Title: What Alice Forgot
Author: Liane Moriarty
Publication: April 24, 2012
Publisher: Berkley Books
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Pages: 488
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child.
So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over — she’s getting divorced, she has three kids and she’s actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how is it that she’s become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes.
Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it’s possible to start over.
REVIEW:
I have been a fan of Liane Moriarty ever since I read one of her other books for a book club. I was hooked on her writing style and how she seemingly catches the reader’s attention within the first few pages to paragraphs of the book. So when I was picking books for my book club and saw this one staring out at me from the TBR pile I knew that I wanted to add this one to the list. I was excited to read it.
Alice thinks she is dreaming. She is floating in the water but can hear chatter around her. When she finally comes too she is laying on the floor of a room but she has no idea where she is. She thinks she is pregnant and thinks that it is 1998 not 2008. She has fallen from her spin bike and hit her head and has lost 10 years of her life. Will her memories come back? As she slowly remembers does she wish that she didn’t remember everything that had happened in her life. This book got three stars because of some of the things that happened in this book. While I did like the book there was enough about it that made me go ooofffhhh this is not ok. Those problems??? All the medical things. As a EMT and someone who has worked healthcare for her whole life I can tell you that everything rubbed me the wrong way. She forgot 10 YEARS of her life and let her go home the next day no questions asked because she told them she suddenly remembered. Who does that? She also gets left with her kids who she doesn’t remember the day she is discharged and then DRIVES them to school the next day. I mean come on..
Don’t get me wrong I did really like this book and will recommend it to people I just was rubbed the wrong way with how she approached some of the things in this book. Onto things that I loved. I loved all the characters. I especially loved “spacy” Alice we will call her. Her inner monologue was spot on and I adored it. I loved that she was always old me and new me blah blah. I thought that she brought the idea that not all kids are equal. I am guilty of it sometimes, and have to remember that my three kids are not the same, they have their own quirks and do not do things the same way that their other siblings do things. I thought that she wrote about divorce and then having the characters work through it together, it wasn’t just a see ya later situation. This book does have some triggers, the biggest one being infertility and infant loss. I cannot wait to read more books by this author, I know for a fact I have several more on my shelves to read.
