Nine Perfect Strangers is the new book by Liane Moriarty, who has written several novels including the smash hit, Big Little Lies, which was adapted to a highly successful and critically acclaimed TV miniseries in 2017. The TV adaptation was so well done that I went back and re-read Big Little Lies to find out how a book that was enjoyable but not great had been made into such a terrific show. Nine Perfect Strangers is the first book by Moriarty since the Big Little Lies TV series, and needless to say, it has been highly anticipated, as there has been talk of it being similarly adapted for TV by Nicole Kidman, one of the main stars of Big Little Lies. I have always enjoyed Moriarty’s books — they’re very entertaining, with interesting plot lines, and easy to read — and naturally, I read Nine Perfect Strangers as soon as I could get a copy of it from the library. I was curious to find out if the success of Big Little Lies had impacted Moriarty’s craft.

Nine Perfect Strangers is the story of nine people who check into a wellness retreat for ten days and what happens to each one of them in the course of those ten days. While some of them are single or divorced and have come to the retreat by themselves, there is also a young couple as well as a family of three. Each of the nine people have different issues of their own they are hoping the retreat will help them with, and we learn about each of them as the story unfolds, which is told progressively from each of their individual points of view. The singles include a romance novelist whose career seem to be coming to an end, an ex-football player who has become not just out-of-shape physically but also apathetic mentally, a gay lawyer whose relationship is in crisis because his partner would like to have a child and he is strongly against it, and a stay-at-home mother of four whose husband has left her for a younger woman making her deeply insecure. The young couple is primarily at the retreat for couples counseling — they are having issues with their marriage after they won several million dollars in the lottery a few years ago, and it has completely messed them up. And finally, the family comprising the husband, wife, and young adult daughter has gone through the trauma of losing the son — the daughter’s twin brother — to suicide three years ago and they are each consumed not just by grief by also by guilt as they each blame themselves for his death.

In addition to these nine protagonists, the other main characters in the story are those who work at the resort — the owner, Masha, who was a high-powered executive several years ago but quit the corporate world after a cardiac arrest that almost killed her; and two of the employees, one of whom, Yao, was one of the paramedics who had attended to Masha during her cardiac arrest and now hero-worships her.

Given the cast of characters and the plot, there are plenty of opportunities for both drama and comedy that are Moriarty’s trademark and make her books so entertaining. The back stories of each the nine “guests” at the resort as well as of Masha and Yao are interesting, and despite being mostly light-hearted, the narrative has occasional flashes of real insight that are brilliant. Unfortunately, these are not built on, and about halfway into the book, the plot also goes off-course. The retreat is working very well until about Day 5, with lots of meditation, digital detoxification, healthy food, smoothies, massages, counseling sessions, and long periods of silence — just what you would expect in a retreat of this kind. Also, as expected, it is incredibly hard for the guests to adjust to this at first, but they all feeling physically and emotionally better as the days go by.

So far, so good. But then, both the retreat and the plot rapidly degenerate into a mess where the guests are drugged and locked up together, all for the ostensible purpose of forcing them to undergo a dramatic transformation. Masha turns out to be a crazy megalomaniac, and Yao goes along with her as best as he can until he finally comes to his senses. Of course, as with all of Moriarty’s books, it all ends well — and for most of them, including Masha as well as Yao.

Despite this, I still found Nine Perfect Strangers a fun read, and I had no trouble finishing it. As light and breezy as Moriarty’s other books, it is not meant to be taken seriously, so the ridiculousness of the plot halfway into the book did not turn me off it as it may have done for a more heavy-duty book.

Nine Perfect Strangers
Author: Liane Moriarty
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: November 2018

Contributor: Lachmi Khemlani runs a technology publication in the San Francisco Bay Area.