On a flight from Hobart, Tasmania to the mainland of Australia, a woman starts predicting the deaths of her fellow passengers. For some their death are decades away but others are told they only have a short while to live. They’re not sure whether to believe any of this until one of them dies as predicted.
The book follows several of the passengers – the bride and groom, the Hemsworth lookalike, the gorgeous flight attendant, the off-duty super hero, the jittery woman who looks like a celebrity – who are anxiously following the news to find out if the predictions of “the Death Lady” come true – scared of their own deaths that are supposedly going to happen soon as well.
We also learn about the woman who was dubbed the Death Lady, a woman called Cherry, whose mother was a fortune teller. Is Cherry one as well? She says she’s not even though she told every single passenger on the plane when she expected them to die (age) and what the cause of death would be.
I really loved this book. It was very original and I thought it was thought provoking. Would you want to know when you’re going to die and what is going to kill you? What would you do? Would you quit your job and travel the world? Spend more time with your family?
The characters in this book all took a different approach. When the young mother is told her baby son will drown aged 7, she makes sure he can swim – enrolling him in several swimming classes at the same time. The boy loves to swim and is in his element in the water – even as a baby.
An excellent read – Liane Moriarty’s best book to date!
Read for The 52 Book Club Reading Challenge 2025
Prompt 25: Breaks the Fourth Wall
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
