Review - What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Publisher - Penguin

Pages - 487

Blurb 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 (a gym! She HATES the 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 Review

Alice has had an accident in the gym, not that she remembers, she has fallen and hit her head. As she slowly comes back to conscientiousness she thinks about her pregnancy and if thats why her head hurts. Upon examination it becomes clear that Alice has last 10 years, the last thing she remembers is being pregnant with her first child and being 29 years old. Everyone she knows is different, in physical aspects as well as personality. People are cold towards her, she has three children she cannot remember and her husband is abrupt, rude and showing no concern when she speaks to him. What follows is Alice trying to peace together the last ten years of her life and come to terms with everything she learns.

The story kicks off straight away with the accident happening immediately. You can't help but feel frustrated a tad when reading it as you, the reader are in the same boat as Alice in that your relying on others to tell you what you don't know. Her sister has diary entries dotted throughout the book as well as online blog entries from their older fun next door neighbour whom they consider family. From these you get snippets of additional information as well as an insight into who they are.

The story evokes a few responses, my biggest one was thinking back to where I was ten years ago and how would I feel. You also feel sorry for Alice stumbling along, not knowing whats going on but watching her personal growth as she tries to fit back into a life she has no recollection of is interesting to say the least.

I couldn't put this book down, I had to know what was happening, where Alice would end up, what would she found out and does she ever get her memory back. The few last chapters were a little up and down for me but overall I thought it was a great wee read and would pursue this authors other books, 4/5 for me this time.

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