Thursday, July 4, 2019

What Alice Forgot; Liane Moriarty



AUTHOR:  Liane Moriarty
PUBLISHER:  Berkley
PUB. YEAR: 2009
SETTING: Australia
FORMAT:  - print/my shelves (459 pp)
RATING - 4/5

What Alice Forgot was our book group read for June. Almost everyone, including me, thought it was a nice summer read.

When Alice Love falls off an exercise bike at the gym, she hits her head and ends up with a serious concussion. She wakes up to find that she has lost 10 years of her memory. She thinks that she's 29 and expecting her first child, when in fact, she's 39, in the process of a divorce from Nick and has 3 children: Madison, Tom and Olivia.

Bit by bit the pieces of what happened in Alice's life between 1998 and 2008 are revealed. The story setup was quite clever. I liked that the author kept you wondering what happened in those 10 years and then slowly gave Alice recall or allowed other characters like her sister, Elizabeth to fill in the holes in various ways.  Alice's reactions to hearing about what happened in her past seemed realistic and were often laugh out loud funny, while other parts were quite serious.

Most of us felt the story was unnecessarily long at (459 pp) and that certain story lines were not needed. Overall, I liked this one and plan to try another by this author soon, perhaps: Big Little Lies.

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14 comments:

  1. bermudaonionJuly 4, 2019 at 10:28 PM

    I liked this one too - it made me think.

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  2. Les in OregonJuly 4, 2019 at 10:46 PM

    I loved this one. It was my first by this author and I've only read one other (The Husband's Secret), which was nearly as good. My review for What Alice Forgot is here. It doesn't seem like it's been almost six years since I read it!

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  3. HarveeJuly 5, 2019 at 7:27 AM

    I enjoy books with main characters who lose their memory due to accidents, etc. I really liked this one.

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  4. Brian's Home BlogJuly 5, 2019 at 9:25 AM

    That sounds like a pretty interesting story though.

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  5. Judy KruegerJuly 5, 2019 at 10:35 AM

    Wow, kind of creepy to have lost 10 years of memory.

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  6. SukoJuly 5, 2019 at 5:41 PM

    This book sounds very good. I will keep it in mind.

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  7. MysticaJuly 6, 2019 at 4:37 AM

    I read this and liked it too.

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  8. Phoebe @ My Bookish FriendsJuly 6, 2019 at 6:57 AM

    I read this quite a while ago, but I do remember a bit of the plot and I do remember liking it.

    I never read Big Little Lies, mainly because of all the hype about the tv show, and certain plots that my daughter revealed as she was discussing this show, which I also haven't watched :) Hope you get it though, and like it. This author has a enjoyable writing style.

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  9. thecuecardJuly 6, 2019 at 8:47 PM

    Good review. I think the author writes overly long sometimes b/c Big Little Lies is like that too. While I liked the book, I thought it could've been shorter.

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  10. GregJuly 7, 2019 at 1:22 AM

    I've been meaning to read this for a while- it's the next Moriarty one I want to tackle, actually. The premise sounds very thought provoking, and I love a good memory loss tale.

    Hope you enjoy Big Little Lies! I think it's my favorite of hers so far, of those I've read.

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  11. jenclairJuly 7, 2019 at 8:27 AM

    I liked The Husband's Secret, which I read several years ago. This one sounds interesting--losing those ten years in the midst of a divorce!

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  12. Monica's Bookish LifeJuly 9, 2019 at 11:39 AM

    I've only read The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty, but this book looks like a great summer read and one I'd enjoy.

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  13. Sue JacksonJuly 9, 2019 at 6:38 PM

    Oh, this sounds really good - clever, and I like that it has a sense of humor. Can you believe I have NEVER read a Liane Moriarity novel? I need to catch up!

    Thanks for the review -

    Sue

    2019 Big Book Summer Challenge

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  14. Helen's Book BlogJuly 25, 2019 at 4:45 PM

    I read Big Little Lies by this same author on my vacation and really liked it. I haven't read any of her other books though I am now tempted.

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