Review | What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Author: Liane Moriarty
Published: May 2010 (January 2009)
Publisher: PanMacmillan Australia
Pages: 487
Format: Paperback
Genre: Romance, Women's Fiction
Rating: ★★★★☆

[Show Synopsis]
Synopsis
Alice is twenty-nine. She is whimsical, optimistic and adores sleep, chocolate, her ramshackle new house and her wonderful husband Nick. What's more, she's looking forward to the birth of the 'Sultana' - her first baby.

But now Alice has slipped and hit her head in her step-aerobics class and everyone's telling her she's misplaced the last ten years of her life.

In fact, it would seem that Alice is actually thirty-nine and now she loves schedules, expensive lingerie, caffeine and manicures. She has three children and the honeymoon is well and truly over for her and Nick. In fact, he looks at her like she's his worst enemy. What's more, her beloved sister Elisabeth isn't speaking to her either. And who is this 'Gina' everyone is so carefully trying not to mention?

Alice isn't sure that she likes life ten years on. Every photo is another memory she doesn't have and nothing makes sense. Just how much can happen in a decade? Has she really lost her lovely husband forever?

Review
Not exactly an original idea. Girl has family troubles, she falls down, gets amnesia, and forgets all about any family problems, but it was a pretty good book. It didn't end anything like I expected it to though.

I liked younger Alice more. She was more carefree, maybe a little too much though, and actually listened to her kids instead of assuming she knew everything. Younger Alice kind of reminds me more of my mom. I always felt sorry for the kids who had parents like older Alice.

Alice with amnesia brought life back into everyone around her. It was amazing to see how everyone changed throughout the story. Some changed more than others, but everyone changed in some way and mostly for the better.

There were some things written from Elisabeth and Frannie's perspectives that helped to explain things especially since Alice couldn't remember stuff and they could. I think overall, it added to the story, but some of Elisabeth's entries were kind of wordy, and I would catch myself just glossing over them.

Like I said at the start, I didn't like the ending all that much, but if it had ended like I'd have like it to, it would have been more like a romance novel instead of realistic. The actual ending is a lot more realistic than anything I imagined.

I also didn't like how everything was written out like a letter at the end instead of experiencing it from the character's point of view. It was like the author was just summing up the ending to get it over with. I was happy with what happened in the ending, but not with the way it was written. It left me feeling incomplete.