I was excited to read ‘Oona Out of Order’ by Margarita Montimore. Although time-travel has not been one of my favorite genres, the storyline interested me. Oona Lockhart is celebrating New Year’s Eve and her birthday in 1982. She will turn nineteen at the stroke of midnight and is looking forward to the promises of the new year and her growing relationship with her boyfriend. Dale is a passionate musician who, together with Oona and a couple of his friends, will be traveling and performing in his rock band.
Just before the stroke of midnight, Oona faints and awakens 32 years in the future, where she is 51 years old. She finds herself living in a beautiful home and learns from a friendly stranger that each passing year she will leap to another age at random. Unbelievable! But she soon finds out one year later when she wakes up New Year’s Day twenty years earlier than the year before. Hopping through decades, she encounters different eras, different fads, different people, and experiences many different emotions. Oona’s reactions to the variations in each year are not surprising or unique, though. She does have a heads-up on financial stock news to sustain her income (what a great element that would be for us all); but she quickly learns that there are a lot of worries, annoyances and sorrows with all this time traveling. A few good life changes mixed with a lot of bad. Just because life may be out of order, doesn’t mean it’s broken, though. It just needs a little assembly.
A quirky story with a few twists and an expected ending. For a time-travel theme, it was an okay read. Enjoy!
