Perfect Strangers

Product Information

Promising to transform each of them in just ten days, the actions of the guests soon becomes increasing troubling as they seem to experience pains and engage in fights with one another. She doesn't disappoint. While not as amazing as ATMG, it's an engrossing read. Since I finished this on baseball’s opening day, I'll use a baseball analogy. If ATMG was a grand slam, this is a home run. There are three components necessary for a successful book - good writing, strong character development and a convincing plot. Miranda gets the first two spot on. My minor quibbles with this book rested with the story line.

When the “mystery” of what’s going is unraveled, it’s not a good mystery. I don’t know if I’d even consider it a mystery. It’s more like just something that doesn’t make a lot of sense so it’s mysterious in that sense. It’s mysteriously nonsensical.

Book Excerpt

On the fifth day, Heather Marconi notices her family is behaving strangely. In short, they're far more forthcoming with their emotions than usual. She correctly guesses that Masha is spiking their smoothies with drugs. Indeed, Masha is micro-dosing them with LSD, claiming the drug is a "shortcut" to healing. At the end, Masha's experiment gets out of hand.

Having never read any books by the popular author Megan Miranda previously or the highly successful "All The Missing Girls" I was looking forward to trying out this author by reading her latest offering "The Perfect Stranger". Rhule, Patty. "Liane Moriarty's 'Nine Perfect Strangers' seems a little too familiar: Review". USA Today. Archived from the original on 2020-03-04 . Retrieved 2020-05-17. I’m guessing Moriarty was aiming to show all these strangers gradually thawing and bonding through the spa's team-building activities. And there is some of that. But the novel is really more like Fantasy Island goes to hell, and the many unrelated characters' stories are connected very loosely by that hokey Fantasy Island plot device: they're all there at the same time to Change Their Lives. The trailer begins with Nicole Kidman asking the strangers whether they want to get well, apparently seeking to help them, before she demands, "surrender yourself to me".On the run from a bad relationship, Emmy is desperate to leave Boston as well, so she involves Leah in her plan. The two head to a small town in Western Pennsylvania, where Leah gets a teaching job, and they can both keep off the grid. Leah and Emmy live on parallel schedules, and the two rarely if ever see each other for more than a few minutes, especially when Emmy starts dating someone new. But Leah keeps getting the sense that Emmy is still on her guard, that she's waiting for something to happen. Marsha, the head of Tranquillum an extremely controlling and yet intelligent seeming woman who definitely commands everyone’s attention. She constantly talks to her group of guests, monitoring them often and having individual sessions with them. It’s a well-told mystery with a wee bit of romance, which, although unnecessary, does serve to explain why Leah and Kyle might share some confidences they wouldn’t otherwise. A washed up romance novelist, a family broken by tragedy, a has-been football star, a young couple whose marriage is faltering, the wife who has been left for a newer model and the lawyer who has commitment issues. Nine perfect strangers all broken in their own way looking for a make-over, a rejuvenation.

Leah Stevens moves to a small town in Pennsylvania from her former life as a crime reporter. Leah starts a new career as a high school teacher hoping to leave her nightmare of a past behind. Leah goes to a local bar one evening and runs into an old friend Emmy. Emmy and Leah end up hitting it off and rent a house together becoming close friends.Leah Stevens has moved away from Boston, leaving a scandal behind her and embracing a new career in teaching, living with her friend Emmy and building a new life. Then Emmy disappears. And it is like she never existed in the first place.... and now that i’ve finally read it, i feel like it could have stayed forgotten on there for a couple more years and i would have been okay with it. The police are growing suspicious that Leah’s’ story isn’t making sense. They begin to question whether this Emmy is real or just a figment of Leah's imagination. Did you ever have an imaginary friend when you were little? Someone you would conjure up when you were feeling lonely or scared? Maybe it’s just as simple as that. Meanwhile the bodies are piling up and all eyes are on Leah. With no one, including the police believing her, she takes it upon herself to bring Emmy to life and clear her own name.