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mugsandmanuscripts 's review for:
What Alice Forgot
by Liane Moriarty
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think this started out as a 4+ star book, but the last few chapters absolutely killed it for me. The last few chapters of this book tie things up in a way that is so trite that it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Alice wakes up in the gym after a fall and has somehow lost 10 years of her life, including every single moment with her children, the details leading to and including her divorce proceedings, her mother's marriage to her obnoxious father-in-law (yes, you read that right), her sister's prolonged struggle with infertility, the entirety of her relationship with her best friend (and her friend's traumatic death), and her doting new boyfriend. She finds that she is a completely different person with a completely different personality, set of hobbies, likes/dislikes, and almost everything else. She doesn't love who she's become.
I found this to be a really interesting concept, though I struggled to connect with Alice. I didn't really enjoy how the alternate POVs—those of sister and adopted grandmother—were written through letters; it just didn't work for me. I think it would have been better with 3 narrators rather than a narrator and two letter-writers. Still, I enjoyed listening and found it engaging... until the end. I can't really be specific without adding spoilers, but suffice it to say that the struggles that Moriarty has portrayed in some really beautiful ways (divorce, miscommunication, grief, infertility, parenting, moving on) are essentially magicked away. This was really jarring to me. It felt insincere and shortsighted to essentially make light of everything that happened throughout. I wish the book had ended with the nuance that it was filled with throughout.
Alice wakes up in the gym after a fall and has somehow lost 10 years of her life, including every single moment with her children, the details leading to and including her divorce proceedings, her mother's marriage to her obnoxious father-in-law (yes, you read that right), her sister's prolonged struggle with infertility, the entirety of her relationship with her best friend (and her friend's traumatic death), and her doting new boyfriend. She finds that she is a completely different person with a completely different personality, set of hobbies, likes/dislikes, and almost everything else. She doesn't love who she's become.
I found this to be a really interesting concept, though I struggled to connect with Alice. I didn't really enjoy how the alternate POVs—those of sister and adopted grandmother—were written through letters; it just didn't work for me. I think it would have been better with 3 narrators rather than a narrator and two letter-writers. Still, I enjoyed listening and found it engaging... until the end. I can't really be specific without adding spoilers, but suffice it to say that the struggles that Moriarty has portrayed in some really beautiful ways (divorce, miscommunication, grief, infertility, parenting, moving on) are essentially magicked away. This was really jarring to me. It felt insincere and shortsighted to essentially make light of everything that happened throughout. I wish the book had ended with the nuance that it was filled with throughout.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Infidelity