The last fiction book I read was What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. It was a fun, light read, perfect for lazy summer days. What drew me to it was the interesting premise - after an accident, a woman loses 10 years of memories and has to go through her daily life without them, and figure out who she is and how she relates to the people around her.It sounds grim but was actually quite funny and easy to read. It's set in Australia, but could be anywhere really. Alice figures out that she had turned into a not-so-nice person over the 10 years she "lost", and starts to rebuild her relationships with her sister, children, and husband.
The characters are familiar and likeable, for the most part. The most interesting to me was her sister Elizabeth, who narrates part of the book in first person, and details her struggle with infertility, in a very convincing way. Moriarty definitely got that part right.
For the first half I was impatiently holding my breath, waiting for Alice's memories to return and it hindered my enjoyment of the book. Somewhere in there, I just let go of that idea and accepted her state for what it was, and then it got much easier and more pleasant to read. I will admit I was a bit disappointed when she did get her memories back as I quite liked the "new Alice".
Like most "chick lit" books, everything ends well, which was just fine with me. I love a satisfying happy ending with all loose ends neatly tied up. It took me just a few days to read the whole thing.
This book overall was good, but not great. I probably won't keep it to re-read but don't feel like it was time wasted, either. It's nice and meaty at around 400 pages so if you're looking for a vacation book, it's a worthwhile read.
I was compensated for this review by BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are totally my own.
Haha. I totally just got this book on my Nook when another friend recommended it. Her bottom line was a lot like your's, good, but not great and yet decent enough to entertain her for a couple of days.
ReplyDeleteweird! we must be book buddies or something :) I only hear about most of these when BlogHer puts out a request for review!
DeleteI finished this book while in Tucson. And it was entertaining, and ok, but not great. At first I wasn't sure I'd like the structure of the book with other folks narrating, then found I really liked that, and I liked how it all got pulled together in the end. I too like a nice happy ending.
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