Nine Perfect Strangers

I could have skipped this one and been okay with it.
Liane Moriarty can write books you can hardly put down, like The Husband's Secret and Big Little Lies, but not all her books are as good as that and unfortunately this is one of the not-so-good ones. While it's still very readable, the story is silly and unsatisfying. It has an enormous build up with not a lot of payoff.

The story is about nine people (who incidentally are not perfect strangers - two pairs are married couples and one is someone's child) who go to stay at an upmarket health & wellness retreat for a 10 day transformational cleanse. Over the first half of the book we gradually get to know them all and the emotional baggage that they have brought with them: failing relationships, failing careers, bereavement, personal dilemmas. It's all quite enjoyable to read, but it moves slowly. There's a lot about their daily routine - walks, clean food, spa treatments - and I had no sense of where the book was going or what the point of it was.

At about the halfway mark, that all falls into place as we finally understand the unusual intentions and methods employed by the spa's director. The second half is faster paced and we get to know all the participants very well - it's one of those books where everyone gets an epiphany - but what happens feels way too silly and I didn't find anything from this point on terribly interesting. I wanted to love it I really did and while it is a great concept, I could have skipped it and I would have been fine.