Free Downloads What Alice Forgot
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Husband's Secret... A “cheerfully engaging”* novel for anyone who’s ever asked herself, “How did I get here?”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… *Kirkus Reviews
Paperback: 488 pages
Publisher: Berkley Books; Reprint edition (April 24, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0425247449
ISBN-13: 978-0425247440
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6,955 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #12 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Australia & Oceania #63 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Psychological Thrillers #65 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Domestic Life
What if you could not remember the last 10 years of your life? Pregnancies and births, marriages and deaths, friends and enemies? This is what happens to Alice, who after a fall, wakes up believing that she is 29 years old, happily married, and due to have her first baby soon. Reality is, that she is closer to 40, with 3 children and a failing marriage. So begins the story of Alice as she has finds out what has happened in the past 10 years of her life from those who are around her, and discovers that the Alice of 29 years had morphed into a very strong, capable mother, with opinions and actions that don't always endear her to those around her. Can past wrongs be undone? Will she come out of this a better person?This book was highly entertaining, with a story that also makes you think about what your own last 10 years have been like (and all the events that took place in those years). The character of Alice is very interesting and well developed, as is all the other people in the story, especially her sister, Elisabeth and grandmother Frannie.I kept reading this book, not wanting to put it down as I was so engrossed to see how it would all turn out - it holds your interest the whole time, and despite it being an out of the ordinary case of amnesia, it still comes across as a believable story line, handled very well by this author.Enjoyable and fun read.
What Alice Forgot is very similar to Sophie Kinsella's tale Remember Me?, but Remember Me? is a much lighter affair (it's Sophie Kinsella after all) and What Alice Forgot is a far deeper (and longer) tale. That's no bad thing, though, as I loved both books and they both suit my tastes. Because 29-year-old Alice believes that she's happily married and pregnant with her first child, and also that she and her sister Elisabeth are close, it comes as a series of shocks to her when she realises she has three actual children and that not only does she not remember having them, she doesn't remember them period. To then learn herself and Nick, her husband, are on the brink of divorce and also that Alice and Elisabeth are as close as the North and South pole, was quite sad to read - to believe you're 29 and to suddenly age 10 years must be a pretty scary thing and Liane Moriarty managed to bring across Alice's anguish perfectly. To have three children and not even know who they are was obviously a little controversial - how can she not know her kids? - but that's the power of amnesia, it makes you forget the most simple (and important) things.What really made the book for me though was Alice's realisation that her 39-year-old self wasn't a nice person at all. She was nothing like the 29-year-old free spirit, in fact she was the total opposite. So it was easy to see how Alice and Nick's relationship disintegrated. Alice turned into a total control freak, it seemed, and it just tore them apart. The ever-mysterious Gina certainly didn't help Nick and Alice's marriage and I was stunned at just how ferocious Nick was the first time he and Alice talked after her accident. It was clear that something had gone seriously wrong in Alice's life, something that caused her to become uptight, to argue with her husband and to practically lose contact with her beloved sister. All is revealed but not quickly. No where near quicky, in fact. A flashback or a loose mention of a name awakens something in Alice's memory and so we learn a tid-bit of Alice's life as it is now but never enough to truly hold on to. It was a very clever way of letting us all know what had happened and it certainly kept me reading.The book is told in third-person, which I wasn't expecting, but it works well so it wasn't a problem. It's all from Alice's point of view, too. But as well as the usual narrative, there are also diary/journal type entries from Elisabeth, which confused me at first, but it soon makes sense, as well as blog entries from Frannie. All three women are experiencing troubles, some more serious than others and it was interesting to get their take on things. I particularly enjoyed Elisabeth's diary entries, they were insightful. Overall I really loved What Alice Forgot, it is certainly one of the better amnesia stories out there and I hugely enjoyed all of the 496 pages. I hugely recommend you pick this one up, as you won't regret it.
What a lovely book - enjoyable to read, yet it sneaks up on you to make you really think about your own life. It's hard to put down; I was so interested in finding out what would happen when Alice's memory returned. Moriarty does a great job at feeding the reader tidbits of information as the story progresses, keeping the reader engaged. But the real strength of the book it that it leads one to think about one's own life: what would the me of 10 years ago (or 20 or 30 years?) think of the me now? How do marriages that begin so absolutely lovely end up with people hating one another? What if just one of the couple can look at the other with eyes from the start of the relationship? How can we find a way to accept and forgive each other? And, how can the old me and current me integrate to find the best of each? So, I loved this book and would recommend it to everyone.
Picked this book up while on vacation in England and actually skipped sightseeing one day to stay at the hotel and finish reading it. Yeah, it was that good! I'm an avid reader and a bit hard to please. I can usually figure out a plot pretty quick. But this book threw me for some loops and kept me guessing. I loved the way it was told, especially the sister's letters to her doctor as they gradually tell a story of their own about what the sister has been going through. A previous reviewer said it was reminiscent of Sophie Kinsella's Remember Me - yes, it was. However, I thought this book was much better. The characters were more complex and the story line was better. All my 'reading' friends have borrowed it now and have all loved it also. I also loved the ending. It was perfect.
I felt like this book should have been about 100 pages shorter. Alice's story is very compelling, but then we are introduced to two other narratives (the sister and the grandmother) and in my opinion these really slowed the pace of the book. They are told using the devices of letters and journal entries (ugh) and had the feel of "this is the author telling the story" instead of the way a letter would really be written. The grandmother's story in particular I thought could have been cut completely.That said, the author did a good job with authentic details and dialogue, and I wanted to keep reading to find out how the ending would be resolved. Three and a half stars.
Loved this book! It is a great concept, well executed. The only reason I am not giving it 5 stars is because Alice's story (in 3rd person) is occasionally interrupted by narratives from two minor characters about their own side stories. I found them distracting. I would have much prefered to stick with Alice's perspective.
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