I read The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty earlier in the year and really enjoyed it (bar the fatphobic comments which I docked a star off for), but this just didn't do it for me. I came to the book prepared to love it and ended up being so close to DNFing it, which I've only ever done once before.
Nine Perfect Strangers is told from the perspectives of nine people who attend a wellness resort in Australia to try and sort out issues they have in their lives, as well as from the perspectives of the owner of the resort and her lead assistant. Everyone is excited to mend their priorities (losing weight/becoming more confident/fixing relationships etc), but things turn a little sour when the methods used to 'fix' them turn extreme.
The whole book for me was really really slow. The character who had the most chapters dedicated to her viewpoint was a washed up author who at times seemed to be speaking from Moriarty's own perspective. The character explicitly talks about breaking the fourth wall and the pressure to add murder to her books (which wasn't included in this one), and was a big lament about how unfair publishing nowadays is. The whole book seemed like a big of a self-reflective F U to agents and publishers about Moriarty's decision to write whatever she wants. The main event of the book dragged on for about half of the entire novel and really didn't need to. The book was also filled with fatphobic comments throughout that invaded almost every female character's narrative.
I gave this two stars because there was a twist that I really enjoyed, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it.
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