Here One Moment

Here One Moment
By Liane Moriarty
Crown Publishing, 2024. 501 pages. Fiction

"Cause of death. Age of death." A woman walks down the aisle of a two-hour flight in Australia, predicting passengers' demises. Civil engineer Leo will die of a workplace accident at age 43. Ethan will die of an assault at age 30 (he's currently 29). Sue Sullivan will die of pancreatic cancer; baby Timmy Binici will drown at age seven. Although rattled by "the Death Lady," most passengers ignore her words as the ramblings of an unwell old woman; until her predictions start coming true. The novel interweaves stories of the lives of the passengers post-flight as they contend with what they believe to be their destinies with the life of Cherry, the Death Lady, whose mother worked as a psychic, but whose relationship with fate becomes more complicated as her story is slowly revealed. 

What I loved most about this book was the questions that it left unanswered - questions of determinism versus free will and chance versus fate. Reading the physical copy of this book was also part of the experience for me - with so many characters and various stories, I liked being able to flip back and forth to check things. Would I want to know the when/how of my death? I don't think so, but Moriarty's book definitely has me evaluating my thoughts.

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The Measure
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It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out. But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live. From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to them? As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they'll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge?

Masters of Death

By Olivie Blake
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Fox D'Mora is a medium, and though he is also most-definitely a shameless fraud, he isn't entirely without his uses - seeing as he's actually the godson of Death. Viola Marek is a struggling real estate agent, and a vampire. But her biggest problem currently is that the house she needs to sell is haunted. The ghost haunting the mansion has been murdered, and until he can solve the mystery of how he died, he refuses to move on. With the help of an unruly poltergeist, a demonic personal trainer, a sharp-voiced angel, a love-stricken reaper, and a few high-functioning creatures, Vi and Fox soon discover the difference between a mysterious lost love and an annoying dead body isn't nearly as distinct as they thought. 

Black Water Sister
By Zen Cho
Ace/Berkley, 2021. 370 pages. Fiction

A reluctant medium is about to discover the ties that bind can unleash a dangerous power. When Jessamyn Teoh starts hearing a voice in her head, she chalks it up to stress. Closeted, broke and jobless, she's moving back to Malaysia with her parents - a country she last saw when she was a toddler. She soon learns the new voice isn't even hers, it's the ghost of her estranged grandmother. In life, Ah Ma was a spirit medium, avatar of a mysterious deity called the Black Water Sister. Now she's determined to settle a score against a business magnate who has offended the god- and she's decided Jess is going to help her do it, whether Jes wants to or not. Drawn into a world of gods, ghosts, and family secrets, Jess finds that making deals with capricious spirits is a dangerous business, but dealing with her grandmother is just as complicated.

LKA