Review: Here One Moment (by Liane Moriarty)

My Rating: 4 stars

It’s been awhile since I’ve read a Liane Moriarty book, but I remember enjoying the ones I read in the past, so I was definitely excited going into this one. To be honest, given the premise of this book, there really isn’t a whole lot I can say that won’t give something away, so I will keep this review short and sweet.

 

Overall, I enjoyed this one well enough – it was entertaining and I liked how the chapters were short and easy to get through, which was definitely helpful given how long this book ended up being as a whole (my hardcover version was 500 pages). I especially loved the first half of the book where Moriarty essentially skewers the airline industry, poking fun at the idiosyncrasies of what we experience at airports and while flying – specifically, the way she depicted how people behave on airplanes was spot on and absolutely hilarious (I was nodding my head through practically every page, lol).  Once all the passengers got off the plane though and went back to living their lives – basically, once the “mystery” element kicked in -- where we start to see whether the predictions on the plane would actually materialize, the story became less funny and more serious, which was fine (this IS a mystery/thriller after all), but then some parts of the story felt like it started to drag a little – the jokes didn’t land as well and some details felt a bit irrelevant.  Like other readers, I also felt the book was too long and some chapters were likely unnecessary, but as the events unfolded in the second half of the book, I will say that I did learn a thing or two about some professions that I had never heard about before (if you’ve read the book, you probably will know what I mean and understand why I have to be purposefully vague here) – which, as a lifelong learner, is always a satisfying experience for me when I read.

 

In terms of the ending, I honestly don’t know how I feel about it.  I know some readers hated it but I didn’t have any strong feelings either way – mostly, I just felt that the ending was a bit anticlimactic for a mystery/thriller novel.  Part of this could also be that I don’t think I truly “got” the ending anyway, so I don’t want to comment too much on it, since it could just be lack of understanding on my part.

 

In any case, this was an entertaining, fun read that sufficiently distracted me from all the busy chaos in my life at the moment, not to mention a nice departure from all the “heavy” stuff I’ve been reading for school lately.  As we come up against the end of the year and hopefully the chaos starts to die down (as it usually does around the holidays, at least for me), I am able to fit more of the books that have been on my list to read this year but I haven’t been able to get to (especially ones by my favorite authors, several of whom have books out this year). Looking forward to more entertaining reads! 

Review: What Alice Forgot (by Liane Moriarty)

My rating: 4 stars

A few weeks ago, I was on a trip and had an unexpected layover at the airport for a few hours.  Unfortunately, I didn't have access to my Kindle at the time and hadn't brought along any other books to read, so I went browsing at the airport bookstore in the hopes of finding something to hold me over for that brief period of time.  Most people who travel probably know how expensive it is to buy anything at the airport and of course, books are no exception – as much as I love books, I'm also sensible enough to know not to throw away $20 to $30 buying a book at the airport when I could get the same book elsewhere for a fraction of the cost.  So it probably shouldn't come as a surprise then, that when I was looking for a book to buy, my main area of concern was the price tag – I wanted to find a book that was decently priced (which to me had to be under $10) but also had to be one that I would be interested in reading.  Needless to say, there weren't too many books that fit the bill (amazingly, there were only a handful of paperbacks that were under $10 – I checked several stores too!).  After spending the better part of an hour browsing several stores, I settled on the paperback re-release of Liane Moriarty's What Alice Forgot, as the premise sounded interesting, plus I wanted to read something lighter, a "palette cleanser" of sorts after the slew of "heavy" reads I've had over the past few months (the original version of the book came out in 2009 but the particular paperback version I bought was released in December of last year).  This is technically not my first time reading a book by Liane Moriarty, as I had attempted one of her books several years ago but was not able to get into it and ended up setting the book aside indefinitely (still haven't gone back to it even now), so of course I was a bit wary about attempting yet another one of her books and possibly not liking it (but being stuck with it due to the circumstances at the time).  Well, it turns out I didn't have to worry after all, as this book ended up being the right choice for me and also a good "re-introduction" to an author whose works I will definitely be reading more of in the future.

What Alice Forgot is about a woman named Alice Love who has a nasty fall during one of her gym classes and when she wakes up, she slowly realizes that she has lost all memories of the last decade in her life.  She thinks it is 1998 when she is 29 and blissfully married to her soulmate Nick, and they are happily expecting their first child in a couple months – in reality, it is actually 2008, she is on the cusp of her 40^th birthday, she has THREE kids (2 girls and a boy), and that "blissful" marriage is headed toward divorce, with Alice and her "soon-to-be ex" Nick embroiled in a bitter custody battle over the children.  Oh and in 2008, Alice is also semi-estranged from her beloved older sister Elizabeth, whom she was very close to throughout her life, and also her widower mother Barb has shockingly married her (ex) husband Nick's philandering father Roger.  As if that weren't enough, Alice supposedly has a new "boyfriend" now too who happens to be the principal at her children's school where she is also (apparently) the ultimate PTA mom heavily involved in all of the school's major events and activities.  How is it possible to lose 10 years' worth of memories?   With all its jarring differences, how is Alice going to reconcile this supposedly "new" life of hers with the "old" one?  Will she get her memory back?  And what happens when she finally does?   

This was a fun, entertaining, and overall delightful read, one that I'm glad I picked up!  The book was longer than I expected (the newly released paperback version I bought was 500+ pages), but the story was so engaging that it actually didn't "feel" long or draggy at all.  It did take me longer to finish this one but that was more of a timing issue on my part due to being so busy at work after returning from my trip that I barely had time to sleep and eat properly, let alone read.  I liked most of the characters in this story and even though I can't say that there was much deep characterization or anything tremendously unique about these characters versus those in other similar stories, but I still found myself rooting for them anyway.  In terms of the story itself – sure, there were some moments where I had to suspend disbelief a little bit and some parts were a little too contrived while the ending was admittedly kind of sappy, but I'm fine with all that because I wasn't expecting a "literary masterpiece" or anything of that sort in the first place.  I wanted a lighter read with just the right amount of substance and intrigue to capture my interest – this book absolutely delivered that and much much more!  Enjoyable and definitely recommended!