Margarita Montimore – 3.5/5 Stars
Read this if you:
· can suspend reality for 339 pages
· love a feel-good story about the power of family love
· enjoy building music soundtracks for your current read
Synopsis:
At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, 1982, Oona Lockhart is set to turn nineteen with her whole life ahead of her. Instead, she finds herself passing out and waking up to her fifty-one year old self. She meets a friendly stranger in a strange home she finds out is her own and soon learns that she will experience these leaps into random ages every year of her life. These leaps complicate her relationships and her own sense of self but she soon comes to realize that there may be benefits to this strange phenomenon she is experiencing.
My thoughts on the book:
I obviously understand that the *magical* aspect to a magical realism book doesn’t have to make sense but I was SO distracted by the fact that the leaping DID NOT MAKE SENSE. For example, at the end of 2003, Oona leaves a note for her 2004 self… but she already lived through that year? I couldn’t make sense of it! Thankfully, I loved everything else about this book. Oona was definitely an imperfect main character and sometimes I really couldn’t stand her but she showed so much growth throughout the book. I really enjoyed the “no spoilers” stance that all of the supporting characters took when they refused to share with her what happened in previous years, I loved that the reader found out about life-changing historical events at the same time she did. Oona’s relationship with her mom was so moving, I loved reading about how it ebbed and flowed but they were still always there for each other. The other supporting characters, both friends and romantic interests, added so many layers to the story and really helped to shape my views of Oona as a person. I loved all the mention of the current fads in fashion and music, I found this actually helped me to envision the year she was currently in and how much she had jumped around from the previous year!