Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore Audiobook Review

“Dear Oona, Welcome to your future. It won’t be so bad once you get to know it. Don’t panic. You’re not crazy or dead or dreaming. This is your true reality. It really is 2015, and you really are 51 years old (on the outside). The sooner you accept it, the sooner you’ll adjust. But there’s more to it.”

OONA OUT OF ORDER

It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens thirty-two years in the future in her fifty-one-year-old body. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she will leap to another age at random. And so begins Oona Out of Order...

Hopping through decades, pop culture fads, and much-needed stock tips, Oona is still a young woman on the inside but ever-changing on the outside. Who will she be next year? Philanthropist? Club Kid? World traveler? Wife to a man she’s never met? Surprising, magical, and heart-wrenching, Margarita Montimore has crafted an unforgettable story about the burdens of time, the endurance of love, and the power of family.

Review

I loved it instantly. I just adored Oona, whose personality shone brighter than the sun in the audiobook. Margarita’s story was so entirely captivating, just absolutely charming. And enhanced more so through the audiobook, I believe. 

The narrator, Brittany Pressley, was perfect, with her managing to capture the emotions of Oona so accurately. I had the desire to keep listening, to give it my full attention. And I did. Sitting mostly in the same position throughout. The audiobook is over ten hours in length, and I listen at twice the speed, so I found myself sitting almost still for about five hours for this one, paying full attention, enthralled by the story. 

At times, I felt like I was watching a full length feature film, Oona the lead character, and it was fantastic. The characters were distinctive enough to tell them apart from one another. Obviously Oona was the star of the show. 

The audiobook really took me on a journey, enhancing Margarita’s words, and transporting me to wherever Oona was at the time. That’s exactly what I hope for when I listen to an audiobook.

I like to read the book as well anytime I listen to an audiobook, but this time I felt like I didn’t need the book. I was able to get the full story through the audio alone. I still had the book, though. 

In terms of the plot, I found it to be quite original. It was also quirky, the prose imaginative and adventurous. 

Well written and engaging, for a story that could have come across out of order, it didn’t. Margarita has a nice way with words, and her imagination seems so brilliant and impassioned. 

A Good Morning America Book Club Pick, I can see why, this one is well worth the listen, or the read!

Margarita Montimore

Margarita Montimore
is the author of Asleep from Day and Oona Out of Order, a USA Today bestseller and Good Morning America Book Club pick. After receiving a BFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College, she worked for over a decade in publishing and social media before deciding to focus on the writing dream full-time. Born in Soviet Ukraine and raised in Brooklyn, she currently lives in New Jersey with her husband and dog.

Oona Out of Order is available to purchase in hard copy or paperback at Indigo and in e-book or audiobook format on Kobo. Check GoodReads for additional retailers. 

Book published by Flatiron, audiobook by MacMillan Audio. I purchased both.