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 40th 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!
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