"What Alice Forgot" Review

What Alice Forgot

By Liane Moriarty

7/10

My Synopsis:

What would it be like if you woke up and couldn’t remember the last ten years of your life?  This is the predicament in which Alice Love finds herself in Liane Moriarty’s What Alice Forgot.  After an accident, Alice awakens to find it is 2008 but the last thing she remembers is 1998.  She is not 39 years old, not 29.  She thinks she is pregnant with her first child when in reality she is the mother of three children whom she doesn’t even recognize.  Strange faces surround her and strange things have happened.  Does she even like the person she seems to have become?  Will Alice get her memory back or will she find a way to adapt to the gap of lost years?

My Opinion:

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty is a book with a very enticing concept.  I loved the fresh idea and was eager to delve into this novel.  The style in which it is written caught me off guard.  I wasn’t expecting the use of journal entries and letters but I persisted through and found that the variance of style actually helped the story roll along.  It enabled different perspectives and insights into the plot.  The story progressed at a moderate rate – not too fast or slow.  It was not a page turner but I did want to read through the entire story.  The characterization of Alice was interesting.  I liked aspects of both young Alice and the Alice of today.  The fusion of the two was delightful.  I was actually torn as to whether I wanted Alice’s memory to return or not.  The author did a good job of presenting characters that have developed over those missing ten years.  The only character I had trouble with was Madison.  She seemed written much older than she was supposed to be.  The ending was ok.  It couldn’t be predicted but to be honest, I didn’t care enough about the characters to have an emotional reaction.  Even days after I finished reading it, I am still rather indifferent about the ending.  Going into this book, I suspect my expectations were too high and thus, it just kind of fell flat.  Enjoyable, but not one of my favorites.  7 out of 10.