Book Review: What Alice Forgot

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When Alice Love falls and hits her head on the gym, all her memories from the past ten years disappear. She thinks she’s a twenty-nine year old in love with her husband and expecting her first child. In reality, she’s a soon-to-be divorced thirty-nine year old with three kids. Alice must get to know her thirty-nine year old self and try to figure out how she got to where she is in her life. Of course, everyone in her life has also changed in ten years and she has to get used to that as well.

I loved the pacing of the story and how the author revealed information about the ten year gap in Alice’s memory in bits and pieces. It was suspenseful enough that I could not put the book down but not so suspenseful that I got frustrated. It was also fascinating to read multiple characters perspective on why thirty-nine year old Alice is the way she is. The back cover of my copy says, “Finally, a smart woman’s beach read.” I think that’s a great assessment. Alice is charming, likable and really funny at times like a good chick-lit heroine but this was not a fluffy story – it had some real meat to it.

This book had me thinking about for days after I finished it. What would my self of ten years ago think of my self now – not knowing any of the things that have happened to me over the past ten years? I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun AND thoughtful summer read.

*** As an aside – there is an infertility subplot that was handled really well. As someone who experienced three years of infertility before my first child was born, I’m extra sensitive to that sort of thing. It drives me crazy when books and movies have medically unrealistic infertility stories. The infertility story in this book was medically accurate and emotionally accurate as well. I could completely relate to the character that experiences infertility and I went through many of her emotions myself during my own struggles.

What Alice Forgot comes out today! By it at:
Amazon The Kindle Store Powell’s Books

(I received this book courtesy of the publisher.)