Alice jumped off a bridge. Alice was Morgan's best friend. Alice was Benjamin's sister. Alice was in high school and a gifted musician. Alice's family grieved. Morgan grieved.

Twelve years later, Morgan and Benjamin invite both families and a plethora of friends to their wedding. It's happy. It's sad. It's a "bit" awkward because so many of the guests last saw one another at Alice's memorial. The reunion of those who loved Alice not only brings up joy for Benjamin and Morgan, but all the grief they felt when Alice died.

This book explores the dynamics of grief and anger, and moving on in the aftermath. Readers who enjoy complicated romantic relationships with a twist of mystery will enjoy this one.

I loved this family story filled with mistakes, regret, but love. What seems like a typical family- a husband, wife, a son, a daughter, is shattered when the daughter, Alice, dies by suicide. How does a family recover? The story follows their story and illustrates how life is full of several paths, and you have to be brave enough to simply choose one.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an advanced copy of this book.

The World After Alice is a character-driven family drama that dives deep into the complex emotions surrounding grief, loss, guilt, and long-buried secrets. The story unfolds at the wedding of Morgan and Benji, where their families reunite for the first time since Alice's death. Through a dual timeline, readers experience both the present-day reunion and the past events that continue to shape the characters’ lives.

While the book is well-written and explores the emotional impact of Alice's death on her family and friends, I struggled with certain character arcs for different reasons; particularly Nick’s and Ezra’s. If you're looking for a slow-paced, introspective read about family, loss, and the weight of secrets, this novel offers an intricate portrayal of those themes. However, it may not be for everyone due to its sensitive subject matter.

Thank you to NetGalley and Viking Penguin for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

The World After Alice
By Lauren Aliza Green

The opening scene is of sixteen year old Alice jumping off a bridge to end her own life. From here on, Alice is the driving force of all that goes on – though this is the last time we meet her in the flesh.

This book, a first novel, is very much a character study. The pace is slow as is the build to the denouement. The characters here – Alice's father, mother and younger brother – have arrived in Maine to celebrate the nuptials of said brother, Benji, and Alice's best friend, Morgan.

The backstory – the dissolution of Nick and Linnie's marriage; Nick's affair with his current wife Caro; Linnie's "new man" Ezra (who also has a past with Alice); even Peter, Morgan's father who is in love with Linnie – all of this is affected by Alice's suicide. These characters experience, by turns, grief, guilt, and love – or some combination of these.

The writing here is spare. In view of all the secrets shared by this company, this is probably a good thing. Too much over-the-top lurid writing might have turned a reasonably good first novel into a bit of a joke. As written, this book deserves a second look.

This wouldn’t be my normal read to pickup but I found myself instantly intertwined in this story of loss.
As the title speaks for itself, this story follows Alice’s family and close friends after they lose her. While I won’t get into the details of what happened to Alice, I will say that loss affects everyone in this story and each person very differently.
Alice’s brother Benji and Alice’s best friend Morgan bring the family together for much of this story as they join to be married. From Alice’s mother to her teacher to her best friend’s father, nobody in this story is perfect and every one has a secret to keep. I found the characters and their perspectives in relation to Alice’s loss highly relatable in terms of the situation.
Overall, I would recommend this read as I think it was a well crafted story of individuals affected by loss and how they chose to cope.
Thank you Penguin Group and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an email about this book and thought I would give it a try. It's honestly been a little hard to get into, I have started it a few times and then get sidetracked. It's a little too slow for my liking because I read thrillers and fantasy / sci-fi more lately so I keep expecting it to pick up.
I'm still reading it and I'm determined to finish it but at most it's going to be a 3 star for me.
Thank you to Penguin Group, Net Galley and Lauren Aliza Green for giving me the opportunity.

Death impacts everyone differently. There are people laughing at memorial services. There are people who cannot stop crying. There are also who can get over in few days or never ever. This book in disguise of a wedding ceremony was a story of how immediate family members react to death of Alice: how and if they recovered, how they managed to go on. It was a loaded but slow story. Compared to how fast Alice disappeared from their lives, acceptance was quite slow

3.5/5
The characters I felt were well developed, but I guess I thought there would be more? I was rooting for Benji and Morgan. The story of grief, moving on, and family dynamics was well intertwined- but left me with more questions. Was this by author design? Maybe but I have a hard time with those endings.
I felt for each character.

I did not enjoy this book at all. I liked the premise but the story was just over the top for me. I did not like any of the characters or the event. A wedding or engagement. I don't think you would be totally centered on a death 12 years later. I found it to be unrealistic and was just not happy with it. I barely finished.

Sorry but it's a bad book.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc.

2.5 stars and those are for the effort.

12 years after Alice took her own life, her brother and best friend plan to wed in Maine and invite their unsuspecting families for the weekend event. Set over the course of a weekend, with flashbacks leading up to Alice's death, this book feels dry at times and hard to understand the decisions made by the characters. Good family drama, but maybe a little bit too much?

Don’t let the title scare you away—this book is a
family drama. I was initially hesitant about tackling a story focused on grief, but this one is truly unique and addictive, offering a fresh perspective that keeps you engaged. It’s surprisingly easy to breeze through.

The writing is excellent, and I ended up switching to the audiobook, which enhanced the experience significantly. The narration brings a great tone and feel to the story, making it even more enjoyable.

While it’s not exactly warm and fuzzy, this literary family drama is definitely worth checking out. Creative and well written.

DNF at 75 pages

I’m sad to say I couldn’t get into this. All of the characters were melodramatic yet boring. The “secret” relationship seemed unnecessary. Maybe they’ll explain it later but I couldn’t convince myself to keep reading.

THE WORLD AFTER ALICE confronts the pain, grief, heartache, and struggles of navigating life after losing a loved one.

Everyone has gathered for Benji and Morgan’s wedding. Twelve years ago, Benji’s sixteen-year-old sister Alice took her own life. Alice seems to be on everyone’s minds… and in their memories. Morgan’s dad seems to not want the marriage while Benji’s trying to survive with his mom (and her new boyfriend) alongside his dad and mistress. The story follows the ripple effect of Alice’s death on her family as you can feel her presence through flashbacks or the driving undercurrents in people’s lives. This beautiful, heartbreaking family drama shows how one life is woven into the fabric of many. It shows how grief can tear apart just as easily as it can bring together.

The World After Alice by Lauren Aliza Green. Pub Date: July 2, 2024. Rating: 2 stars. In this character driven storyline, the reader is taken on the journey of Alice's brother and friend Morgan as they embark on a marriage together. This centers around the fact that Alice committed suicide as a teenager and how her family and friends were affected by it in the short and long term. This story is a complex web of feelings, family, secrets and deceit. I had a tough time connecting with the characters and this story did not flow well for me. But, I did find the story very well written and can appreciate that. Thanks to #netgalley and #penguingroupviking for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I loved the idea of this book- a surprise wedding bringing together a family for the first time since their 16 year old daughter died 12 years prior, but its execution just wasn’t for me. It was a slow burn, character driven novel that was so well written I had to stop and look up definitions every few sentences. I did enjoy the realistic portrayal of how complicated relationships of all kinds can be.

Thank you to NetGalley and Viking for the ARC.

A family gathers in Maine for the wedding of Morgan and Benji, who kept their relationship secret from everyone until the invitations were printed. Benji’s family was torn apart twelve years earlier when his sister Alice committed suicide. Morgan had been her best friend at the time and blamed Alice’s mother for the changes that she saw in her. They were both talented musicians, but Alice’s mother continuously pushed her even after Alice had lost her desire to play. Alice was also disturbed by the discovery of her father’s affair with his secretary shortly before her death. Everyone attending the wedding has secrets that will come out over the weekend.

Lauren Aliza Green has written a character driven story that contains flashbacks to the events that led to Alice’s suicide. Sections of the book alternate between the wedding weekend and the memorial service held for Alice. The service is an emotional time for the family as Nick and Linnie mourn the loss of their daughter. They are so wrapped up in their sorrow that Benji is totally overlooked. Among the mourners, Caro, Nick’s secretary, makes an appearance, hoping that this will finally lead to Nick’s divorce. At the wedding Nick arrives with Caro, who is now his wife, and their daughter Avery. Linnie also arrives with Ezra, a teacher that she met when she went back to school. Ezra had also been one of Alice’s teachers. Morgan’s father Peter befriended Linnie after her divorce and has feelings for her. While everyone was surprised by Benji and Morgan’s announcement, not everyone reacted favorably to it and it is still causing tension. It is time for everyone to come together and support the couple. Green’s story is often emotional and sometimes tender. While her characters are well written, it is difficult to like a number of them. The story, however, was beautifully told. I would like to thank NetGalley and Pegasus Group - Viking for providing this book.

The book opens with Alice's suicide at age 16 which occurred 12 years before the main story.
Now Benji (Alice's older brother) and Morgan (Alice's best friend) who have been in a relationship for quite some time, are planning their wedding.
But everyone in this book has secrets and the book skips back and forth from the present to the past - the time before Alice jumped.
The book brings into play the different facets of each character's interactions.
Nicholas and Linnie (Benji and Alice's parents) divorced after Alice's death, although their marriage was rocky before her death. He was seeing his secretary, Caro, who is now his wife. But he is reluctant to tell her that he lost his job 6 months ago. While Linnie is seeing Alice's former philosophy teacher, Ezra who had a questionable relationship with Alice.
The author brings into the novel, the grief, guilt, and loss that Alice's death caused the characters, as each character bares their soul by defining their reaction to it. This made the story a little difficult to follow and made the characters pretty unlikable. I felt that the pace was slow and this, combined with the constantly changing narrator decreased my involvement in the story.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher and the opinions reflected in this review are my own.

Completely over written and hard to follow, this book does not know what it wants to be. It has a strong start, but flounders halfway through. I just couldn’t get into it at all.

12 years after Alice goes missing, her parents have divorced and now her brother and her best friend are getting married. The wedding turns into discovering all the secrets, wounds and regrets that the people closest to Alice had after her disapperance.

This book was not for me. I've read similar novels where you live through the prospective of the others left behind. This one felt short. I didn't connect with any of the characters and I felt like the jumping of time lines and POV's didn't help with that. I would also have loved to know more about Alice herself. We don't really learn much about her.

Thank You to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the free e-galley.

About a decade after teenager, Alice, presumably committed suicide, her family has no choice but to deal with each other, and the choices they've been making since she's been gone, when her little brother gets ready to marry her best friend.
This was a little slow at times, but the story was generally engaging and the characters came off as genuine.
Thanks to #netgalley and #vikingpublishing for this #arc of #theworldafteralice by #laurenalizagreen in exchange for an honest review.