OONA OUT OF ORDER by Margarita Montimore

Rating: 5 / 5

I received a complimentary advanced listener copy of OONA OUT OF ORDER by Margarita Montimore. Thank you to Libro FM and Flatiron Books for the opportunity to read and review!

OONA OUT OF ORDER follows Oona Lockhart beginning on New Year’s Eve 1982 when she’ll turn 19 at midnight. When midnight comes things don’t go as expected and she wakes up a 51 year old version of herself with a personal assistant left to try to convince her she isn’t going crazy, but did in fact leap forward in time. Each year as she’s about to celebrate her birthday again, Oona moves through time to a different year. She never revisits a year twice and she never knows what is next.

I was part of the team hosting the #bbroonaoutoforder buddy read for the second half of March and it could not have come at a more perfect time. Struggling as I was to maintain focus on pretty much anything as the first week of the buddy read got going, the audiobook of OONA OUT OF ORDER was the first book I found that really held my attention and kept me hooked to keep reading!

I was worried that reading about a life lived out of order would be hard to read on audio, but with the libraries closed while my hold was in route, I didn’t have time to pick up a physical copy. As it turns out I didn’t need one because the audio is fantastic and the author does an excellent job of orienting the reader to place and time with each jump. Oona must quickly learn about the year she has jumped to which allows the reader to get some great insights into the pop culture and tech advancements, or lack there of in the earlier years.

The author also does a fantastic job of developing Oona’s character. She doesn’t always make wise decisions and the life she is leading is not an easy one. I feel that this all came across well through the narrative. There are sad moments in the story of Oona’s jumbled life, but a lot of uplifting moments as well.

This book and Oona herself were fantastic to chat about. The buddy read discussions were a lot of fun, both with discussing the book and speculating what we would do in Oona’s shoes. I decided that I would absolutely be preparing TBR lists for my earlier selves and leaving notes on which books to skip!

I absolutely recommend this book and the audio version in particular!