Book Review: What Alice Forgot

During my holiday travels, I decided to read the book What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.

This was the book chosen for PBFinger's December book club, and I checked it out at the library before heading out for the holidays.

The main character, Alice, falls and hits her head during spin class at the beginning of the book.  She wakes up thinking she's 29, happily married to her husband Nick, and pregnant with her first child.  Turns out, she's really 39, has three kids, and is going through a nasty divorce.  The book follows Alice's journey to remember the last ten years of her life.

The book is set in Sydney, Australia, which means there are some different words used throughout the book (i.e. "pram" instead of "stroller").  I have an obsession with Australia, so I really enjoyed the setting and learning the Australian terminology.

I found the book to be a little slow-moving.  The first 200 pages were Alice in the hospital or Alice by herself trying to remember things.  I got frustrated because her family didn't fill her in on anything while she was at the hospital.  For example, her sister didn't warn her that she was getting a divorce before Alice called her husband and he proceeded to cuss her out.  I felt so bad for her!  If I was in the same situation, I would DEFINITELY want my family to let me know what was going on.

After she got home and started "meeting" her children and her new friends, I was really wrapped up in the book.  I wanted to find out why she was getting divorced, how she was going to get to know her kids, and if she would ever remember anything from the last ten years.  I was really engrossed in the story and read the last half of the book very quickly.

I don't want to spoil the ending, but I would say that I was relatively satisfied with how the book ended.    I did enjoy this book, but I wouldn't say it's the best book I've read.  The premise is interesting, but I did find parts of the story slow-moving and frustrating.

If you've read this book before, what did you think of it?

How would you deal with forgetting the last 10 years of your life?

I'm starting a novel by Janet Evanovich called Twelve Sharp.  It's part of a series (the first book is One for the Money, which was just a movie starring Katherine Hiegel) and I'm starting in the middle of it.  Books 12-17 were on sale on the iTunes store for $3 each, so hopefully I'll be able to understand and enjoy it!