Key themes
- The wellness industry and its dark uses of vulnerability
- What would you agree to in order to change?
- Community formed under duress — and whether it persists
About this book
Nine strangers check into a luxury wellness resort run by the enigmatic Masha, each hoping to change their life. What they get is increasingly strange, invasive and ultimately dangerous. Moriarty's novel asks what we are willing to have done to us in the name of transformation — and who profits from our desire to be different.
Published in 2018, Nine Perfect Strangers drew on the culture of high-end wellness retreats and Moriarty's own experience of a week-long meditation retreat. It was adapted for television in 2021.
Discussion questions
- Masha's methods become increasingly unethical over the course of the retreat. At what point did you feel the guests should have left — and why don't they?
- Each guest has come to Tranquillum House with a specific wound. How does Moriarty use the diversity of traumas to make broader points about what people seek from wellness culture?
- The novel is a satire of the wellness industry but also takes its desire (to be genuinely changed) seriously. How does Moriarty hold both of these simultaneously?
- The residents form bonds under extreme conditions. Does this feel like genuine community — or does the novel suggest that manufactured transformation is always fragile?
- Masha believes she is helping. How does Moriarty develop her character — with empathy or condemnation — and does the novel settle the question of her moral culpability?
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