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What Alice Forgot

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 · rating details · 17,426 ratings · 3,041 reviews

Remember the woman you used to be ...

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 l...more

Paperback, 487 pages

Published May 2010 by PanMacmillan Australia (first published 2009)

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Apr 28, 2013 Kristi rated it 5 of 5 stars

If I were to forget the last ten years of my life, and wake up with no memory of those ten years.....what would I regret? What would surprise me? What would make me proud? Which relationships have changed for the better, which ones have changed for the worst? This book really made me think. Have I evolved into the person, wife, and mother that I envisioned ten years ago. My poor husband had to listen to my thoughts almost chapter by chapter. He is such a good sport! I liked so much about this bo...more

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Jul 08, 2011 Maja rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, huge-disappointment, creepy-love-triangle, incredibly-stupid-choices, moments-of-great-frustration, superbitch, reviewed-in-2011

487 pages of pure torture!
What Alice Forgot was not at all what I expected. That should teach me never to read a book that hasn’t been rated by at least one of my trusted friends. You see, I thought this would be a well written, intelligent, heartwarming story about a woman who loses ten years of her life, but finds some other, maybe even more valuable things instead. Obviously, I was very wrong. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t normally mind reading the Aussie version of a Maeve Binchy novel, but I DI...more 487 pages of pure torture!
What Alice Forgot was not at all what I expected. That should teach me never to read a book that hasn’t been rated by at least one of my trusted friends. You see, I thought this would be a well written, intelligent, heartwarming story about a woman who loses ten years of her life, but finds some other, maybe even more valuable things instead. Obviously, I was very wrong. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t normally mind reading the Aussie version of a Maeve Binchy novel, but I DID mind reading a boring Aussie version of Tara Road.

In the beginning of What Alice Forgot, Alice is lying on the gym floor (Gym?! What's she doing in a gym? She hates that sort of thing!), surrounded by strange people who are asking all kinds of silly questions. The whole situation is pretty surreal since Alice has no idea how she got there in the first place! However, it takes more than that to upset her these days: she is only 29, she has a new house, an amazing sister who also happens to be her best friend, a baby on the way and a husband who tells her things like: “Don’t be ridiculous, you goose, you know I’m bloody besotted with you.” when she’s feeling insecure. One of them will surely arrive soon to take care of her. Now, if only these people around her would stop acting like they know her! The person they’re talking about can’t be Alice, because Alice is not having her 40th birthday party in a few days, she is not obsessed with exercise, she doesn’t have three children and she most certainly isn’t getting a divorce any time soon! Why would she? She and Nick are so happy together!
Only half an hour later she’s in a hospital, her sister refuses to answer her calls, Nick is yelling at her from Portugal and a strange boy is calling her Mum. She has carelessly misplaced a decade of her life!

Sounds interesting, right? Yes, I thought so, too. Maybe it would have been if Liane Moriarty knew when to stop. 250 pages would have been more than enough for this story, the other 237 were completely unnecessary. I could go into details, but the thought of wasting another minute on this gives me a headache.
I was just checking the other ratings for this book. It has 4.02 average rating so I guess that makes me the odd one out for wanting to give it one star. I only added the other one for those few laughs Moriarty managed to squeeze out of me.

My recommendation: Run for your lives!
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Jun 26, 2011 Janina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Janina by: Nomes

Shelves: chicklit, covers-i-love, read-in-2011, comfort-reads, given-away, from-down-under, romance, adult-fiction, contemporary

This book and I just had a very lovely afternoon together. Lying in the sun reading ... there's nothing better.

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Jul 12, 2011 Arlene rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Arlene by: Street Corner Booker Tour - Tina

Shelves: read-2011, aussie-books, gifted-to-me, adult

Rating Clarification
First half of the book: 2.5 Stars
Second half of the book: Solid 4 Stars
Epilogue: Undeniably 5 Stars

First off, What Alice Forgot is so different from my normally preferred genres. This adult fiction covers a broad array of topics that frankly scare the shiz out of me, including divorce, death, infertility and a complete breakdown of the family unit. If I would have known the heavy topics this book grappled with, I might have called a pass, but in the end I’m glad I gave this A...more Rating Clarification
First half of the book: 2.5 Stars
Second half of the book: Solid 4 Stars
Epilogue: Undeniably 5 Stars

First off, What Alice Forgot is so different from my normally preferred genres. This adult fiction covers a broad array of topics that frankly scare the shiz out of me, including divorce, death, infertility and a complete breakdown of the family unit. If I would have known the heavy topics this book grappled with, I might have called a pass, but in the end I’m glad I gave this Aussie book a chance. Well worth it!

As you can tell from my Rating Clarification, the first part of the book is a bit more difficult to get through IMHO, but once the story hits mid stride, I fell into Alice’s journey and the cadence of the storytelling had me hypnotized. I’m so glad I stuck with this book to the end, because it was definitely a conclusion that left me hopeful and encouraged after the long, challenging journey that Alice went through to get her memory back.

The writing is clever as it covers the events in the third person, but intermittently includes journal entries and letters written by the MC’s sister, Elisabeth, and her adopted grandmother, Frannie, which do a great job of offering a different perspective. One of the book credits state this story is a romantic comedy and at times I asked myself, “Are they serious?” What’s so funny and comedic about Alice’s situation? But then somewhere along the line Alice begins to fall into her own and I relaxed right along with her to eventually realize, it’s all going to be just fine.

About the book: On a typical hectic day for Alice, she wakes up from a head injury to find that she’s lost the last ten years of her memory. The current year is 2008, but the last she can remember is dated back to 1998. In those ten years, she finds her marriage is in the middle of a messy divorce, she’s had three children all with a “unique” style about them, friends she once had have drifted apart and others have died. But most importantly, as she begins to see her older self through a different lens, she realizes, she’s not that happy with who she’s become.

This story is truly a journey of self revelation as it forces you to look at yourself from a different perspective to see who you’ve become and what you’ve chosen to do with your life. It made me ask myself - Would my younger self like what I’ve become today? Do I still take the time to enjoy life and the people that I love? Have I become so caught up in the fast pace of every day that I no longer stop to realize what’s important to me and who I need to embrace? All very deep seeded emotional considerations that I will ponder for quite some time. Great book that should NOT be missed.

Thank you to Tina for lending me this great read. Crystal, you’re next. Hope you enjoy. :)
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Dec 25, 2012 Skylar Burris rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who has been married more than ten years

Shelves: general-fiction, romance

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I found this to be a thought-provoking book. It highlighted just how complex are the factors that contribute to the dissolution of a marriage, how easy it is to become caught up in the fixation on the negative, how terribly difficult it is to forgive ("[Forgivenss] was such a lovely, generous idea when it wasn't linked to something awful that needed forgiving."), and how the pain we experience forms our characters ("It wasn't just that her memories of the last ten years were back. It was that he...more I found this to be a thought-provoking book. It highlighted just how complex are the factors that contribute to the dissolution of a marriage, how easy it is to become caught up in the fixation on the negative, how terribly difficult it is to forgive ("[Forgivenss] was such a lovely, generous idea when it wasn't linked to something awful that needed forgiving."), and how the pain we experience forms our characters ("It wasn't just that her memories of the last ten years were back. It was that her true self, as formed by those ten years, was back. As seductive as it might have been to erase the grief and pain of the last ten years, it was also a lie."). The pain we experience forms our characters, and this books asks—what if we really could forget that pain?

But we can't forget it, except in a fantasy like this novel; that pain has left its mark, and only time can ease it, allowing a new character to form yet again—at best, we can achieve a balance, but how do we even do that? Alice is able to do it only with a sudden loss and recovery of memory, but it makes one think about achieving that difficult balance of perspective in real life. ("Now it seemed like she could twist the lens of her life and see it from two entirely different perspectives. The perspective of her younger….sillier innocent self. And the older, wiser, more cynical and sensible self.")

What most impressed me about this book is that I think it "gets" marriage in a way most fiction doesn't. Marriage isn't about the rightness of the match itself, or about the quality of the person we marry, but about the *time in*, and the willingness to *put* that time in. "It was never so much that Dominick was wrong for her and that Nick was right. She may have had a perfectly happy life with Dominick. But Nick was Nick…They could look at an old photo together and travel back in time to the same place…" Marriage cannot be simply put asunder, because of the tangled threads ("How strange [divorce] was. Wouldn't it be a lot less messy if everyone just stayed with the people they married in the first place?"). Time binds: "Each memory, good and bad, was another invisible thread that bound them together, even when they were foolishly thinking they could lead separate lives." It's not a romantic view of marriage, but nor is it a cynical one, and it seems to me a very true one. There is actually something quite beautiful in it: "Early love is exciting and exhilarating…Anyone can love like that. But love after three children, after separation and a near-divorce, after you've hurt each other and forgiven each other, bored each other and surprised each other, after you've seen the worst and the best—well, that sort of love is ineffable. It deserves its own word."

I could have done without the Frannie subplot and Mr. Mustache which seemed to be inserted solely to add spacing to the main storyline, and I found Elisabeth writing to her psychologist to be an odd an unbelievable narrative device (as were Frannie's letters to a long dead fiancé), and of course as many have pointed out, amnesia doesn't work like that. But when I put these quibbles aside, and suspend my disbelief, I found the book very well worth reading.
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Jun 01, 2011 ~Tina~ rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to ~Tina~ by: First-Read winner

Shelves: first-reads, own, contemporary, adults, read-2011

Aussie Book challenge 2011 #7

What Alice Forget, tells the story of a women who thinks it's the year 1998, about to have her first child and is happily married to her husband, Nick. But a bump on the noggin changed all that....
What would you do if you lost 10 years of your life and all the wonderful moments you were looking forward to already happened, but you don't remember? How would you feel waking up to emotions that were still very much alive in your heart and thoughts, only for the true rea...more

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Jan 11, 2012 Zarina rated it 4 of 5 stars

What Alice Forgot is a gripping novel about a woman who after an accident forgets the last ten years of her life. Ten years in which she changes as a person, her marriage deteriorates, friends leave and others come into her life. And needless to say she's in for somewhat of a shock when she eventually realises that she isn't in fact pregnant of her first baby, like she believes she is, but already has three school-bound children.

Author Liane Moriarty realistically depicts the confusing time Ali...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Tamara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club-the-glg, chic-lit, kindle, 2011

Interesting side note, this was my first time reading a book by an Australian author within the first few pages, I’d mistaken Ms.Moriarty for an English author. That doesn’t really matter, but I thought it was interesting to note that tidbit. Getting back on topic, this book was very good. It had a somewhat slow start, but once Alice left the hospital, the rollercoaster ride really began. This book contained some very deep situations and prompted me to stop and think “What if I forgot 10 years o...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Jen A. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, 2012

Poor Alice... she bumped her head and lost the past 10 years of her life! If you suddenly found yourself living in 2012 but thinking it was 2002, how would you react? Would you like yourself? Would you agree with the choices you've made, the friends you've cultivated, the person you married, the children you've raised?

What Alice Forgot comes from inside the head of Alice, an about-to-turn-40-year-old who suddenly thinks she's 14 weeks pregnant and about to turn 30. Whoops! Oh yes, and since this...more Poor Alice... she bumped her head and lost the past 10 years of her life! If you suddenly found yourself living in 2012 but thinking it was 2002, how would you react? Would you like yourself? Would you agree with the choices you've made, the friends you've cultivated, the person you married, the children you've raised?

What Alice Forgot comes from inside the head of Alice, an about-to-turn-40-year-old who suddenly thinks she's 14 weeks pregnant and about to turn 30. Whoops! Oh yes, and since this was her first pregnancy, she doesn't remember having or raising her three children, or how her marriage came to divorce's doorstep. Whoops!

What's interesting is what 30-year-old Alice thinks about 40-year-old Alice. The changes that she makes because she's essentially a different person, how she's able to listen better without years of resentment and examples and assumptions blocking out the words. How differently paced her young self is compared to her old self.

What Alice Forgot is a clever little study on how 10 years can change a person, disguised as a sort of mystery novel as Alice pursues her memories and slowly managed to peel back the layers of who she's become and (perhaps more importantly, WHY).

It was clever of Moriarty to include letters from Frannie (Alice's "adopted" grandmother) to her dead ex-fiance, and also to include letters from Elizabeth (Alice's sister who's having trouble keeping her pregnancies) to her counselor. These two very different perspectives help us to understand Elizabeth as others view her, which is important because when you get married, have kids, start shuttling them around to activities and school, etc., your personal life sort of implodes. Add in your slow change in priorities from others who used to be in your life (Fertiles and Infertiles), and then stir in some new friends and confidants. What the heck, have an absent husband too. POOF! There you have the makings of evolution: a completely different person emerges from these experiences.

What Alice Forgot didn't rely on the old "love makes the world go 'round" adage, instead perhaps asking you to understand that a successful marriage is based on a lot of things -- perhaps one of those things even being shared experiences. A relatively different tune in a world fascinated with L-O-V-E.

I rather liked watching Alice struggle to understand herself, and to cope with the now close memory of how 30-year-old Alice thought and worked when she finally gets her memories back and is able to be 40-year-old Alice again. Somehow, Moriarty keeps Alice from seeming wishy-washy (a blessing), and instead takes you on a journey through time and introspection. A good read.(less)

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Jan 15, 2012 Liane rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favourites

Alice Love is a 39-year-old woman who thinks that she's 29 because she hit her head in the gym whilst doing her aerobic step class which she used to do with her bestfriend whom she doesn't remember. Alice Love lost 10 years worth of memory and doesn't know who her children are, she is not also aware that she is going through a bitter divorce with her husband because she thinks that she is still pregnant with her now 9 years old daughter and that she and her husband is still madly in love with ea...more

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Dec 06, 2011 Lai Valenzuela rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 discover...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Kitti rated it 5 of 5 stars

I truly enjoyed this book.....Alice and I have a lot in common though. She is a 39 year old mother that is busy, busy, busy. Volunteering at school, keeping up with household chores, birthday parties, homework, piano, sports, etc. She hits her head and looses the last 10 years of her memory....back to before she had kids and times were simpler. Nice book that made me look at my life and the importance of finding time for what really matters. A definite reccomend!

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Aug 30, 2011 Beth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

This book had me captivated from the first chapter. I felt drawn in and personally invested in each of the characters, even the ones I didn't like. For several nights in a row, I stayed up until midnight just to read one (or five) more chapters.

The pace is typical of a 'whodunit' mystery, although the mystery is not a murder, but the ten years that Alice forgets, and how she transitioned from a wide-eyed twenty nine year old to her brisk and busy thirty nine year old self.

This book had me aski...more

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Jun 29, 2012 L3nda rated it 5 of 5 stars

wow. sad, funny, interesting, realistic. just plain lovely. There was just one thing i would have changed.. or hoped would happen haha. (Side Note: I was under the impression it was going to be a Christian book because of the lists it appeared on but it is not for any of you under that impression) Great book!

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Mar 23, 2012 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed this book. It was interesting that as the story unfolded & Alice gradually got random memories back, my perspective changed about who was at fault in each situation. I love the exploration of memories, how people remember the same situation differently and how precious they became to Alice by the end of the story.
One of the things that resonated with me is the idea that you have to make your marriage last in spite of the fact that you have children together. Not every day f...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Bookreaderljh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2013

How do our memories shape us? Does our personality make our lives and ultimately our memories or is our personality built day by day through the memories we add to throughout time? This book explores that thought. Where would be if suddenly we forgot a decade of our life. How would we know where we came from? It is rather a disturbing thought but I really liked how this author explored how integral memory is to our life and how we live it. I can't imagine how scary it would be to forget your own...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Ashley Thompson rated it 1 of 5 stars

The reviews I read before reading this book made it sound fast-paced, engaging and funny. After a grammar error near the beginning, I felt tempted to just close it. (That sounds judgemental, I know, but I have a hard time reading books with errors, unless it's just a typo or two.) Ultimately, I found the book to be slow, boring, and trite. The writing sounded as if it were written for children, although the storyline wouldn't have suited that age group, obviously. (I absolutely love children's l...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Kevin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's really a 3-1/2 star book.

I found this on my phone (shared apple account) so after ignoring it for a few months, I decided to give it a read. It got me right away.

I have a thing for stories where the main character is placed in a blind situation and find they have previously unknown skills or secrets they need to figure out. The Borne Identity. The Paycheck. The Minority Report. Even the first Harry Potter book.

Besides the mystery, the book is a commentary on how awfully messy marriage is an...more

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Mar 27, 2013 Lígia Bibliomigalhas rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Apesar da sinopse ter sido o ponto de partida para a vontade de ler este livro, a cada capítulo que ia lendo percebia que afinal o livro era ainda mais rico do que a sinopse deixa entrever. Não temos apenas Alice a reflectir sobre a sua vida (ou e tentar recuperar a melhor parte de si), temos também capítulos pela voz da irmã e os deliciosos apontamentos bloguísticos da avó "emprestada" de Alice.
Desengane-se quem acha que se trata de um livro pesado sobre a amnésia e a perda da identidade. Nada...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Pat Wootton rated it 4 of 5 stars

On the surface, What Alice Forgot may seem to have the fixings of classic chicklit: Alice, a 39-year-old married woman, falls while in a step aerobics class, hits her head and wakes up having forgotten the last 10 years of her life.

She remembers herself as a young newlywed, madly in love, with children but a distant thought. In actuality, she is 39, has three children, and is embroiled in a bitter divorce. The sister Alice was once so close to has become angry and resentful and their relationshi...more On the surface, What Alice Forgot may seem to have the fixings of classic chicklit: Alice, a 39-year-old married woman, falls while in a step aerobics class, hits her head and wakes up having forgotten the last 10 years of her life.

She remembers herself as a young newlywed, madly in love, with children but a distant thought. In actuality, she is 39, has three children, and is embroiled in a bitter divorce. The sister Alice was once so close to has become angry and resentful and their relationship seems strained at best. Her dowdy widowed mother is now a salsa teacher, wearing clothes 20 years too young and enjoying her new marriage to Alice's soon-to-be-ex-husband's father.

Alice's realization that things are not what they once were makes her confront the reality that she is not who she once was - and, in fact, that she may not like who she has become. Couple that with the fact that Alice cannot remember her children - not their births, their names, their faces...

The book reaches out of the chicklit realm as it thoughtfully and often humorously explores what happens when we lose our memories - how easy it is to repair relationships that were once so damaged, when you can forget the hurt you have caused each other in your history. However, it also looks at what we lose when we lose retrospect, and how that can affect the people around us. Can we really forget our own children? Can life really go from smelling like roses to divorce, infertility and death in a matter of just ten years?

The take-away message could be seen as one of perspective: the next time you are looking around at your life wondering, "How did I get here?", cast your mind to 10 years ago and consider what kind of person you have become versus what you once were. It may not be so simple to get back to that point, but putting the steps in place to reconcile your old and new selves may be just what's needed to do damage repair in the present. It is this kind of philosophical message that really takes What Alice Forgot to a new level and has readers turning page after page to see how it all ends up.(less)

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Jan 23, 2013 Carissa Rogers rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: top-10-favorite

I don't give out a lot of 5 stars.

THIS. Was worth it. Spoke to me on several levels. In fact parts were painful to read since it felt like Moriarty was describing my life, and I didn't like what I saw? I think you can describe this as Chick-Lit... which I normally wouldn't be thrilled to read, but dang. I LOVED this book for so many reasons.

I'm 39, I have 3 kids, my husband is in the middle of the crazy part of his career and travels a TON, I can't seem to say no to anything--volunteering at s...more

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Jan 13, 2013 Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn’t like this one as well as The Hypnotist’s Love Story, though the writing style is the same – engaging, interesting characters with a seemingly true-to-life inner dialogue going on. In fact, I read almost the entire book in about three days.

The basic plot element, that Alice loses her memory, is given away in the title so I’m not spoiling anything there. After losing her memory, Alice has to reconcile the state of her current life with the “self” of many years ago existing in it. Central...more I didn’t like this one as well as The Hypnotist’s Love Story, though the writing style is the same – engaging, interesting characters with a seemingly true-to-life inner dialogue going on. In fact, I read almost the entire book in about three days.

The basic plot element, that Alice loses her memory, is given away in the title so I’m not spoiling anything there. After losing her memory, Alice has to reconcile the state of her current life with the “self” of many years ago existing in it. Central to this is her relationship with her sister and her husband. It is riveting.

However, the book was too long. First, there was an unnecessary side-story of Alice’s adopted Grandmother’s love letters to her deceased fiancé. I didn’t think it added much, if anything, to the story, and just served to drag out the main plot.

The story just falls apart at the end in my opinion. From here, spoiler alert! you have been warned.

Alice finally gets her memory back, and we find out just where things went wrong in her marriage. She had changed, and her husband Nick had changed. Having kids and a career changed them. Relationships with others changed them. And they are now bitter towards one another. When this happens on page 384, one thinks: how could this possibly get resolved in the remaining pages? Well, it can’t, really.

Moriarty just zips through Alice remembering the last 10 years of her life. And that’s okay. It makes sense, and Alice decides to go through with the divorce, and they end up being amicable. It’s a satisfying enough ending. Then Moriarty just ruins it with a sappy Epilogue in which suddenly Alice and Nick are back together.

It’s just totally ridiculous and unbelievable, after all that they have been through, after the building up of years of resentment and bitterness, after each of them has moved on to new partners and even living with the new partner, that they would get back together again. If this was the point of the novel, I think Moriarty should have spent another 150 pages chronicling the process of Nick and Alice falling in love again. Which she could have done if she would have cut some of the detritus out of the first 400 pages. (less)

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Jan 08, 2013 Auntjenny rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book is very plot-driven, i.e. do Alice and Nick stay together?, and I'm not very patient. So, I skimmed quite a bit, although I did enjoy it.

Things I liked: descriptions of life before and after children. Made me a little nostalgic for my marriage pre-kids-- and also helped me appreciate life with kids. The author obviously has children of her own-- the kids she wrote about were very realistic.

A couple of descriptions really stood out to me: 1) Sitting at a dinner table with 3 tired childr...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars

The protagonist, Alice Love, is a twenty-nine-year-old woman about to have her first child. She is in the beginning stages of a home remodel project with her husband and love of her life, Nick. Alice is a rather carefree soul and is loving her new adult life.

The only thing she knows next is waking up on the gym floor in workout gear after collapsing in a spin class. She goes to the hospital and discovers all her fairy tale dreams shattered over the course of ten years. Yes, Alice lost her memory...more The protagonist, Alice Love, is a twenty-nine-year-old woman about to have her first child. She is in the beginning stages of a home remodel project with her husband and love of her life, Nick. Alice is a rather carefree soul and is loving her new adult life.

The only thing she knows next is waking up on the gym floor in workout gear after collapsing in a spin class. She goes to the hospital and discovers all her fairy tale dreams shattered over the course of ten years. Yes, Alice lost her memory for the past ten years and is now 39 years old.

I was intrigued by the synopsis because I wondered what someone would go through and experience if they couldn’t remember ten years of their life. A few chapters into the book, I realized this was an Australian novel, with all the lingo and cultural differences. Alice lives in the suburbs of Sydney.

When Alice comes to at 39, she realizes she has three kids, is getting a divorce(!), works out regularly and is one of those very involved moms at the school. Nonetheless, she is dating the principal of her kids’ school! Many aspects of her 39-year-old life don’t seem like reality to Alice. She doesn’t know how it got so bad with her separated husband, she rarely speaks to her sister and Alice’s mother is dating someone new and very unlike her mother.

(P.S. Alice’s children sound adorable – I wish I could see them portrayed in a movie!)

Over the course of the novel, Alice tries to piece back her ten years’ worth of memories. She tries to remember having her children, her love life and the friendship of a very good friend, Gina. Gina is mentioned often in Alice’s past, yet Alice doesn’t remember her. Gina was the neighbor who moved across the street and influenced Alice’s life in many ways. The memory of an affair in the laundry room, a personal trainer and an overcome of grief at a nearby street are some hauntings that help Alice gain her memory back. A small whiff of a memory would ebb and flow in Alice’s min as she tried to recall the events of the past ten years.

I became anxiety-ridden when Alice had to host events she planned in prior that do not match Alice’s 29-year-old character at all. A class parent cocktail party? A fundraiser to break the world record for baking the largest meringue ? This is not true to her at all! And how could her relationship get so sour? It seems kind of sad and pathetic watching Alice pine for her old husband. I also found it kind of romantic as well. Her family, friends and husband himself promise Alice that once she gained her full memory back, she would remember why she was getting a divorce and feel ok with it. I was surprised by her reaction to her life when she gained her memories back.

The novel is told in the third person, with additional diary entries by Alice’s sister Elisabeth as she tells her side of the story. I appreciate reading other sides of the story, but I could have done without these journal entries. Letters from Frannie, Alice’s adopted grandmother, are also peppered in, which I could have also done without.

I’m not sure I enjoyed the ending of the novel. I didn’t like how Alice’s personality changed so much over ten years. It scares me for what I will experience ten years from now. Will my personality and character be drastically different? I really, really hope not.

One nice spot in the ending was when the author wrote about the benefit of Alice losing her memory for a period of time. When the back-to-normal 39-year-old Alice was bushing rushing to appointments and scheduling events, “a voice would whisper in her head: Relax.” I think that is a crucial point for all type A-ers out there like me. As we grow up and try to take care of our loved ones and schedule our lives, it’s important to relax. Enjoying the little things in life, like the young Alice did, is something that I want to hold onto as I age. The Young Alice did have a point in her adult life.

What Alice Forgot was a fun read. The novel had a very different story line and theme then most novels I read. Thanks Julie for hosting the virtual book club!(less)

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Dec 23, 2012 Tracy Mcdowell rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Women who like romance

Recommended to Tracy by: Mother's book club

Alice is a curious name choice don't you think? A grown woman slipping off into the wonderland of her past, guiding us through love and loss certainly plays into a dreamy, half present, wide eyed wonderland.
Laine Moriarty dreamt up a captivating plot. Unlike Carroll her situation is easily understood and more personal and relatable for an older audience. The contrast between young Alice and older Alice created a beautiful duality of hating and loving one charter all at the same time. By posing...more Alice is a curious name choice don't you think? A grown woman slipping off into the wonderland of her past, guiding us through love and loss certainly plays into a dreamy, half present, wide eyed wonderland.
Laine Moriarty dreamt up a captivating plot. Unlike Carroll her situation is easily understood and more personal and relatable for an older audience. The contrast between young Alice and older Alice created a beautiful duality of hating and loving one charter all at the same time. By posing as both the protagonist and her own personal antagonist Moriarty was able to explore narrating in a new fresh light. The two Alice's had very distinct voices which were punctuated by Moriaty's aptly chosen syntax, which not only imprinted images of a soft wholesome Alice versus a fit, sharp, coffee addicted older Alice, but actually left me tense and clutching my jaw, waiting to hear from the young whimsically, excited, trusting Alice.

Although most novels plot's, like this one, center on love, Moriarty does not tip into the trite, sappy side. Her sweet stories in the initial chapters, though long, were necessary to cement a tender, nuanced filled love that left us rooting for Alice and Nick. Additionally, Moriarty baffles me with her ability to take a cliche message, like never loose site of your childhood, and present it in a fascinating, non-intrusive way. I appreciated her highlighting the joys of youth by having Alice wake up as she is about to bring a new life to the world, re-igniting the childish innocence and wonderment at the world.

The children, while charming felt over developed and did not move or enchante the plot. For instance, sweet Olivia never became anything other then her charming stereotype. It would have been nice to know if we were supposed to become invested in the children, or annoyed at there run of the mill suburban existence. Another set of characters --- and --- also irked me. - It may just be me, but it felt like a very typical set up sweet grandma verses in contrast to a crazy grandma. Was the purpose of --- to foreshadow the future happiness that awaits Nick and Alice? Because these characters seemed to over the top and distracting instead of amusing.

A subplot that did enscare me was Gina. She colored the novel, giving it an air of suspense and vivacity. The constant guessing game of is she cheating with Nick, was she crazy, what happened and why was everyone avoiding the subject, definitely kept the polt moving and pages turning. Unlike Grandma's ---- letters to her dead fiance. Which, though touching and well intended, left me self skipping over the sections so I did not have to hear the the slow build of and typical initial resistance to another relationship. Where as sister --- letters at least added a little bit of humor. They did on the other had seem a bit obvious in there purpose and no one wants to hear that many complaints, even if they are warranted.

Loss is approached respectfully in What Alice Forgot. There are a lot of losses to wrap your head around and leave you thinking about on top of her obvious memory loss. Children coping with loosing a mother for a while, a husband lossing his marriage, --- constant suffering as she losses potential child after potential child, Grandma's lost years, and finally the hardest loss to deal with death.

The simple message that love can heal all wounds was rewarding and, in my opinion well earned. What Alice Forgot will not be quickly forgotten.

Other thoughts
- I liked how --- was introduced playing with his child. We are immediately poised to dislike this man coming into Alice's life and getting in the way of the Nick and Alice reunion and his sweet interaction humanizes him.
- The moments spent on the beach were not only beautifully depicted, but warm and hope filled as they watch the whale family united.
- I'm not sure if Moriaty intended to comment on suburbia and it's pretentious plasticity or if it was just easier to contrast a young Alice with a typical soccer Mom.
- I liked the lions. They added character. (less)

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Dec 09, 2012 Nic rated it 4 of 5 stars

Alice Love is 29 and expecting her first child. She's madly in love with her husband, Nick and they're renovating their dream house. Only this was all 10 years ago. Alice fell at her step class and banged her head and has lost the last 10 years. She has no memory of her 3 children and is shocked to discover that she and Nick are headed for divorce. What on earth has happened over the past 10 years to get her to this point? And when she remembers, will she want to go back to life with Nick or wil...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Heather McKeon rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was our Nov book club book, and I really enjoyed it. I got pulled into Alice's world quickly and easily. There was a whole subplot about miscarriages that you would never know about from reading the book jacket - that felt a little too close to home for me. It's kind of weird reading a book knowing that everyone in your book club will be thinking about you when they read it. I mean Elisabeth is a whole, whole lot crazier than me (I hope!). But some of her story, could have been my journal....more

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Nov 13, 2012 Kristin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I give "What Alice Forgot" between 3.5 and 4 stars. This might be one of those books you like more or less depending upon how much you relate to the main character. And while I don't have amnesia and I'm not headed for a divorce, I am a woman in my early forties with three kids who has wondered, multiple times, what her late-20s self would think of her life now.

Like Alice, I live in a world populated by gym-going, coffee-drinking, school-volunteering, stay-at-home moms (although the ones I inte...more

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Nov 12, 2012 Alyce (At Home With Books) rated it 4 of 5 stars

What Alice Forgot is so much more than a run of the mill “girl hits head and gets amnesia” book. When Alice wakes up after hitting her head at the gym she is sure that she is twenty-nine and pregnant. So you can imagine her surprise when she finds out that she’s thirty-nine, has three kids, and her life is far more complicated than she can believe. In short, she doesn’t recognize who she’s become.

Starting off with a whimsical tone, we get to see Alice’s hopeful and optimistic personality as she...more What Alice Forgot is so much more than a run of the mill “girl hits head and gets amnesia” book. When Alice wakes up after hitting her head at the gym she is sure that she is twenty-nine and pregnant. So you can imagine her surprise when she finds out that she’s thirty-nine, has three kids, and her life is far more complicated than she can believe. In short, she doesn’t recognize who she’s become.

Starting off with a whimsical tone, we get to see Alice’s hopeful and optimistic personality as she was at twenty-nine. There is a lovely balance between humor and drama as Alice takes on the challenges of her new life: meeting her kids for the first time (that she can remember), talking to her very angry husband, and chatting with new friends who seem pretty obnoxious.

What Alice gets is really a gift – a chance to look at her life from an outsider’s point of view. She addresses these “new” problems with her younger personality, and her younger personality makes decisions that are at odds with what her friends and family are used to. The decision to alter how she lives seems easy at first, after all she’s just being herself, but things become much more complicated as her memory starts to return.

What Alice Forgot had a depth and complexity that I wasn’t expecting. I loved that the author didn’t just default to the stereotypical slapstick amnesia humor, but delved into the serious issues surrounding personal identity and how people change over time.

The story entertained me as I rooted for Alice to make the right decisions for her thirty-nine year old self. I know it also provoked me to reflect on my own life experiences. A person goes through so many things that mold and shape them in a decade. I can’t help but think that anyone would be surprised (whether in a good or a bad way) by the person they had become in that time.

The book is told from three perspectives:

Alice’s story is in the third person.
Her sister’s story is written as journal entries to her doctor.
Her adopted grandmother’s story is told via letters that she writes to her dead lover.

I’m happy to say that this was a wonderful example of using multiple points of view to tell a story. Each lady’s story could stand on its own, but in combination they work together to illuminate the different dimensions of each character. I especially appreciated the added perspective they gave to Alice’s story; filling in some of the missing pieces that she has forgotten.

What Alice Forgot is fast-paced and you won’t want to put it down until you turn that last page and find out what Alice decides to do with her life. All in all it is an entertaining and thought-provoking book about how relationships and parenthood can define us and change us over the years.(less)

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Oct 30, 2012 Amy Bailey rated it 3 of 5 stars

I do like this premise. I don't think it was as well done as I had hoped. It droned on a bit and took a while to get good. Alice really annoyed me in the beginning. Even after a couple of days of being stuck in 2008 feeling like it was 1998, it seemed like she kept having these silly moments where she didn't understand what was going on. Such as the moment when she thought about how scandalous it was that Nick's youngest sister had a baby at 15. Really??? Haven't we already been through this? Th...more

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About Liane Moriarty

Liane was born on a beautiful November day in 1966 in Sydney. A few hours after she was born, she smiled directly at her father through the nursery glass window, which is remarkable, seeing as most babies can’t even focus their eyes at that age.

Her first word was ‘glug’. This was faithfully recorded in the baby book kept by her mother. (As the eldest of six children, Liane was the only one to get...more Liane was born on a beautiful November day in 1966 in Sydney. A few hours after she was born, she smiled directly at her father through the nursery glass window, which is remarkable, seeing as most babies can’t even focus their eyes at that age.

Her first word was ‘glug’. This was faithfully recorded in the baby book kept by her mother. (As the eldest of six children, Liane was the only one to get a baby book so she likes to refer to it often.)

As a child, she loved to read, so much so that school friends would cruelly hide their books when she came to play. She still doesn’t know how to go to sleep at night without first reading a novel for a very long time in a very hot bath.

She can’t remember the first story she ever wrote, but she does remember her first publishing deal. Her father ‘commissioned’ her to write a novel for him and paid her an advance of $1.00. She wrote a three volume epic called, ‘The Mystery of Dead Man’s Island’

After leaving school, Liane began a career in advertising and marketing. She became quite corporate for a while and wore suits and worried a lot about the size of her office. She eventually left her position as marketing manager of a legal publishing company to run her own (not especially successful) business called The Little Ad Agency. After that she worked as (a more successful, thankfully) freelance advertising copywriter, writing everything from websites and TV commercials to the back of the Sultana Bran box.

She also wrote short stories and many first chapters of novels that didn’t go any further. The problem was that she didn’t actually believe that real people had novels published. Then one day she found out that they did, when her younger sister Jaclyn Moriarty called to say that her (brilliant, hilarious, award-winning) novel, Feeling Sorry for Celia was about to be published.

In a fever of sibling rivalry, Liane rushed to the computer and wrote a children’s book called The Animal Olympics, which went on to be enthusiastically rejected by every publisher in Australia.

She calmed down and enrolled in a Masters degree at Macquarie University in Sydney. As part of that degree, she wrote her first novel, Three Wishes. It was accepted by the lovely people at Pan Macmillan and went on to be published around the world. (Her latest books are published by the equally lovely people at Penguin in both the US and the UK)

Since then she has written two more novels for adults, as well as a series of books for children.

Liane is now a full-time author. She lives in Sydney with her husband, her new baby daughter Anna, and her son George, who likes to sit on her lap while she works, helpfully smashing his fist against the keyboard and suggesting that she might prefer to be watching the Wiggles instead.

Once upon a time she went heli-skiing and skydiving* and scuba diving. These days she goes to the park and ‘Gymbaroo’ and sings ‘I’m a Little Cuckoo Clock’ at swimming lessons. She has discovered that the adrenaline burst you experience from jumping out of a plane is remarkably similar to the one you get when your toddler makes a run for it in a busy car park (less)

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Quotes from What Alice Forgot

“Early love is exciting and exhilarating. It's light and bubbly. Anyone can love like that. But after three children, after a separation and a near-divorce, after you've hurt each other and forgiven each other, bored each other and surprised each other, after you've seen the worst and the best-- well, that sort of love is ineffable. It deserves its own word.” — 38 people liked it

“They would think she was savoring the taste (blueberries, cinnamon, cream-excellent), but she was actually savoring the whole morning, trying to catch it, pin it down, keep it safe before all those precious moments became yet another memory.” — 8 people liked it

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