What Alice Forgot {Review}

“But maybe every life looked wonderful if all you saw was the photo albums.”

-Liane Moriarty, What Alice Forgot

Goodreads Summary

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.

My Thoughts (Spoilers)

I wasn’t expecting to like this book.

Many described it as a chick-lit story. A girl who hits her head and loses her life, then has to sow the pieces together and try to remember everything? I have to admit I rolled my eyes. However, I un-rolled my eyes after I got to the good parts. I felt mentally connected to the book.

The main character, Alice Love, is strict, strong, possibly a wee bit mean. Young Alice Love is awkward, shy, funny, and odd when she’s her younger self. I fell in love with her right away. I laughed out loud to her hilarious comments and I saw everything in her eyes. I could see how she viewed life: a gift and something to enjoy-not to take seriously-. She made me feel young.

Alice’s ex-husband, Nick, is hard to understand at first. Do we like him? Do we hate him? Young Alice is in love with him, so it was easy to like him in the beginning. When Alice got her memory back, he wasn’t so charming. The writing is so strong, that the reader can easily change their view on a certain character with the snap of a finger.

Madison, Alice’s oldest daughter, is Ten years old, however, she seemed much older to me. She didn’t seem young at all. She was very smart for a Ten year old and had a moody teenage feel (which is what Madison is supposed to be like). I loved the way Madison was described. She was not beautiful, she was rather odd-looking is how I pictured her. However, whenever she did smile, which was rare, her whole face lit up and she was gorgeous. I could understand why Madison was sort of a bully. She witnessed her mom’s best friend die, and her parents are going through a rough divorce. When Alice lost her memory, she stopped blaming Madison for the accident and started viewing her with a fresh mind. I think those two characters bonded on a whole new level, and it was absolutely heart-throbbing. Alice always knew the right words to say to Madison.

The other two kids’s personalities are on point. Tom, the middle child, is extremely smart and loves to go on and on about random stuff as well as brag. Olivia, the youngest, is adorable, however, she can be rather annoying at times, just like most children are.

All the characters were Australian so they used words like “mum” and “jumpers”. I absolutely loved that. I’m not sure why, but when I read, picturing the characters speaking in accents is so much fun, especially when the book content actually goes with the accent.

I love this book so much, but the beginning was a struggle to get through. I think it was confusing mainly because Alice was also confused. She had just hit her head and was learning that he was no longer in her twenties and was now almost forty. She had no idea where her husband was, and had to learn that she was going through a divorce. She didn’t know the people around her, and had to find out that she is longer pregnant, has three children, and doesn’t remember any of it. That’s a hard event for a character to go through, and it can be a hard thing to read. When I started out reading the book, the setting didn’t change for a while. She was in the hospital for a huge portion of the beginning, at least, it felt like that. I found myself getting bored. The pages were so big and the text size was so small. I would finish one page, set down the book, and come back to it after a few days. It was torture. I’m so glad that I didn’t give up.

This book is a masterpiece. (Except for the beginning part).

Conclusion

I’m probably going to re-read this book because I want to force myself to like the beginning and because it’s so good!

Rating: 4/4.5 cookies: If only the beginning was different…

I recommend this book to you. I recommend this book to everyone. If you don’t like chick-lits, TOO DARN BAD BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK. You have to see Alice’s perspective on life, you have to understand what happened when she got her memory back, you have to understand why losing her memory was a huge beneficial thing. You have to cry with Elizabeth and Ben, laugh with Barb and Richard (no matter how annoying they are because they are just trying to be good people), hate on Kate and her bratty daughter with the long hair and big mouth, and roll your eyes with Madison.

Whoops, got a little carried away.