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What Alice Forgot

Liane Moriarty (Goodreads Author)

4.08 · Rating details · 284,050 ratings · 21,535 reviews

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 even ...more

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Paperback, 466 pages

Published April 24th 2012 by Berkley (first published 2009)

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Lists with This Book

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

When Audrey Met Alice by Rebecca Behrens

All Things Alice

35 books — 13 voters

The Secret to Hummingbird Cake by Celeste Fletcher McHale

Best Contemporary Women's Fiction

246 books — 387 voters

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4.08 ·

Rating details

· 284,050 ratings · 21,535 reviews

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Mar 25, 2011 Maja (The Nocturnal Library) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

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 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!
...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Carissa Rogers rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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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Jun 01, 2011 Arlene rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Arlene by: Street Corner Booker Tour - Tina

Shelves: read-2011, aussie, 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 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. :)
...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Kristi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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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Mar 21, 2018 Jaline rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: xx2018-completed

I opened this book on my eReader, tapped my way to the beginning, and then fell into the story headlong – without checking the depth of the water first. Lucky for me, this story has both incredible depth and breadth; I could have safely dived off a hundred foot cliff right into this amazing novel.

This is a family story and there is a ten-year time period where the immediate family and their extended families are challenged with several crises; a time where many changes happen over a relatively s ...more

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Jun 10, 2017 Linda rated it it was amazing

I put "What Alice Forgot" on hold so many times that I felt like a receptionist at a medical center. It's so unfair to do this to a book, but I'll blame life, because it just happens. I was also a bit hesitant reading my second novel by Liane Moriarty. I had loved "The Husband's Secret," and sometimes it's difficult for an author to write another equally successful novel. Thanks to this author, Alice was always amazingly fresh in my mind, every time I would start reading again. There are not a l ...more

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Dec 15, 2014 Petra Eggs rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014-read, 2014-reviews, dnf-or-never-read, fiction, reviewed

Pedestrian. The writing, the story, the characters all just too pedestrian. There was nothing that lifted this book in to the realm of interesting, or even 'mildly interesting'. It's the sort of book I keep in the glove compartment of my car. I know I'm never going to read it but there is always the possibility (view spoiler) of being stuck with a broken-down truck or a road block with nothing to read. That sort of book.

Not one star because I ...more

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Mar 08, 2014 Jen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Alice appears to be a popular name for book titles: Alice in Wonderland; Go Ask Alice; Still Alice; and now, What Alice Forgot. Luckily, none of them are the same Alice. This one fell on the wayside as I thought I had already read the “Alice" book. Moriarty has a talent for weaving emotional themes into a story and still have them appear light and playful. This novel was no exception. The premise was enticing - Alice is in her regular Friday spin class and falls off, bumps her head and loses 10 ...more

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Mar 11, 2019 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Hold your ponies!!!!
I read this book years ago. I still have a physical copy.
For some reason my review has disappeared but I came here to share with anybody who has not read it - and is interested - it’s a $1.99 Kindle Special today.

This was one of my favorite books by Liane Moriarty

It’s FUNNY- FUN....
I remember once getting hurt on a spin bike at the gym- actually bleeding.
Paul laughed - In those days he did rigorous competitive mountain biking.... and had never been hurt. ( ha, wish that s ...more

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Jan 09, 2017 Brenda - Traveling Sister rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-have

I found What Alice Forgot to be a humorous, uplifting and an enjoyable book with the right balance of heartache. The concept was interesting with a little mystery to it as well.

Alice has a fall at the gym and loses her memory of the last 10 years. I really enjoyed how the story was told through Alice's eyes as I learned how she has changed and also the people around her as she pieces the events of the last 10 years together. She remembers the people around her and their situations as they were 1 ...more

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Aug 29, 2014 Dem rated it it was ok · review of another edition

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty was not and enjoyable or satisfying read for me.

I found this book over written and very repetitive and to be honest I struggled to finish it.

There was so many times in this book that I wanted to scream as Alice just seemed to round and round in circles and I felt this book could have been wrapped up in 250 pages. Everything about this book was OK apart from the ending which I found dreadful. I couldn't believe the Epilogue and that really left me frustrated.

I ...more

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Mar 22, 2011 ~Tina~ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to ~Tina~ by: First-Read winner

Shelves: first-reads, 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 10, 2017 Kelly (and the Book Boar) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: cluck-cluck-mothafucka, funny-haha, liburrrrrry-book, like-this-or-we-cant-be-friends, or-just-watch-the-movie, read-in-2017

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

4.5 Stars and rounding up.

^^^^^ I know, right? I bet you never would have expected that out of me! I’d blame it on my period, but I wasn’t buddy reading with Aunt Flo. Maybe I hit my head like Alice. *shrug* Whatever the reason, I just loved this story.

What Alice Forgot is about . . . .

“The day Alice Mary Love went to the gym and carelessly misplaced a decade of her life.”

Actually, it happened in spin class but Swifty eating it on ...more

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Apr 13, 2016 Lindsay - Traveling Sister rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

4.5 stars!

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Oct 18, 2012 Skylar Burris rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone who has been married more than ten years

Shelves: 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 ("[Forgiveness] 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 h 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 ("[Forgiveness] 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 and 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.
...more

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Jul 16, 2015 Andrew Smith rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Thirty nine year old Alice has had an unfortunate fall at her gym and ‘lost’ ten years of her life. When she comes around she’s convinced she’s a slightly over weight twenty nine year old with a severe exercise aversion – what’s going on!

What happens from this point is told from several points of view:
1) We see it from Alice’s point of view, experiencing recollections and revaluations as she does.
2) We hear extracts from a journal compiled by Alice’s sister, Elizabeth, in which she documents he Thirty nine year old Alice has had an unfortunate fall at her gym and ‘lost’ ten years of her life. When she comes around she’s convinced she’s a slightly over weight twenty nine year old with a severe exercise aversion – what’s going on!

What happens from this point is told from several points of view:
1) We see it from Alice’s point of view, experiencing recollections and revaluations as she does.
2) We hear extracts from a journal compiled by Alice’s sister, Elizabeth, in which she documents her own struggle to conceive but also comments on her relationships with Alice and her views on others close to her.
3) We are given access to an ongoing blog produced by Alice’s surrogate stepmother in which she also adds insight into Alice’s life and her relationships with others.

My fear was that this could turn out to be the worst sort of chic-lit: light and frivolous with nothing at its centre to hold my interest. I needn't have worried, I quickly found myself believing Alice’s (unlikely) plight and found myself enthralled by her, at first, small discoveries which gave hints of much bigger surprises to follow. The three way telling of the story was a great idea too as it added elements to the unfolding tale that were outside of Alice’s own purview.

I won't give any more information on how the story unfolds, but I will say that it's clever and held my attention throughout. I wanted to know what had happened in the missing ten years and, moreover, as Alice started to learn and recall some of the missing detail I loved the way that she appraised it with her twenty nine year old mind and personality. Wouldn't it be great to see the next ten years of your life played to you almost as a movie! Or would it…

This, I think, is the best aspect of this book. It’s a difficult trick to pull off but as Alice absorbs the changes to her life and the key events of the missing period she struggles to understand how she could have become the person everyone is telling her she is now. Looking at her new life through her old lens it just doesn't make any sense. And it's all told so well that this is all perfectly understandable and believable. It certainly made me think about how I've changed over the past ten, twenty or even thirty years, in a way I've not done before. I know everyone changes but can we look back and see when or why? What were the key events that caused a change or were there no such key events; does it just happen? And what about relationships – of course they mature and sometimes deepen or maybe end, but can we always identify the path?

It's not a perfect book - some of the twists are telegraphed and some sections rattle on a little too long – but it’s intelligently written and certainly gave me pause for thought. It’s the second book I've read from this author and I’ll certainly go back for more. I love the Sydney settings and the ‘voice’ of the characters. The books are at times hilariously funny at at other times truly sad, there’s plenty of light and shade. It’s also a refreshing change from the European and American books that make up ninety nine percent of my literary diet.
...more

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Feb 12, 2011 Nomes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, australian, crushing-on-the-writing, faves-of-2011, absolute-favourite-favourites, my-kind-of-awesome, rainy-day-comfort-reads, shining-with-genius-like-brilliance, swoon, you-make-me-smile

Before my review, here's what Liane has to say about writing this book (which is in lieu of me composing my own synopsis, haha):

I had always wanted to write a story about time travel but I found the logistics made my head explode. Then I read a story about a woman in the UK who lost her memory and behaved like a teenager – she didn’t recognise her husband or children. I realized that memory loss is a form of time travel. So I came up with the idea of a woman, Alice, who loses 10 years of her m

...more

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Nov 30, 2016 Margitte rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016-read, australia, community, drama, family-sagas, fiction, mystery, relationships, reviewed, satire

Liane Moriarty has done for Australia, what Maeve Binchy did for Ireland. They both brought the ordinary people of their countries alive on an unprecedented scale. Liane Moriarty is an international bestselling author. Look at her impressive bio on GR.

With Maeve Binchy's passing, a nation mourned. It was the first time an author received that kind of funeral attendance in living memory. Liane Moriarty has the world in an even bigger state of devotion. And the mystery is that you cannot pinpoint Liane Moriarty has done for Australia, what Maeve Binchy did for Ireland. They both brought the ordinary people of their countries alive on an unprecedented scale. Liane Moriarty is an international bestselling author. Look at her impressive bio on GR.

With Maeve Binchy's passing, a nation mourned. It was the first time an author received that kind of funeral attendance in living memory. Liane Moriarty has the world in an even bigger state of devotion. And the mystery is that you cannot pinpoint the magic in her writing. Her stories are just talking in a language women can understand perfectly. Which makes it chick-lit of course. But there's an angle to it. A serious reality-check.

Louise Penny did the same for Canada with her murder mysteries set in her Three Pine town and its inhabitants.

It's the tone and the settings. The total ambiance of their stories. Whatever it is, we're gobbling it up.

In What Alice Forgot the art, or rather secret, of staying married is defined. The two main protagonists are the sisters Alice and Elisabeth who bring their own smorgasbord of challenges to the table.

Alice, being the main character, sustained a serious bump to the head during a spinning session, which temporary switched off her current persona, and started up her alter ego, confronting the person she has become since her 29th birthday ten years before. A decade of her life were wiped out. She had to rely on the people around her to redefine her, and the image was not a good one of herself. She was in the process of a divorce, her friend Gina passed away, she had a relationship with a new man, and did not know her three children from Adam.

Elisabeth had trouble getting pregnant, which became a unsettling obsession for her, and her relationship with her sister was sort of non-existent. Their mother became a champion salsa dancer, marrying a man both sisters, and practically the whole community, had some social issues with. But Barb understood his soul and did not care what anyone thought about him or their relationship.

That's all I'm going to reveal. Yep, we stop here!

Many characters fill up the colorful background to the mystery of Gina's death, Elisabeth's bizarre actions and Alice's crave for perfection. The moral of the story is that you should use stilettos to catch a man, and use stilettos to get rid of him afterwards if you want to. In between the two choices, lies the secret of how to keep a man. Catching him is a different art from keeping him. All the men in the women's lives are strong characters with different appeals. Likable fellows with flaws. Well, yes, like all the female characters in the book, they have their reasons for being who they are.

We're taken along for the ride and enjoy every moment, cheering them all on on this mysterious suspenseful journey to the biggest lemon meringue pie ever baked! Big enough for a whole community to absorb. We're part of it.

LOVED THIS BOOK. ALL OF IT! ...more

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Oct 12, 2017 Mackey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-general, my-reviews

What DID Alice forget? Well, after a fall at the gym, apparently everything! I'm beginning to truly adore these amnesiac stories - really! I am! How many ways can it happen? How long will it last? Will the husband be a baddie or a good guy? But I digress....this is about Alice. Why did she forget? She even forgot her own kids!! And none of the people from her past like her anymore including her sister or husband! Hmmmm....

While this all seems a bit trite when written this way, the book itself ac ...more

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May 29, 2018 Maria Espadinha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Miracles in Disguise

Errare Humanum Est cos we are supposed to evolve from mystakes. However, the evolution process requires at least once in a while, we'll keep consciousness loud and clear ;)

Still, when consciousness tends to remain in a long sleeping mode, one mystake leads to another and they'll soon gather in a snowball that will definitely melt into a swamp of problems claiming to be solved. And there we are, swimming and diving, hardly keeping our heads above, fighting for oxygen....

When t ...more

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May 06, 2016 Julie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

What Alice Forgot by Lianne Moriarty is a 2010 PanMacMillian Australia publication.

With so many books out there, there is bound to be an author that slips by unnoticed, and for me, sadly, Lianne Moriarty falls into that category.

I knew her books were well received and popular, but I could never seem to find the time to fit one into my schedule. But, my local overdrive library heavily promotes her books, so finally, I took the plunge and put a couple of them on hold.

This book turned out to be ...more

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Nov 14, 2011 Pam rated it liked it · review of another edition

I loved aspects of this book and I really wanted to love this book because the premise was interesting, but it fell short for me in a few ways. This was a highly readable book, it flowed fast and you really did not have to stop and think about it too much. This was just the type of book I needed right now because I was not in the mood for a text that would make me think. As a result, I actually quite enjoyed the book initially until I thought more about it. What bothered me about this book was t ...more

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Feb 08, 2015 Cathrine ☯️ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

My favorite Moriarty book so far. Smarter and more thought provoking than the later novels I have read. It really made me think about who I was and who I've become. If you could have a do-over for the last ten years of your life, what would happen? What would you decide? An enjoyable, lighter read for me at the right time.

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Aug 04, 2018 Katie B rated it really liked it

Shelves: australia, fiction, chick-lit, read-in-2018

I'm normally not a big fan of amnesia story lines because they give me anxiety as it feels like torture having to wait for the person to eventually recall their memories. However, I gave this book a shot because I loved The Husband's Secret and Big Little Lies and thankfully, this turned out to be an enjoyable read.

It's 1998 and Alice is happily married and expecting her first child. Or at least that is what she thinks after hitting her head at the gym. In reality the year is 2008, Alice has t ...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Aoibhínn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks, contemporary, 2013, favorites, reviewed

Set in Australia during 2008, What Alice Forgot tells the story of thirty-nine year old Alice Love. She is a single mother of three and is going through a messy divorce. One day at the gym, Alice has an accident, bumps her head and forgets the past ten years of her life. Alice wakes up thinking it's the year 1998 and she's 29 years old, she's madly in love with her husband Nick and they're about to have their first child!

I really loved this novel! The plot was very intriguing, compelling and we Set in Australia during 2008, What Alice Forgot tells the story of thirty-nine year old Alice Love. She is a single mother of three and is going through a messy divorce. One day at the gym, Alice has an accident, bumps her head and forgets the past ten years of her life. Alice wakes up thinking it's the year 1998 and she's 29 years old, she's madly in love with her husband Nick and they're about to have their first child!

I really loved this novel! The plot was very intriguing, compelling and well-written with an interesting and unique premise. I loved the author's writing style. The story was very funny and some parts were quite touching and made me want to cry. (view spoiler) The characters were all well-developed, vivid and believable. I found it easy to relate to Alice and the other characters. I was unable to put this book down for long. I was desperate to find out what was going to happen next!

Alice discovers her life has changed dramatically but sees it from the point of view of her twenty-nine year old, carefree, fun loving self. Alice doesn't like the uptight, bitter person she has become. Alice re-examines her relationships with those people closest to her, in particularly her soon-to-be ex-husband Nick and her sister Elizabeth. The novel made me think about how my own life has changed in the last ten years and what would the "me" of ten years ago think of the person I am now? I liked that the author had included Alice's sister's journal entries and her grandmother's letters. This helped me see Alice from other people's perspectives, learn more about the character's background and see how much this experience had changed Alice.

I was sorry when this novel came to an end. I just wanted it to go on and on. I really loved the twist at the end and I was happy that Alice had ending up with that person. This is one book I will definitely re-read over and over again. This novel is now one of my favourite books and will most likely make it onto my top 10 list of the best books I've read in 2013! I can't wait to read more of Liane Moriarty's books! ...more

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Mar 22, 2018 Lucie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: chick-lit

Clever and funny.

As with all of Moriarty's books, this one's filled with very rich, fully-developed characters. They are just so wonderfully relatable, so very, very real. I knew I liked this author when I was laughing out loud by page 3. I've since read 'The Husband's Secret' and 'Big Little Lies', but this was my first introduction to Moriarty, and this was the book that made me a fan.

Moriarty has a very special ability to cover serious issues and suspenseful situations, while simultaneously m ...more

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Jan 10, 2017 Myrna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

Great story, great characters, great plot! What an enjoyable page-turner that made me think. Liked this one more than Moriarty's two recent novels. 4.5★stars!

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Sep 29, 2015 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I read this book! Its fun!!!!!!!!

Where is the 'missing' review --(haha--again). Help, Iris?? lol (Iris has found at least 3 of my past reviews)...

I was looking another GR's member's review --when I noticed this book again!

Don't you think its a 'little' funny that a person could get hurt on a SPIN bike in the gym?

I mean -my husband had a serious accident -Mountain biking last year --(but I think its safe to say --he would not have had a head concussion from a spin bike) --
hm??? but you never kno ...more

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Jun 01, 2018 Maria Espadinha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Acidentes Milagrosos

Sempre que na estrada enveredamos por uma via errada, o problema é de fácil solução: basta-nos retroceder e retomar o caminho certo.
Algo de semelhante sucedeu a Alice, numa outra estrada que não sendo de asfalto, não será menos estrada por isso.
À beira dos 40, Alice está separada daquele que há 10 anos atrás dava pelo nome de "amor da sua vida", vive distanciada da irmã, a quem outrora fora muito chegada, e enfrenta uma dura batalha pela custódia dos filhos.

Em 10 anos, Alice ...more

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Jun 03, 2011 Janina rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Janina by: Nomes

Shelves: chicklit, given-away, 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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About Liane Moriarty

Liane Moriarty

35,449 followers

Liane Moriarty is the Australian author of six internationally best-selling novels, Three Wishes, The Last Anniversary, What Alice Forgot, The Hypnotist's Love Story and the number 1 New York Times bestsellers, The Husband's Secret and Big Little Lies.

Her breakout novel The Husband's Secret sold over three million copies worldwide, was a number 1 UK bestseller, an Amazon Best Book of 2013 and has ...more

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Trivia About What Alice Forgot

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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.” — 226 likes

“But maybe every life looked wonderful if all you saw was the photo albums.” — 105 likes

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