The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart Book Review

Title: The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart
Author: Margarita Monitimore
Type: Fiction
Published: 2020
Pages: 336
TW: Death, Grief, Drug Use, Infidelity, Cancer

“All good things end, always. The trick is to enjoy them while they last.” 

On the eve of her 19th birthday (which also happens to be New Year’s Eve) Oona Lockhart is thinking of nothing more than celebrating the new year and all the happy things her life will bring. That is, until the clock strikes midnight and she is transported into her 51-year-old body. From then on, every New Years Day, she wakes up in new version of herself – she’s still living her life, just out of order and with no control over which age she will be next. As the years pass, she learns to come to terms with it, and communicate with her past and future selves, but how can she learn to live at peace when her life will never be like everyone else’s.

Hands down, this is one of the most interesting premises of a book I’ve ever read! I was hooked just from reading the blurb and the execution was not disappointing either. I love how Montimore actually focuses on the small things rather than getting bogged down in the logistics. Oona obviously has plenty of moments of existentialism but we find her contemplating her relationships and own self-worth way more than focusing on the strange hand she’s been dealt.

In particular Oona’s relationship with her mother and her friend-cum-assistant, Kenzie were a highlight of the book. The way they navigate encountering Oona in different stages of the journey through her life is wonderful and it was so nice to see her have such stability from them where everything else was not.

Beautifully executed, and masterfully handled, all in all I just wanted more – in total we only see 9 ages of Oona and I was craving some kind go montage where we could at least get snippets of more of her life! (Suffice to say if they ever tried to make this into a film, it would not go well!)