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NINE PERFECT STRANGERS

by Liane Moriarty ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 6, 2018

Fun to read, as always with Moriarty's books, but try not to think about it or it will stop making sense.

Nine people gather at a luxurious health resort in the Australian bushland. Will they have sex, fall in love, get killed, or maybe just lose weight?

Moriarty ( Truly Madly Guilty , 2014, etc.) is known for darkly humorous novels set in the suburbs of Sydney—though her most famous book, Big Little Lies (2014), has been transported to Monterey, California, by Reese Witherspoon's HBO series. Her new novel moves away from the lives of prosperous parents to introduce a more eclectic group of people who've signed up for a 10-day retreat at Tranquillium House, a remote spa run by the messianic Masha, "an extraordinary-looking woman. A supermodel. An Olympic athlete. At least six feet tall, with corpse-like white skin and green eyes so striking and huge they were almost alien-like." This was the moment when the guests should probably have fled, but they all decided to stay (perhaps because their hefty payments were nonrefundable?). The book's title is slightly misleading, since not all the guests are strangers to each other. There are two family groups: Ben and Jessica Chandler, a young couple whose relationship broke down after they won the lottery, and the Marconis, Napolean and Heather and their 20-year-old daughter, Zoe, who are trying to recover after the death of Zoe's twin brother, Zach. Carmel Schneider is a divorced housewife who wants to get her mojo back, Lars Lee is an abnormally handsome divorce lawyer who's addicted to spas, and Tony Hogburn is a former professional footballer who wants to get back into shape. Though all these people have their own chapters, the main character is Frances Welty, a romance writer who needs a pick-me-up after having had her latest novel rejected and having been taken in by an internet scam—she fell in love with a man she met on Facebook and sent money to help his (nonexistent) son, who'd been in a (nonexistent) car accident. How humiliating for a writer to fall for a fictional person, Frances thinks, in her characteristically wry way. When the guests arrive, they're given blood tests (why?) and told they're going to start off with a five-day "noble silence" in which they're not even supposed to make eye contact with each other. As you can imagine, something fishy is going on, and while Moriarty displays her usual humor and Frances in particular is an appealing character, it's all a bit ridiculous.

Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-250-06982-5

Page Count: 464

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018

THRILLER | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | GENERAL & DOMESTIC THRILLER | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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New York Times Bestseller

by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SCIENCE FICTION

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A CONSPIRACY OF BONES

by Kathy Reichs ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020

Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice ( The Bone Collection , 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”

Pub Date: March 17, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | SUSPENSE | THRILLER | DETECTIVES & PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS | SUSPENSE | GENERAL & DOMESTIC THRILLER

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by Kathy Reichs

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Sinister Doings at a Luxury Spa? Must Be a New Liane Moriarty Novel

By Janet Maslin

• Nov. 5, 2018
• Share full article

At least Liane Moriarty’s new novel pampers her fans with its escapist premise. Wouldn’t it be nice to spend 10 days deliquescing at a spa named Tranquillum House, which sounds like a flower crossed with a state of bliss? That’s what the “Nine Perfect Strangers” of Moriarty’s latest book do, oblivious to even the most obvious warning signs.

So what if Tranquillum House has a grand staircase just like the one on the Titanic? So what if its proprietress is a little severe? The break with ordinary life promises to be refreshingly complete. The staff is spookily attentive and has aloe vera right at hand to treat even the visiting romance writer’s paper cut.

The writer, a gimlet-eyed blonde named Frances Welty, has fallen for the same pitch that lured the other eight: How about an “exclusive 10-Day Mind and Body Total Transformation Retreat”? Moriarty’s fans, who must have noticed Agatha Christie’s influence on her work by now, will realize that these strangers are agreeing to be locked up together, à la the crew in Christie’s “And Then There Were None.” At the very least, they will experience the alarm and sadism that Moriarty manages to combine with creature comforts.

As the author ticks off a chapter for each character, there is the dread that “Nine Perfect Strangers” will unfold methodically and not all that excitingly. The daily meditation, diet and exercise routines are chronicled down to each mandatory smoothie. The proprietress’s grandiose ideas about what she will do for her guests take up significant space, too. People duck each other at first, then begin talking way too much about the problems that brought them to Tranquillum — and there is no limit to the number of subplots Moriarty is eager to cram into a single book. Some of the problems are tragic (lost children; yes, that’s plural). Others (an addiction to cosmetic surgery, the miseries of winning the lottery) are silly beyond belief.

But there’s more going on here than just confessional chatter. Moriarty has tapped into a trendy therapeutic topic that gives her book its novelty. It should stimulate her fan base’s curiosity, and it gives this otherwise bland book an excuse to go way off the deep end. And it brings out the most extreme behavior in everyone present, especially Masha, the proprietress, who was none too stable to begin with. Not even the Buddha gets out of “Nine Perfect Strangers” without sounding slightly menacing once the book hits its temporary insanity phase. (“Ardently do today what must be done. Who knows? Tomorrow death comes.”)

At least Moriarty quickly abandons her slow rollout of characters and days and lets the scene at Tranquillum begin to jell on its own. Frances is by far the best of the bunch, even if at 52 she thinks about menopausal hot flashes a lot. Her career writing bodice-rippers began with something called “Nathaniel’s Kiss,” its hero “a heady mix of Mr. Rochester and Rob Lowe.” Somehow, she got away with that for a long time. But two husbands and a lot of books later, she’s washed up and at an impasse. Still, she has a writer’s gift for bestowing colorful nicknames on all this story’s other characters and deeming herself the central figure.

“It’s all about me,” she says at one very odd moment. “I’m just not sure of my love interest yet.”

Rest assured that there are candidates for that honor. Moriarty didn’t put this book together to send everyone home as unfulfilled and wretched as they started. Each person reveals why he or she is so enraged, vain, sulky, frustrated, disappointed and so on. And if all it took were the Titanic staircase and a few stiff hikes to turn lives around, what an inspiring story this would be. Unfortunately, Moriarty is so wildly out of control that the same book that emphasizes wellness also includes one character’s healthy smack at another with an antique candelabra.

After the huge success of “Big Little Lies,” Moriarty has become a Hollywood darling despite the uneven caliber of her earlier work, and Nicole Kidman is already involved in a film version of “Nine Perfect Strangers.” She fits the physical description of the exotically beautiful 6-foot Masha, but it will be interesting to see if she wants to play anyone quite so … challenging. In any case, this book won’t lend itself as easily to screen adaptation, since such odd things happen to such fundamentally uninteresting people. Moriarty’s books are usually more firmly anchored in the tangible world.

In the early scenes at Tranquillum, the inmates — that is, the guests — are taught how to do things mindfully. Nothing new here, but Moriarty duly explains it all to the nonmindful among us. They must cut their food into tiny bites and chew those bites repeatedly. They must walk slowly and thoughtfully. And you need to read these pages slowly and repeatedly, though not by design. Unlike most of her other books, this one struggles to get any momentum going, to the point where you may glaze over instead of eagerly leaping in. That’s not like Liane Moriarty. She can usually be counted on for a seductive, gossipy, insightful story without the contrivances that keep “Nine Perfect Strangers” so flabby and unwell.

Nine Perfect Strangers By Liane Moriarty 453 pages. Flatiron Books. $28.99.

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Nine perfect strangers, by liane moriarty, recommendations from our site.

“She’s crafted a very engaging story, that is very much a page turner. All the shimmering attractions of the modern wellness industry are there—infinity pools, super-smoothies, personal wellness advisors—but so too are all the anxieties. The plot clearly veers towards an image of the wellness industry as something malevolent, even cultish, a set of practices that verge on brainwashing and which raise difficult questions about consent.” Read more...

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Liane Moriarty's Nine Perfect Strangers  isn't perfect but it's still a fun, smart read: EW review

A Liane Moriarty novel feels a little bit like an Adele record (please bear with this metaphor): There’s huge excitement around the arrival of a new one — Nicole Kidman, who won just about everything short of a Nobel for her role in HBO’s blockbuster adaptation of Moriarity’s Big Little Lies , has already snatched up the rights to Nine — but a little snobbishness, too. As if making something that feels so good to sink into (and is nominally considered “woman’s work”) isn’t its own kind of art form.

Her latest, about disparate guests thrown together at a remote health resort, has no shortage of secrets, lies, and social intrigue; it’s like an Agatha Christie country-house mystery set in the Australian outback, with more kale-pineapple smoothies and less murder. There’s a disillusioned romance novelist, an aging ex-athlete, a wealthy young couple in the midst of a marriage crisis, a family struggling to recover from a recent tragedy, and an almost offensively good-looking divorce lawyer, among others.

Even the proprietress, a Russian émigré named Masha with a slightly mad gleam in her eye, is hiding more than she’ll admit to behind her Zen proclamations and glacial calm. (It’s hard not to picture some ice-blond Amazon somewhere between Tilda Swinton and Gwendoline Christie in the coming screen adaptation.)

While it all hums along like a well-calibrated engine, Nine Perfect Strangers never quite hits the narrative heights of past work like BLL and The Husband’s Secret — though it does feel much more immediate and enjoyable than her last, the disappointly drawn-out Truly Madly Guilty . Moriarity has a way of nesting inside her characters’ heads and bringing them to life in a way that’s not just relatable but illuminating; we know these people not because they’re archetypes but because they’re so specifically, universally human.

There will be a cascade of revelations before the last page, with almost no narrative ribbon left untied; the book’s innate breeziness often makes way for deeper reflections on grief, trauma, and recovery, and more than one surprisingly topical angle, too. But it’s also just good old-fashioned storytelling, full of feeling and well-wrought lines. You know, just like a great pop song. B+

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Review: Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

• Post published: November 6, 2022
• Post last modified: November 6, 2022

This post may contain affiliate links, meaning that if you buy something, I might earn a small commission from that sale at no cost to you. As always, my links support indie bookstores. Read my full disclosure  here .   Thank you for your support.

Content warnings for  Nine Perfect Strangers  provided at the bottom of this post, for those who would find them useful. You can find  further details on content warnings here .

I’ve also reviewed Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty. You can find that review here.

Nine Perfect strangers by Liane Moriarty summary

Nine people gather at a remote health resort. Some are here to lose weight, some are here to get a reboot on life, some are here for reasons they can’t even admit to themselves. Amidst all of the luxury and pampering, the mindfulness and meditation, they know these ten days might involve some real work. But none of them could imagine just how challenging the next ten days are going to be.  Frances Welty, the formerly best-selling romantic novelist, arrives at Tranquillum House nursing a bad back, a broken heart, and an exquisitely painful paper cut. She’s immediately intrigued by her fellow guests. Most of them don’t look to be in need of a health resort at all. But the person that intrigues her most is the strange and charismatic owner/director of Tranquillum House. Could this person really have the answers Frances didn’t even know she was seeking? Should Frances put aside her doubts and immerse herself in everything Tranquillum House has to offer – or should she run while she still can?  It’s not long before every guest at Tranquillum House is asking exactly the same question.

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty Review

I read Apples Never Fall before Nine Perfect Strangers — I know, I know, the wrong order when considering the popularity of Liane Moriarty titles. Nine Perfect Strangers was only vaguely on my list of books to read (a kind of I’ll-get-around-to-it title), but was bumped up to the front when the Hulu adaptation popped up on my screen, begging to be clicked.

But, being the master of self-restraint that I am, I forced myself to read the book first. It only took a day.

I really enjoyed Apples Never Fall , but Nine Perfect Strangers blew it out of the water. I hate to say that, because it always bums me out when an author’s subsequent works aren’t as good, but I can’t lie.

Moriarty is a master of the ensemble cast. I knew this from the first read, but the characters in Nine Perfect Strangers were so vivid. There were a couple that felt a little less fleshed-out than others, but all were intriguing nonetheless. There was no character that made me groan when switching to their POV, which is quite a feat.

Recently we’ve had a lot of books that seem to get a little autobiographical in that they have a main character involved in the publishing industry or living the life of an author that isn’t all that dissimilar to the actual writer. (*Ahem* Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You . ) Fortunately, this wasn’t unbearable. Frances, the romance writer taking on the “main” character role, has hit a rough patch in her career. It felt like a much more honest picture of the author life, not some glamorous fairytale that, in reality, exists for few in the profession. She was also funny and relatable in a way that doesn’t come off as overdone.

It’s a good read, and I’m eager to update this post with my thoughts on the Hulu series, as well.

CW: Mental illness, suicide, abuse (physical, mental, emotional, verbal, sexual), death or dying, kidnapping and other events that might be consider traumatic, pregnancy, self-harm and eating disorders

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Nine Perfect Strangers

By liane moriarty.

Book review, full book summary and synopsis for Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty, nine people at a very odd getaway.

In Nine Perfect Strangers , Nine people gather at the Tranquillum House Resort for a 10-day wellness retreat, run by a former businesswoman named Masha. While these strangers get to know each other and grapple with their own issues, they start to have questions about what exactly is going on at this retreat.

(The Full Plot Summary is also available, below)

Full Plot Summary

The one-paragraph version of this: Nine Perfect Strangers is about a group of people who go to attend a fancy but strange wellness resort where they each work on their personal issues. They later get trapped in a room at the order of the resort director, Masha, and learn that it's all part of her experimental treatment where she's been administering them micro-doses of LSD.

A group of people show up to a wellness resort (the Tranquillium House) for a 10-day retreat. It includes Frances (romance novelist), Lars (health-retreat junkie), Ben and Jessica (rich young couple), Carmel (divorced single mother and Tony (divorcee). Plus, there's the Marconi family, consisting of Napoleon (schoolteacher), his wife Heather and their daughter Zoe . Tranquillium House has weird, stringent rules. As the guests do activities like hikes, therapy and meditation, we learn more about why they're all there. The Marconis lost a child, Zach. Ben and Jessica won the lottery and it changed their relationship. Frances was scammed by a man pretending to date her. Carmel's ex-husband and daughter are off traveling with his new fiancee, and she's here to lose weight.

Meanwhile, Masha is the resort director, and Yao and Deliah are wellness consultants. They are surveilling the guests closely. On Day 5, Heather figures out that the smoothies they've been fed are drugged. Masha admits that they've been micro-dosing them with LSD (to help them open up), but tried out a larger dose today. The guests are upset, but are soon all too high to do anything about it. High and hallucinating, they have various revelations. Lars sees how his parent's unhappy marriage has made him afraid to marry his loving partner, Ray. Heather feels guilty about Zach's suicide because she gave him medication that causes depression. Carmel decides she loves her body as it is.

When they sober up, the guests realize they are locked in. As they try to find a way out, the staff discusses the situation. (Deliah realizes this is not going to end well and leaves, stealing Ben's Lamborghini on the way out.) This was supposed to be a teamwork exercise, but Masha decides she's trying something new. When Yao protests, she drugs him. Masha gives the guests a new game to play, but then starts thinking of her baby son who strangled himself (with a curtain cord) while she'd been distracted with work and died. She takes LSD and is soon clearly out of her mind. The guests hear and smell a fire outside and are freaking out until they realize it's just a recording. They door is now unlocked and outside there's just a small wastebasket with burnt stuff.

Now free, Masha (still high) asks them if they're pleased with their revelations and results. When Heather insults Masha, Masha attacks her, so Frances knocks her out. A cop shows up (he went to check it out after catching Deliah speeding in the stolen car) and they tell him what happened. Masha and Yao are arrested. Afterwards, the guests end up resolving the root issues they went to the resort for. Many years later, Masha is out of jail, has written a book and has a exclusive, secretive LSD-based (illegal) therapy program still going on. Frances and Tony marry.

For more detail, see the full Section-by-Section Summary .

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Book Review

A friend of mine wanted to read Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty, so I offered to read it with her.

I read The Husband’s Secret by the same author a long time ago, but I hadn’t been particularly enthusiastic about it, so hadn’t been planning on revisiting Moriarty’s writing.

But Big Little Lies has been so huge and Nicole Kidman is planning an adaptation of Nine Perfect Strangers , so I figured as long as I would have someone to discuss it with anyway, I might as well give it a shot.

Nicole Kidman with Liane Moriarty

I had low expectations for this book. As I said in the beginning, I only read it because my friend was looking for a reading buddy. When I started it, I was sort of skimming the pages, trying to read it as quickly as possible so I could cross it off my list and get on to the rest of my to-do list.

But once the characters started crystalizing in my mind and a few lines made me think a little deeper than I was expecting, I found myself taking my time and letting the story roll around in my head.

The book is very simple in terms of the plot. These people show up to a 10-day wellness retreat, you get to know them, they participate in retreat activities and in the process there are a number of revelations about each of the characters.

Nicole Kidman as Masha in Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers Adaptation

They’re a great cast of characters, and I was more interested in these characters’ journeys than I was expecting. In some ways, this is more like 5 or 6 individual stories that just happen to occur at the same place.

In this grouping of strangers, there’s a grieving family, a young couple trying to save their marriage and a health-resort junkie. Plus, there’s a handful of singletons dealing with things like regret over the past, shame or just trying to change their lives. Through their sprinkling of stories, Moriarty tells stories about self-acceptance, about forgiveness, about healing and about moving on and moving forward.

Liane Moriarty has a keen grasp of the nuances that lie in between the interactions people have with each other, and tries hard to pry at the less obvious emotions or gradations that color people’s emotions. Moriarty digs into their vulnerabilities and dredges out truths in ways that feels insightful and hopeful. From the loss of a child, to struggling with divorces and heartbreak, to overcoming their fears and insecurities, Nine Perfect Strangers tackles all these topics, often with a smart mix of gravity, levity and humor.

From Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers Adaptation

Book Review: Criticism Slash the Bad Stuff

The last third of the book goes a little off the rails for a very long stretch. I won’t give away anything, but there’s a lengthy section where not very much is happening and to the extent that stuff is happening, it’s just kind of weird and not in interesting way. It also gets a little repetitive, hammering in points it previously made about the various characters.

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.

I had such conflicted feelings during this book. There were parts that were so poignant and touching and incisive where my heart broke for these characters or I found myself smiling as I read this book. Then, there were parts where I thought this book was so stupid and insane that I couldn’t stop looking down to check how many pages were left.

There’s two main aspects that don’t work. First, the attempt to introduce an element of mystery and suspense into the premise is ham-fisted at best to put it nicely . (At worst, it’s a cynical ploy to generate more sales since mysteries and thrillers are popular right now.) It makes the book much “weirder” and didn’t add to the plot or meaning or substance. If anything, it detracted from the good parts of the book by making it hard to take it seriously.

Second, the attempt to bind these stories together and make it seem unified (e.g. the “team-building” exercise portion of the retreat) when they are really separate stories was not effective or interesting. I also don’t think it was necessary. The Love, Actually format of storytelling where a movie/book is telling separate stories that only intersect tangentially works just fine. Trying so hard to bring all the stories together isn’t needed and didn’t work.

Lastly, I’ll add that I think Liane writes much better female characters than male characters. Lars especially was a little unrealistic, both in terms of how he reacted to his parents divorce and what his character arc ends up being.

The other male characters were okay, but in general it seems (predictably) obvious that Moriarty has deeper insight into the intricacies of the female mind than that of their male counterparts.

Read it or Skip it?

If you’re curious about the mystery element to this book’s synopsis, then skip this. Any “suspenseful” or “mysterious” elements to the plot are, well, going to be a huge letdown.

What this book does well, however, is tell six different stories about self-acceptance, about forgiveness, about healing and about moving on and moving forward and things like that. That is the reason to show up to this book, and I think for many people that will be enough, even with any flaws, for it to be worth their time.

It’s an un-cynical story that reminds all its readers that it’s okay to struggle sometimes, and it’s better to ask for and get help if you need it.

There were parts where I felt a little frustrated by the kookiness of the story (or perhaps the silly framework masquerading as a story), but I did feel genuinely moved at some parts. I was rooting for all these characters (well, maybe not Masha) and overall I got enough out of the book to feel like it wasn’t a wasted effort.

What do you think? Have you read this or are you planning on reading this? See Nine Perfect Strangers on Amazon .

Nine Perfect Strangers Audiobook Review

I listened to part of this on audiobook, but it wasn’t one of the better ones I’ve heard. I had a bit of a long drive so I stuck with it, so in that case it was better than not reading anything, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

The voice actress’s narration is just ok, maybe sometimes a little irritating. She voices most of the dialogue of the women in a high whiny voice that drove me a little nuts. The acting also leaves something to be desired as well, so some of the emotional parts of the book feel a little cringey.

Oh, and she goes completely nuts with her Russian accent. Every section that’s from Masha’s point of view is done with a Russian accent, and it gets old, fast. It also doesn’t make sense, since she doesn’t use character voicings for anyone else’s point of view other than Masha.

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I bought this book recently and I want to read it. I love Big Little Lies (the TV-show), though I still have to read the book as well (which I also have sitting on my shelf).

I totally agree Big Little Lies is fantastic — the whole cast is great. There were definitely some pros and cons to Nine Perfect Strangers but as a whole I thought it had some good insights! :)

this book was too “out there” for me

haha totally understandable :)

It did start getting a bit silly halfway through. This definitely isn’t her best, but still quite an enjoyable read.

yeah, I think she tied up the story nicely in the end which helped it feel more satisfying even after the weirdness :)

I enjoyed her book What Alice Forgot! But I don’t think I will read this one!

oo I’ll look into that one, thanks for the heads up! :)

I completely disagree with you about the audio book. Caroline Lee is one of the best readers out there, she’s Australian, hence the accent. There’s a reason for the Russian accent for Masha, and I think it’s done very well. There’s conflicting opinions about this book but overall I really liked it.

clock This article was published more than  5 years ago

‘Big Little Lies’ author Liane Moriarty is back with another page-turner

Liane Moriarty is a master of sustained tension. You’d think her a diabolical sadist if her novels didn’t also make you wish she were a friend you could meet for coffee and a spot of gossip. But she does delight in delaying a reveal, as fans of her smash hit “Big Little Lies” know, having waited until the final pages — or frames if they watched the HBO miniseries — to find out not just whodunit, but who was dead. Moriarty’s latest novel, “Nine Perfect Strangers,” is a locked-door mystery, but the mystery itself remains a mystery for much of the book. There’s a general sense of foreboding that builds, but what it’s building to and which of the nine is and isn’t a victim is a perplexing puzzle.

The titular strangers converge on a remote luxury health resort, Tranquillum House, where they’re promised not just rejuvenation, but reinvention. Many are unhappy with their physical selves. Most are recovering from emotional wounds or avoiding major life decisions. The majority arrive alone, though one couple hoping to save their marriage and another with their college-aged daughter in tow emphasize the ways in which we can be strangers even to those who should know us best.

Despite the hefty price tag of the getaway, Moriarty creates ways in for people from a variety of backgrounds, some of which require more writerly contortions than others. The socio­economic differences matter because soon after the retreat begins the group is asked to observe a “noble silence” meant to clear everyone’s heads. The silence envelops the group as it becomes increasingly clear to readers — even those who’ve never set an unpedicured toe in a spa — they should be bolting for the exits. As the staff begins manipulating the guests in truly bizarre ways, the strangers form opinions of the other characters based on their own assumptions, insecurities and vulnerabilities. Tranquillum House becomes a microcosm of the macro world as stress and vitriol cause the characters to fall back on habitual coping mechanisms and flock to others who might share their views.

Alternating narrators usher us through brisk chapters providing glimpses into the inner thoughts of each character. Our main guide is an author, Frances, who starts to feel like a version of Moriarty herself, though it’s always dangerous to project too much of an author onto her characters. It’s clear, though, that Moriarty is having a bit of fun with us throughout the book and it’s through Frances that we’re let in on the joke. Midway through the novel she’s asked by Tranquillum House’s director whether the novel she’s reading is any good. “Frances thought about this. The book was meant to be another murder mystery but the author had introduced far too many characters too early, and so far everyone was still alive and kicking. The pace had slowed. Come on now. Hurry up and kill someone.”

Hurry up, indeed, for, whether you enjoy this novel or find it confounding will largely come down to whether you feel you’re in on the joke or that it’s being made at your expense.

Tayla Burney  is a journalist who lives and works in Washington. She writes a weekly literary event newsletter Get Lit, D.C. and tweets entirely too much.

NINE PERFECT STRANGERS

By Liane Moriarty

Flatiron. 464 pp. $28.99.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

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Book Review of NINE PERFECT STRANGERS

Well. I’m never visiting a health resort. EVER.

I’m just going to start this review by saying that Nine Perfect Strangers did not go at all where I thought it would. A lot of people said they had a hard time getting through this entire book, and I didn’t quite understand what they meant until about halfway through — which is about halfway through the titular “nine perfect strangers'” experience at a luxury spa and health resort called Tranquillum House.

For the first half of this book, I drank the proverbial Kool-Aid — or, smoothie, in this particular case. Tranquillum House seems like the perfect place to relax, detox, and transform your life, and the results of the owner’s strict no tech/no talking/no sugar/no caffeine/no carbs policy seems to yield amazing results. Weight loss? You betcha. A sense of inner peace? Sign me up. Lessened anxiety? I’ll take two! Any health regimen that leaves me feeling physically, emotionally, and mentally refreshed, and a few pounds lighter sounds like a winner in my book.

I’ve read all of Moriarty’s previous novels, so I’m familiar enough with her works to know that she’s excellent at building a backstory. She takes her time in fleshing out the characters and setting the scene. Most of her books deal with the pressure to keep up appearances, and the eventual reveal of the chaos writhing beneath calm, carefully presented façades. Because of the author’s tendency to draw out the set-up, I did start to get antsy for The Twist I knew was coming. I didn’t know what exactly would be coming, but I knew something would. But, that’s part of the art of Moriarty. She takes her sweet time in getting there, and the build up is done so well that when The Twist does come, it’s simply devastating.

As usual, Moriarty does a great job in Nine Perfect Strangers of concealing the monsters that dwell within all of us — the hidden rage, the self-doubt, the pettiness, and the resentfulness we feel towards ourselves or our loved ones. Everyone at Tranquillum House has his/her own personal drama, but these problems are all hidden under carefully constructed facades. Each guest shows only what they want others to see, and it’s only as you read that the layers begin to peel back and you realize that, hey, not everyone has their shit together as much as you think.

Things start to go a little bonkers in the second half of the book. I sometimes feel like Moriarty’s twists are a little fantastical (see  The Husband’s Secret  and  The Hypnotist’s Love Story ) , but what happens at Tranquillum House really goes off the rails. I usually think of Moriarty’s books as “chick lit” because even though they touch upon very serious subjects (abusive relationships, husbands who secretly murder people and cover it up, adultery, depression and suicide), Moriarty portrays everything in a remarkably entertaining and somehow light-hearted way. You’re moved by the drama, but never to the point where you have to put down the book and walk away for a bit.

Until now. I feel  Nine Perfect Strangers firmly deviates from “women’s fiction” and swerves chaotically into thriller territory. Some of the situations got a little too intense for me, and I wasn’t a huge fan of the second part of the book. That’s not to say it’s not good …because it is. I just wasn’t expecting such intensity in a story that starts off at someplace (ironically) named Tranquillum House, and I was taken a little aback. The action escalates into what I could confidently call a “nightmare scenario” — or, several scenarios, actually, since they seem to snowball into each other — and that’s not quite what I was expecting with this novel.

With that in mind, though, everything that happens is a little…ridiculous? It’s not that what transpires in Nine Perfect Strangers   couldn’t happen in real life. Because, unfortunately, people be crazy. I could totally see the events happening under the right circumstances. But, as my old therapist used to counsel me, “It’s possible…but is it probable? ”

No…no, it’s not, not really. But, just in case, I think I’ll stay away from any health resorts that require me to give up my phone and access to the outside world. Just to be safe.

Nine Perfect Strangers is not my favorite Moriarty book (that place is still held by The Last Anniversary ), but it’s still a fast-paced, enjoyable, and exciting read. It keeps you guessing, and I really enjoyed the cast of characters in the book. Their backstories are compelling, and you become really engrossed in what brings each of them to the resort. Their pull on you is what keeps you reading when you’re ready to walk away because you’ve had it up to HERE with the crap going on at Tranquillum House (just like the characters!).

If you’re a Moriarty fan, I think you should read this one. It’s quintessentially the author we love, with a little bit more of an intense twist than perhaps we longtime fans are used to.

Have you read  Nine Perfect Strangers ? What about other Liane Moriarty books? Share below! And, be sure to come back for my book-inspired recipe: Citrus Quinoa Salad !

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8 thoughts on “ Book Review of NINE PERFECT STRANGERS ”

Great Review, C.J.! I am in the minority and am not a fan of Liane Moriarty. But always like reading your reviews. 😀

Thanks, Claire! I find her novels to be lots of fun, but some are definitely easier to get into than others.

Great review! This was my least favorite Moriarty title as well. Have you read Celeste Eng? Not as “light” but you may enjoy her work.

I haven’t read anything by her yet, but she’s on my list. I’ve heard good things about Little Fires Everywhere. Thanks for the recommendation!

I have read a handful of Liane’s books. This one took a turn that I did not expect! I love her character development, you feel like you know the characters well. My favorite of hers is also The Last Anniversary. I have loved watching the TV series made from Big Little Lies.

Yay, another Last Anniversary fan! Such a great novel. And I also love the Big Little Lies TV show. I think this new season took a darker turn, but it was still really well done and entertaining.

I’m struggling to read Nine Perfect Strangers. Have read no other of her books. It is getting to the point as I near the end that I don’t much care what happens to them. I have this feeling Masha will become this maniacal Hitler but who knows?

Hi, M.J.! Unfortunately, this is not a good Liane Moriarity book to start out with, in my opinion. While a lot of her novels contain a little bit of suspense, this one goes a little over the edge! I recommend WHAT ALICE FORGOT if you want something sweet; THE LAST ANNIVERSARY for bittersweet; and BIG LITTLE LIES for a tinge of suspense!

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9 Things To Know About Nine Perfect Strangers

Stars nicole kidman, bobby cannavale, melissa mccarthy, and others break down what you need to know about the series based on liane moriarty's book..

TAGGED AS: Hulu , streaming

Nine Perfect Strangers , Hulu’s star-studded adaptation of Liane Moriarty ’s novel, follows a group of people from various backgrounds who visit a wellness center called Tranquillum House for what they believe to be a 10-day restorative retreat.

But this is not a vacation they will soon forget. Run by mysterious and ethereal Masha Dmitrichenko ( Nicole Kidman ) and her minions including Yao ( Manny Jacinto ) and Delilah ( Tiffany Boone ), the resort offers the promise of restoration and healing. But at what cost?

As the characters and the audience begin to question Masha’s motives, the situation becomes complicated, and it grows harder for guests to leave Tranquillum House before check-out.

Rotten Tomatoes spoke to the series cast and rounded up nine things you need to know about Nine Perfect Strangers before it premieres August 18.

1. It’s Not a Horror Series

(Photo by Hulu)

Despite the premise set up with that logline — “All is not well” — series director Jonathan Levine  said this is a show that “really transcends genre.”

“I certainly thought about horror and certainly thought about thrillers,” he said during the show’s Television Critics Association summer press tour panel. “But at the end of the day, even though we’re playing with those tropes, I think, for me, it was about character and about these beautiful people that you kind of empathize with and fall in love with.”

Still, he said, “We certainly were playing with the audience’s expectations and using genre as a vehicle to tell this story and to keep it compelling.”

2. But It Is  a Show About Pain

(Photo by Vince Valitutti/Hulu)

The series discusses pain, but the emotional not what you’d find in a slasher flick. Regina Hall ’s (pictured) Carmel Schneider is a divorcee who hopes things like losing weight will help her issues. Melissa McCarthy ’s Frances Welty is a novelist experiencing setbacks in her career and personal life.

“Doing the show made you think a lot about what you do to cover up your problems,” McCarthy said at TCA, adding that “at some point, you have to get it out. So it’s like you’re already in the midst of being miserable and suffering, so make a change. And that’s so much what I think this show is about.”

3. The Guests Aren’t All Strangers to Each Other

Michael Shannon (above right) and Asher Keddie (above center) play husband-and-wife Napoleon and Heather Marconi, who are at the wellness center with their daughter Zoe ( Grace Van Patten ) after experiencing a loss. Melvin Gregg (above left) and Samara Weaving play married couple Ben and Jessica Chandler, who have mastered the façade of perfection.

Both families are experiencing emotional strains in their relationships. At one point, during a trust exercise, Heather’s grief consumes her so much that she considers diving off a cliff.

“That was really poignant for me, actually, for the character, because it really spoke to the bigger question in the show,” Keddie told Rotten Tomatoes. “And that moment, when she is quite literally on the precipice, I think she has reached a point in her life where she actually just doesn’t know how to connect anymore.”

Van Patten added that “when you see Zoe, she has really pushed down a lot of her emotion and trauma and has been living in her parents’ trauma more than her own.”

When Zoe encounters Masha at Tranquillum, her instinct is to run, but there’s nowhere to go.

4. Fleeting Fame Is Also a Theme

In addition to Gregg and Weaving’s social media celebrities and McCarthy’s novelist, Bobby Cannavale ’s former athlete Tony Hogburn has reached that stage in his career where people feel like the recognize him — but they don’t know why.

In this case, Tony would rather you don’t know who he is.

“Part of that is the wardrobe,” Cannavale told Rotten Tomatoes. “I think this guy has physically transformed himself. He’s gained all this weight. And he does not want to be recognized.”

Cannavale describes the character as “pretty aggressive,” but “it’s behavior coming out of desperation.”

“Whether he realizes it or not, I think he’s trying to wake himself up,” Cannavale said. “I think he’s so numbed by these drugs and by how his entire life and those relationships have been clouded over by that, I think any kind of provocation will stimulate him in the right way.”

5. The Show Plays with Social Media’s Perceptions of Perfection

Weaving’s Jessica is beautiful but also lacks self-esteem and confidence. She is addicted to her phone, which she (like everyone else) must relinquish upon check-in. It pains her that she can’t Instagram a beautiful breakfast spread at the retreat.

Weaving told Rotten Tomatoes that she herself has “always had terrible anxiety” that she has managed through medication and therapy.

“Anxiety is such a mental state,” she said of playing Jessica. So she tried “to see how that could manifest physically. So I gave her a scratch and some ticks and rapid eye movements and things like that.”

She also “did a lot of research and talked to a lot of people who suffer from body dysmorphia.”

6. Tranquillum Seeks Out People Who Feel Like They’ve Exhausted All Other Options

Why would Jessica and Ben, who roll up in a fancy sports car, go here when they could just try couples therapy? Or when they could spend their time relaxing at a Hawaiian luxury hotel with Wi-Fi?

“I think they’ve done all of this stuff,” Gregg told Rotten Tomatoes. “Their life is a vacation and they tried couples therapy, but nothing is working … but she feels like the problem is bigger. So we need you need to take more extreme options.”

Jacinto added, “There comes a point in all our lives where you just reach this point of desperation where you need help. You can’t find it in your spouse or in your family. So you need someone to tell you that everything’s gonna be OK. And, when someone is that vulnerable, there can be abuses of power and abuses of trust.”

7. The Show Explores Wealth Inequality

Much like HBO’s The White Lotus , Nine Perfect Strangers  examines the excesses and expectations of wealthy people and how some lose sight of the humanity of the staff members catering to their whims.

“Diving into it more and maybe thinking about it after the project, you can’t help but sit back and think: How much money do these people have to spend? ” Jacinto tells Rotten Tomatoes. “But, I mean, I’m sitting there judging them when, at the end of the day, I am such a sucker for self-improvement and for wanting to be better.”

Both series embed lower-income characters into the facilities’ guest lists, and those characters express a degree of imposter syndrome, in which they openly remark on their worthiness to be guests. And while The White Lotus draws strict lines around its predominantly white guests and ethnically diverse staff, Nine Perfect Strangers offers more of a mix on both sides of the equation.

8. Jacinto Is Here For Your The Good Place Comparisons

The actor, who rose to fame playing the delightful simpleton Jason Mendoza on The Good Place is aware that this is yet another series where a bunch of unsuspecting individuals arrive at a utopia lorded over by a character played by a tall acting icon (in the NBC comedy, it was Ted Danson). But in this version, Jacinto’s Yao is in on it all. How do you play someone who knows all the secrets but can’t tell anyone?

“I think it’s finding an anchor in regards to what my character wants,” he told Rotten Tomatoes. “With Yao, all he wants to do is serve and help people. As long as he serves that purpose, he’s not going to reveal the possible risks that that purpose might entail.”

9. Kidman Stayed in Character the Whole Time

“I sort of found the accent due to putting together her whole life story and made it a Russian-American mix,” Kidman told reporters during the TCA panel. “The first scene we shot was the scene where I come in in the room and say, ‘I am Masha. Welcome to Tranquillum.’ And then, I was able to stay in that place.”

She adds that “I wanted a very calm healing energy to emanate all the time. So, I remember going over to people and sort of putting my hand on their heart or holding their hand.”

She also said she wouldn’t respond when people called her “Nicole,” and she’d have people run scenes with her in her rooms, but “I would create a different space for them. So it was a really weird place to exist.

“It was the only way I could actually relate to people was that way,” she said, “because I felt like, otherwise, I would be doing a performance, and I didn’t want to feel that way.”

Nine Perfect Strangers premieres August 18 on Hulu .

On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.

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Review: Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty is about nine people gathered at a remote health resort. The premise is interesting but the actual story itself veers off into different directions without a cohesive theme.

Let me first say that Liane Moriarty is without a doubt one of my favorite authors. Anything she writes, I will read. I had read negative reviews about Nine Perfect Strangers prior to reading it, however, I went in with an open mind. But this one is a miss for me.

The story revolves around nine people gathered at this health resort in Australia. We get to know each character and slowly find out why they decided to book a 10-day stay at this resort. Each one comes there with different reasons but they all hope to leave feeling refreshed and healthier. However, they’re unaware that the woman behind the health resort has interesting tactics up her sleeve in the name of “health.” For more about the synopsis, click here .

All of Liane’s books have some type of element of dark humor but most of them revolve around mystery and suspense. While there is a small amount of mystery around Masha, the woman running the resort, this one is actually a character study of the nine people. There’s Frances the middle-aged romance writer who finds out her latest novel is declined by the publisher. We meet a couple in their 20s who appear very wealthy and unhappy. A family of three (parents and a 20-year-old daughter) are athletic but there’s a dark cloud hanging over them. There’s an extremely attractive attorney who doesn’t appear to have anything wrong with him while there’s an overweight grandpa who seems to have plenty of problems. And lastly, there’s a mother of four who is convinced she’s overweight even though she’s not. Those are the nine “perfect” strangers.

We read the story from each of their perspectives, along with Masha and her two assistants, but mainly we follow Frances’ journey. Frances is a twice-divorced but without children. She’s friendly, outgoing and self-absorbed but she’s been hurt recently and it’s hard for her to overcome it. She’s hopes this resort will get her back on track. But she doesn’t take much seriously and so she provides plenty of humor through her observations.

Other events in the novel that happen definitely fall under the dark humor and satirical. But it also becomes quite absurd, which I think was the point, but still just an odd reading experience.

Lots of backstory

Surprisingly, this one is backstory heavy, which when you’re dealing with so many characters, we obviously need context. But it felt more as if the story was living in the past instead of the present. And when it does start to take off in the present, it never quite lands the way that is expected.

The overall theme?

I believe that the author was trying to make a point about the stereotype of these type of health resorts—promising to solve all of one’s troubles—but as soon as people leave they go back to old and bad habits.

For instance, it’s highlighted several times that for the most part people attend these type of resorts to lose weight. Carmel is the character who thinks she’s overweight when in fact she’s not. The other ‘strangers’ are perplexed why she believes she needs to lose weight but she believes that her ex-husband left her because of it. This is discussed quite a bit in case you don’t get the point.

There seems to be conflicting points that the health resorts don’t provide any answers that you don’t already know, yet, in some ways, maybe they do work.

This is a hard one to pinpoint. Her writing is excellent as always but it doesn’t translate to a well-crafted story in this case. Maybe she was taking a break from intense mysteries and focusing more on social commentary but it just didn’t work for me.

You May Also Like

Sunday 21st of February 2021

Loved little lies but this is not for me I like a main character got couple pages and is so dragged our

Heather Caliendo

Friday 9th of April 2021

This was an odd one for sure! I guess they're making it into a TV series as well so I'm curious how they'll find the right tone for it.

Wendy Elaine Freeman

Thursday 29th of August 2019

I thought this was the worst book Lianne Moriarty has written. It was mostly garbage

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Nine Perfect Strangers

Where to watch.

Watch Nine Perfect Strangers with a subscription on Hulu, or buy it on Prime Video.

Cast & Crew

David E. Kelley

John-Henry Butterworth

Samantha Strauss

Nicole Kidman

Melissa McCarthy

Michael Shannon

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Tv news & guides, this show is featured in the following articles., series info.

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Nine Perfect Strangers review – forget Nicole Kidman … Melissa McCarthy steals this show

With her wobbly accent and Frozen rip-off wig, Kidman is unconvincing as a wellness guru in this glossy cultish thriller. But McCarthy will make you wriggle with delight

I sn’t it just typical? You wait years for a miniseries about rich Americans pitching up at a luxury retreat to try to find bliss, then two turn up at once. The White Lotus put its assortment on Hawaii in a five-star hotel to let things play out. Nine Perfect Strangers (Amazon Prime) puts them in a holistic wellness spa called Tranquillum House and lets Nicole Kidman loose on them.

Like Big Little Lies before it, Nine Perfect Strangers is a Kidman vehicle based on a Liane Moriarty bestseller and directed by David E Kelley. She plays Masha, a Russian émigré-turned-corporate-badass-turned-wellness-guru who welcomes her new guests in the manner of a hawk inviting mice into a glue trap. Calm, white-uniformed assistants Yao ( Manny Jacinto ) and Delilah (Tiffany Boone) relieve them of their phones and anything else that will link them to the outside world (or “interrupt your wellness journey”) and usher them into the compound that will deliver “metabolically bespoke” meals, therapy and treatments that promise to unite and heal body and soul.

The lucky guests/isolated victims include young couple Ben (Melvin Gregg) and Jessica (Samara Weaving), whose relationship is fracturing under a strain most of us would like the chance to do battle with; bolshie macho-man Tony (Bobby Cannavale), trying to deal with his own demons and not succeeding markedly well; sweet recent divorcee Carmel (Regina Hall), there with the retro-hope of losing weight and feeling better; the imploding Marconi family; and cynical, jaded Lars (Luke Evans). Most engagingly, there is Melissa McCarthy , sweeping all before her as charismatic, bestselling author Frances, who has recently been dealt harsh blows and is here to have pampered time to recover. As is so often the case with the magnificent McCarthy, she is the best, most arresting thing in the series, and every time she comes back on screen you wriggle with delight.

It is Kidman, of course, who is supposed to be the big draw. It was obvious as soon as Nine Perfect Strangers was published in 2018 that even though (for my money) it was not peak Moriarty – lacking her usual realism, tight focus and acute psychological insight – it would be the next picked up as a Kidman project. The part of Masha is catnip. But with a wobbly accent and an ice-blond wig better suited to a child’s Frozen-themed birthday party, she relies on little more than her height and preternatural thinness to conjure Masha’s magnetism and crucial authoritative power. Without that, the increasingly cultish manoeuvres of Tranquillum that the guests go along with – daily blood tests “to further your wellness journey”, assistants who smile blandly and avoid more and more questions – soon require more suspension of disbelief than is sustainable.

The series also suffers from comparison with The White Lotus which, although it includes a mysterious death, only has the trace elements of a thriller and develops into a state-of-the-nation piece that gets deeper and cleverer as it goes on and the interplay of the lives of the haves and have-nots tell ever-darker truths. Nine Perfect Strangers becomes rather simpler as it goes on. The thriller aspects – Masha’s motivations, her sketchy past, her increasing interventions in the guests’ lives, growing doubts among her assistant-acolytes – are the things that hook the audience rather than the guests’ emotional states and developing relationships. The tale lacks even the grit in the oyster – the genuinely dark secrets that led, at least semi-plausibly, to the death around which the story was structured – that Big Little Lies had.

That said, the latest Kidman-Kelley offering remains fun. It is an easy, glossy watch for anyone – which is to say, practically all of us – who doesn’t have the bandwidth for much more right now. The comic chops of McCarthy, Cannavale and, perhaps more unexpectedly, Weaving leaven it nicely and the growing relationship between the first two is both deftly funny and touching. The plot is just chewy enough for its eight-hour length, and the emotional stakes are reassuringly low. In a world of increasingly appalling, fast-moving headlines, it may be the perfect time to release a drama that doesn’t move like a whirlwind nor feel too convincing.

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