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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
4.5 stars that I'm rounding up. My one quibble with the story is that I generally don't like Epilogues that have major plot points in them. It's one thing to vault into the future to give some updates to characters (as in the Harry Potter series), but this book ends and the Epilogue essentially changes the ending (no spoilers here really). I would have liked to have seen how the characters reached that point in the Epilogue--especially with such a big change happening between the end and the Epilogue. Yes the book is 459 pages, but there's a lot of white space on the page and I think that some time should have been given to the evolution of the relationships instead of just tacked on at the end.
What I loved about the book is that the portrayal of a marriage/this marriage seemed real. It's easy to think in absolutes--she *always* does this; he *never* is around--especially when things aren't going very well. For Alice, losing 10 years of her memory in a freak accident was to step back in time to when their marriage was easier (pre-kids, pre-hurt, anger, grief, etc.) and to erase all of that and the "absolute" type of thinking that often happens when you're divorcing (not that I speak from experience myself, but in witnessing those I love divorcing). I enjoyed reading about how she reconciled her thoughts about her marriage when her memory was erased with how she felt once all of her memories came flooding back. I wish there was more of *that* aspect of the book, too.
I think the trick for all of us, in any relationship, is to bring back some of who we were in those simpler times, and try to find a balance between who we were back then with who we were now. Maybe there would be more understanding and giving the benefit of the doubt and not thinking in absolutes. Perhaps all of our relationships would be better for it.
What I loved about the book is that the portrayal of a marriage/this marriage seemed real. It's easy to think in absolutes--she *always* does this; he *never* is around--especially when things aren't going very well. For Alice, losing 10 years of her memory in a freak accident was to step back in time to when their marriage was easier (pre-kids, pre-hurt, anger, grief, etc.) and to erase all of that and the "absolute" type of thinking that often happens when you're divorcing (not that I speak from experience myself, but in witnessing those I love divorcing). I enjoyed reading about how she reconciled her thoughts about her marriage when her memory was erased with how she felt once all of her memories came flooding back. I wish there was more of *that* aspect of the book, too.
I think the trick for all of us, in any relationship, is to bring back some of who we were in those simpler times, and try to find a balance between who we were back then with who we were now. Maybe there would be more understanding and giving the benefit of the doubt and not thinking in absolutes. Perhaps all of our relationships would be better for it.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
While this book centered around a TBI, I wish it had more non fiction elements to it that informed the reader about TBIs. Overall I liked but didn't love the story. The lesson at the end is love can endure many challenges.
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I didn’t like this one as well as The Hypnotist’s Love Story, though the writing style is the same – engaging, interesting characters with a seemingly true-to-life inner dialogue going on. In fact, I read almost the entire book in about three days.
The basic plot element, that Alice loses her memory, is given away in the title so I’m not spoiling anything there. After losing her memory, Alice has to reconcile the state of her current life with the “self” of many years ago existing in it. Central to this is her relationship with her sister and her husband. It is riveting.
However, the book was too long. First, there was an unnecessary side-story of Alice’s adopted Grandmother’s love letters to her deceased fiancé. I didn’t think it added much, if anything, to the story, and just served to drag out the main plot.
The story just falls apart at the end in my opinion. From here, spoiler alert! you have been warned.
Alice finally gets her memory back, and we find out just where things went wrong in her marriage. She had changed, and her husband Nick had changed. Having kids and a career changed them. Relationships with others changed them. And they are now bitter towards one another. When this happens on page 384, one thinks: how could this possibly get resolved in the remaining pages? Well, it can’t, really.
Moriarty just zips through Alice remembering the last 10 years of her life. And that’s okay. It makes sense, and Alice decides to go through with the divorce, and they end up being amicable. It’s a satisfying enough ending. Then Moriarty just ruins it with a sappy Epilogue in which suddenly Alice and Nick are back together.
It’s just totally ridiculous and unbelievable, after all that they have been through, after the building up of years of resentment and bitterness, after each of them has moved on to new partners and even living with the new partner, that they would get back together again. If this was the point of the novel, I think Moriarty should have spent another 150 pages chronicling the process of Nick and Alice falling in love again. Which she could have done if she would have cut some of the detritus out of the first 400 pages.
The basic plot element, that Alice loses her memory, is given away in the title so I’m not spoiling anything there. After losing her memory, Alice has to reconcile the state of her current life with the “self” of many years ago existing in it. Central to this is her relationship with her sister and her husband. It is riveting.
However, the book was too long. First, there was an unnecessary side-story of Alice’s adopted Grandmother’s love letters to her deceased fiancé. I didn’t think it added much, if anything, to the story, and just served to drag out the main plot.
The story just falls apart at the end in my opinion. From here, spoiler alert! you have been warned.
Alice finally gets her memory back, and we find out just where things went wrong in her marriage. She had changed, and her husband Nick had changed. Having kids and a career changed them. Relationships with others changed them. And they are now bitter towards one another. When this happens on page 384, one thinks: how could this possibly get resolved in the remaining pages? Well, it can’t, really.
Moriarty just zips through Alice remembering the last 10 years of her life. And that’s okay. It makes sense, and Alice decides to go through with the divorce, and they end up being amicable. It’s a satisfying enough ending. Then Moriarty just ruins it with a sappy Epilogue in which suddenly Alice and Nick are back together.
It’s just totally ridiculous and unbelievable, after all that they have been through, after the building up of years of resentment and bitterness, after each of them has moved on to new partners and even living with the new partner, that they would get back together again. If this was the point of the novel, I think Moriarty should have spent another 150 pages chronicling the process of Nick and Alice falling in love again. Which she could have done if she would have cut some of the detritus out of the first 400 pages.
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I loved Alice she was very charming throughout. Loved Madison too what a sweet baby. Of course Olivia and Tom were great too. Really every character in the main cast was enjoyable. Even if I didn’t like Tom from the start because he was swore at her on that first phone call. When Alice was fond of him I was too when she was mad at him cause he thought he cheated I was as well lol. Comparatively to other stories, I warmed up to him pretty quickly though and was really rooting for Alice and Tom to get back together.
I’ve never even been in a relationship and of course do not have kids of my own, but so many parts of this story still spoke to me. It made me think a lot about my own family (my parents are divorced and everyone in the house’s lives are definitely better for it), my own relationships with my siblings, my own desire to have a family like Elisabeth (of course not anytime soon though HA).
I also liked the different romantic relationships we got to see. Elisabeth and Ben’s struggle. Barb and Roger’s love. Frannie finding love with Xavier later in her life after losing a fiance in her 30s. And of course Alice and Nick being able to be happy again after all the problems they had. It was all just beautiful.
Liane Moriarty’s writing just works for me. Both Big Little Lies and this book had me experiencing every emotion and was keeping me interested the whole time. I will definitely keep picking up her books.
I like the idea of the book and thought there was a lot they could have done with it. It seemed a little long for the story line and whatever happened. Very interesting concept!
This was a long drawn out book with no climactic peak. At the bare minimum it held my interest enough to see it through, but like I said, way too drawn out for no peak. Story could have been told in half the amount of pages. Sad I didn’t like it.