Finished: Nine Perfect Strangers (Moriarty) A book about nine strangers who meet at a remote Australian health resort for a ten day program of mental and physical rejuvenation, run by a former female corporate bigwig, who suffered a near fatal heart attack ten years earlier, and her right hand man, the paramedic who helped save her life. Unbeknownst to the guests, their methods are going to include a couple of unorthodox and illegal methods which cause friction and tension and make you wonder if one or more of the guests may not make it out of the program alive! The nine guests: A successful, fifty-something female author whose just had her first novel rejection and has been scammed out of a load of money by an online "boyfriend with a sick son" scam; a fifty-something former Aussie rugby player who has lost the purpose of his life, along with his marriage, after retiring from the sport; a forty-something divorce lawyer who is too good-looking and confident for his own good, who has no desire to have children, but with a gay partner left at home who wants to adopt a child; a young twenty-something couple who has won a 22 million dollar lottery which changed them from struggling to make ends meet, to struggling with the wife altering her complete looks with cosmetic surgery, and the husband being more in love with his new expensive car than his wife; a newly divorced, thirty-something, mother of four young daughters who has zero self-confidence since her husband left her for another woman, and who feels just losing weight will solve all her problems; and, a mother and father with their 20 year old daughter who are struggling with the biggest pain of all...the suicide of their son, their daughter's twin, a few days shy of his 18th birthday nearly three years ago. They will spend his (and their daughter's) 21st birthday at the retreat. All of the characters are likable and unlikable at the same time...but for the most part, all are good people. They are deprived of communication for several days, and then finally put together in a cellar room with Masha, the owner of the facility, and Yao, the former paramedic, and given hallucinogenic drugs which cause each of them to certainly open up and be honest about their feelings and truthful about what part they've played in the misery of their own lives. The therapy seems to be going pretty well when the mother of the 20 year old realizes they've all been drugged and begins threatening legal action. She manages to tip the already nearly unbalanced Masha over the edge and Masha proceeds to keep them locked in the cellar until further notice. Masha even drugs Yao to keep him from letting them out, and the guests go for nearly two entire days with water only, and no food. Every so often Masha turns all the lights out on them or comes onto the monitoring screen to talk wildly to them. There is a code needed to open the huge wooden door, but they can never figure it out, even when they calm down and work together. All their truths do come out to each other, however, and they do form a lovely human bond. Everyone rallies round the family who has lost their son, and especially embrace Zoe, the young woman who has lost her brother. This entire family each has a secret that has made them feel the guilt of thinking if only they'd taken another action, that Zach would still be alive. Finally being honest with each other, and the support of the group, helps them to come to terms with Zach's death. Meanwhile, the crazy Masha has started a fire to burn down the facility while they are all locked in! It turns out, however, that she's only just set a fire in a bucket outside the door so they'll smell the smoke and she's put the sound of a loud fire and beams falling on a video that she puts on loop and plays to them over the intercom. It's really cruel! Anyway, they finally try the door in a last ditch effort, and it has been unlocked from the outside by Masha, who never intended to harm them, but who has indeed lost her marbles a bit. They all make it safely home while Masha and Yao are taken to jail. The book wraps up with showing how everyone continues on with their lives a week, a month, a few months, a year and five years later. The author and the retired rugby player end up married five years later, which is really lovely. The young couple end up divorced because they'd really changed so much. The young mother of four regains her confidence and embraces her girls. The lawyer goes home and tells his partner that he'd like to look into adoption. And, Zoe and her parents have started celebrating HER birthday again and are slowly, and steadily getting on with life without Zach. This was a really good book delving into the lives, losses, fears and motivations of these different people and how they grew after their horrifying but enlightening experience!