Thank you NetGalley for the arc. This book, while well-written, is very sad. It deals with suicide and the aftermath on how this can affect a family. It was very slow, and just unable to pull me in.

Thank you to Net Galley and Viking for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This is a story of grief and how it affects all those in the family. Benji and Morgan decide to get married. It's been 12 years since Alice, Benji's 16 year old sister and Morgan's best friend died unexpectedly. The wedding is the first time that all their family members have been together since the loss. Benji's parents are divorced. Nick, Benji's father, has lost his job and it desperately trying to find a new one before his wife Caro, formerly his mistress finds out. Linnie, Benji's mom, brings a new boyfriend who has a secret past related to one of the kids. And Peter, Morgan's father, seems to be trying to dissuade Morgan to marry Benji. There are so many things all of them have kept under the surface, especially the grief and hurt from Alice's death and this wedding will test all of them to realize how little they know about each other. The premise sounded like it would be interesting but the story didn't quite click with me. The writing was good but something was missing. 3.5 stars.

While well written, this book was a bit dry for me. Twelve years ago, Morgan’s best friend and Benjie’s sister, Alice, committed suicide. The two are now getting married. Their parents had no idea they were even dating, causing some family drama. Told in present day and in flashbacks, this story centers on the affects Alice’s death had on those around her. A character driven tale that unfortunately never quite grabbed me, but a good debut overall. Thank you to Penguin and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

"The World After Alice" by Lauren Aliza Green, was a good book, sad, exploring the aftermath and the many ways of derailments following a suicide. Great characters, and well depicted tangles, heartbreak, and guilt. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

What an amazing story. After Alice kills herself, her family and friends unravel. The book explores all of their flaws and in their grief, their struggle to understand why Alice did it. The story also unwinds around bad decisions made by everyone, up to Alice’s death and after. Throughout, the characters reveal the clues they saw in Alice along the way, but felt too guilty to share. The book takes you through the characters’ emotional roller coasters and makes you feel how real they are. The author’s skill of drawing you in is like no other. This is a must read.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. Review not posted online as it is below 3 stars.

I'm not sure why I requested this book, but likely it was because of the review by Napolitano. That said, i don't love her writing either, so this was probably a miss for me that I should have predicted and not requested.

I found the introduction strong, and the writing good, but the pacing glacial. I have a friend who is much more patient with this style and I think she would love it. I however found it too sad and just didn't want to pick it up, so much so that it was a dnf.

I appreciate the opportunity.

I did not know what to expect from this book except that it had made it on a lot of the lists of new books to read this summer. After reading it, I am not quite sure why it received such buzz because it was a really tough slough for me to get through. First off, there were too many characters and relationships to keep track of without a list to help refresh your memory. The split timeline between the past and present was hard to follow, and it would have only simply needed a heading at the beginning of each chapter to indicate which it was to help the reader understand what time it was talking about. Lastly, it is really about one weekend in the present, but it is so long and drawn out without a real timeline or sense of which day it was in the wedding course of events.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The beautiful cover of THE WORLD AFTER ALICE by Lauren Aliza Green grabbed my attention immediately, and after quickly skimming the description, I just knew that I had to read it. This blurb right here sold me:

“…𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥𝘺 𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴.”

You all know how much I love reading family dramas, so when an author gives me TWO families to read about, my day is officially made! Two family dramas for the price of one!? Yes, please! Oh, and this novel does NOT skimp on the drama. It’s a juicy one. And kind of gritty too! It’s full of infidelity, betrayal, guilt, lies, and secrets galore! There’s SO many great surprises and plot twists along the way that had me raising my eyebrows and whispering, “Ooooh!”

The writing is very beautiful, thoughtful, and delicate. Green expertly meshes a tragic event with a joyous one, and gives the reader a “fly on the wall” perspective on the lives of these two families. I’m really looking forward to reading more from the author.

READ THIS IF YOU ENJOY:

- Family drama and dynamics
- Literary fiction
- Alternating timelines
- Multiple perspectives
- Mystery and intrigue
- Coastal town setting
- Attending weddings
- Complex and layered characters
- Reflections on loss and grief
- Teenage behavior and antics
- Themes of motherhood and marriage

If you enjoy family stories like THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD or LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE, then I think this one will be a hit for you too.

4/5 stars for THE WORLD AFTER ALICE! It’s out now!

Thank you to #NetGalley, the author, and the publisher.

This book is twisted and I don't mean in a weird or scary way. It's definitely not a mystery. It's a family book.

What a wedding weekend this will be in Maine. It seems that the many characters were all connected (whether family or friends and otherwise) to Alice who's died at age 16 by committing suicide who was best friends with Morgan who is marrying Benji. Benji's father Nick is remarried to Caro (his former secretary and mistress) and Linnie (Peter's ex-wife), and is dating a Professor when she decided to take a college course and met him there who has links to Alice too but Linnie doesn't know this (so far in the beginning of the book). Peter is Morgan's father. His wife was Sequoia and I think he's divorced too and yes, he has a connection with Linnie too. This is getting complicated and we're not even at the wedding yet. Sounds like it's going to be an interesting weekend.

Alternate chapters are before and after Alice's death (of course like a lot of books). Most of the time I don't mind alternate chapters between time but for some reason this book I'm getting annoyed because Linnie is getting on my nerves because it's mainly her in these chapters with Alice's death being centered on. I really wanted to get back to the present with the wedding. When it was at the rehearsal dinner/wedding, it was still about Nick and Linnie and Alice.

Not sure if I liked any of the characters in this book to be honest except maybe for Morgan and Benji.

The epilogue was sort of a ghost story.

As an afterthought, I have a lot of ebooks I could have read besides this one and ones that I probably would have enjoyed more, but on a whim, I downloaded this the same day I started it. Not sure why but here I am reading it.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher, Penguin Group Viking for a digital ARC copy of this novel. When reading the synopsis, I took away more understanding than I did from the entire book. It seems that this style of writing is popular. I have read several books in the last few years such as this where it is a struggle to get a grasp of the storyline and there isn't much or depth to the characters and it falls flat. Throughout the book, I never really learned who Alice was or of the relationship she had with those around her. Much of the story, I found myself feeling lost as to what was going on. My apologies, I really wanted to like this and it seemed that the plot initially had so much to offer.

DNF @15%
.
I think I just lost interest in this book. I really didn't care about the characters or what was happening.

I kept wanting this book to build somewhere and I don't feel like it ever really got there for me. But maybe that was the point? Maybe the point was about the pointlessness feeling of grief and how you can get lost in it? I don't know...The writing was good but overall it just wasn't what I was looking for.

I look forward to recommending this title to readers who love to get caught up in a big family saga with multi generations, romance, and lots of secrets. Morgan and Benji announce their engagement at the beginning of the book, which brings up a lot of emotion, as Alice, Benji's sister and Morgan's best friend, died years ago at the age of sixteen. From there, it's a matter of unpeeling the layers of complicated grief and other emotions in both families.

Synopsis:
Twelve years ago, Alice tragically ended her own life. Now, her best friend and brother are preparing to marry in secret, having hidden their relationship and engagement from their unsuspecting parents until the last moment. The narrative unfolds over a weekend, interspersed with poignant flashbacks to the time "before," leading up to Alice's heartbreaking decision.

This poignant tale delves deep into the profound impact of Alice's death on her inner circle, resonating with lingering secrets and unresolved grudges born from past wounds. Each character wrestles with pain, loss, grief, and guilt, these emotions almost taking on a life of their own. Amidst their struggles, they strive to move beyond these feelings and embrace the forthcoming celebration. It's a remarkable debut, capturing the essence of compelling family drama!

Overall, this turned out to be a decent book. The author seems to use vocabulary that is intended to show off a bit and would turn away some readers by being unnecessarily pretentious. Some of the characters are also somewhat whiny at times, which can be off-putting. I'm not sure I'll recommend the book to others, but it's not bad -- it's just not a storyline or characters I'm comfortable promoting.

In my grief, I love reading about grief. The World After Alice was no different. Every grief journey is different, so I can never read too much on this topic. This was fresh and lovely and sad and made me appreciate those I still have with me.

“ She had known then that he was lying, the same dim way she’d known Nick had been lying about Caro all those years ago, but chosen not to pick the scab. It was better to live in a blissful world full of lies, she’d learned, than in one ravaged by truth.”

This character driven story explores the impact of suicide on a family. Alice took her life as an teen without leaving indications about the reasons. The family is left with their grief, which eventually tears them all apart. When they gather for an unexpected wedding, tensions are high and secrets are revealed. There are different POVs in this one, with one being Alice. I found this story to be engaging and the family drama to be messy and mostly relatable. I questioned some of the motives of the characters and was somewhat disgusted by one of the relationships, which I think was the point.

All in all this was a solid 4 star read for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Viking for the ARC to read and review.

Unfortunately, this wasn't for me. I usually like family drama-style stories with secrets, but I think given the sensitive content matter of this one, I just didn't really enjoy it that much. Additionally, I found the timeline a little confusing at times. I think others may really enjoy this, but I think the combination of not being in the right headspace for it combined with the writing style just made this not quite my cup of tea.

This is a sad, but very interesting and compelling, story about two families that are deeply affected by teenage Alice’s suicide. She is the musical genius daughter of Nick and Linnie; she is the sister of Benji; she is the student of Mr. N, her philosophy teacher; she is the best friend of Morgan, a fellow music aficionado; and Alice’s death has also affected Morgan’s father, Peter (mother, Sequoia, having long ago left the scene).

The story begins when Benji and Morgan decide to get married and invite both families to their wedding. They know the joining of the two families will cause much drama and tension, but do not want to get married without having their loved ones in attendance. And so the story begins….

The reader of this novel gets to experience the memories and sorrows of each character, some of them before Alice’s death, but many after. Her absence has made an extreme difference in all of their lives.

This is a sad story, but Green does an excellent job of telling it and making the characters feel so real. Though it is a sorrowful account, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t some happiness that comes out of it, which helped me to enjoy this debut novel by Lauren Aliza Green.

I’d like to thank NetGalley, Lauren Aliza Green, and Viking for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

(Thanks to @laurenalizagreen and @VikingBooks #gifted.) You all know I’m a fan of debut novels and if they’re more literary, I nearly swoon! 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗 𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗘 by Lauren Aliza Green is one such novel. The story centers on Alice, a girl who took her own life 12 years earlier at only 16. That’s the trauma all the characters in this book are living with as they come together for the wedding of Alice’s younger brother and her best friend. To many, the very idea of this wedding, long kept a secret, is shocking.⁣
⁣⁣
In the story we meet an array of people who were part of Alice’s life. Not only her parents, brother and best friend, but also some who might seem more peripheral, but who never-the-less had connections to Alice. The story alternates between past, the days around Alice’s death and her funeral, and present, the wedding weekend of Benji and Morgan. Throughout, chapters shift focus from one character to the next, offering insights into the reasons behind Alice’s decision and the delicately pieced together lives of those left behind.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
“They embraced clumsily, remembering only mid-embrace that they didn’t do this anymore - didn’t touch or treat each other with niceties or pretend the carcass of their marriage wasn’t smeared in each other’s blood.”⁣⁣
⁣⁣
This was a well done debut and a story I truly enjoyed. My heart felt for almost everyone involved. I do think the book had a small flaw, one often seen from debut authors. Green used an abundance of obscure words. I read a lot and have a decent vocabulary, but I needed to look up MANY words. Every time I had to do that, I was taken out of the story. That shouldn’t happen. It’s something the editor should have interceded with and advised against. Aside from that, I think 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦 was a wonderful debut and I look forward to reading more from Green. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25