning to end. The story starts does not get going until about halfway through the book. Many of the disjointed Chapters near the beginning are setting up the events that the last part of the book is about. It takes so long to get there that the result is "disappointingly banal" (to quote the author). The writing is padded out with far too many adjectives that get in the way of communication. It is a very weak writing style.

The characters in the story are all one-dimensional and they each seem to have been selected to represent a different thing. One is a manic depressive, another is bereaved, another is a committed health professional, and so on. However, underneath these apparent differences they are all resentful, spiteful, needy, narcissistic and constantly whinging. It absolutely awful being inside these dreadful heads. Their internal monologues go on for pages and never get anywhere; just constantly repeating the same mawkish yuck. It is hard to pick out plot spoilers when there is almost no plot. This must be the dullest book I have ever read (to the end). If it had not been a Book Club book, I would have ditched it before getting too far in.

Most of the character stereotypes are here in one form or another. I guess that is why there are nine strangers; to get all the stereotypes covered! Still, it avoids having to deal with the complexity of real people... These people, even the females, judge women only by their breasts and anyone of the opposite sex is only of interest to the extent that they might become a sexual partner. There are no friendships, no banter, no real conversation. Just internal seething resentment and an obsession with the biology of copulation.

The actual denouement of the book is utterly, utterly stupid. It bears no resemblance to anything in real life and has no connection to anything that had gone before in the book. Except the names of the people didn't change. Small mercies, eh?

So, there we have it. I actually managed to write this without using profanities. That is a small triumph. I watched the first episode of the TV adaptation. It is nowhere near as bad as the book; but it is still completely dreadful and the best thing to do is avoid it.

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