This has an intriguing premise, but I wasn't satisfied with the half-finished ideas that Lauren Aliza Green introduces. The writing is solid, and I appreciate the different POVs that help flesh out the characters, but after fnishing I felt like I was missing something.

The World After Alice is full of characters, plot and feelings, coming from a variety of characters. Alice is a teenager who commits suicide (not a spoiler). Her parents, brother, and best friend have been reeling from this ever since. In their twenties, her best friend and sometimes rival, falls in love with Alice's brother, and must of the novel is set at their wedding, filled with bickering divorced parents, a grandmother with Alzheimers, and lots of secrets. Don't expect everything resolved in a perfect package, but enjoy the family members for all of their imperfections.

There were lots of connections and POVs to make in this book. It was originally a little overwhelming, but I settled in and things started clicking. After that, I was able to make deductions on my own and guesses about certain things that weren't revealed at that point in the story. This is a family drama filled with secrets and quite a good debut from Lauren Aliza Green.

The story was compelling and drew me in immediately. After the initial confusion with all the POVs, I didn't want to stop reading! The writing style was straightforward and not overly prose-y, something I enjoy. The timeline shifts weren't hard to follow, as they sometimes can be. It's a heavy story, but handled well by the author.

Overall, this is a 4/5 from me. I would read more from this author and I'd recommend this title to contemporary readers, but I would give a trigger warning for it. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A wonderful examination of grief, family, and how unknowable we all are to each other, The World After Alice is set over the course of one day - a fateful wedding combining two families fractured by the suicide of Alice, interspersed with flashbacks showing how each character ended up in their respective situations on the day.

It's always interesting to see which characters I end up empathizing with, and this book was no different. I really liked Morgan and Benji a lot, and I thought the way Alice was presented in flashbacks was both charming and frustrating. However, the parents (and their partners) in this book are challenging, and many are very flawed. I was surprised that of the older adult characters, Caro was the one I most understood and sympathized with. I also appreciated that some points within the book were left up in the air, so the readers could draw some of their own conclusions.

At times both funny and tragic, this book is for lovers of contemporary family drama, in the same veins as Anna Quindlen, Ann Napolitano, and Rachel Beanland.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was gut wrenching and an exploration of marriage and human emotion. I thought this story was well put together and I wanted to know more and more about Alice and how she played a role in every characters lives.

DNF at 10%. If I hadn't been a bit interested in the premise, and if a Goodreads friend hadn't enjoyed it, I wouldn't have made it that far.

I think the characters and the story are probably going to do what they are supposed to do and get from beginning to end satisfactorily. The storytelling must be okay, or it wouldn't be collecting the good reviews that it has.

But the language! The author is hailed as a poet, and the phrases I find annoying might be great in a poem. Unusual words can be fun, but the novel itself isn't poetic in nature (so far), so they sound out of place here.

I love descriptive passages - goodness knows, I quote enough of them. And I like an interesting turn of phrase, and quote them, too. This just rubbed me the wrong way - I'm sure there are plenty of fans out there who will love it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Viking for the copy for review. Sorry I didn't finish it for you.

Thank you @netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of The World After Alice by Lauren Aliza Green. This is a contemporary family story and the scene is a wedding in Maine. The bride’s family and groom’s family have known each other for a long time, but they have been very separate since the death of Alice, the sister of Benji the groom and Morgan the bride. They are all still dealing with it. The story is about all the family relationships, and how they interact. The characters are mainly unlikeable, and I had a hard time getting into it. #theworldafteralice #laurenalizagreen #netgalley #advancedreadercopy #bookstagram #weddingstory #maine #lovetoread #readersofinstagram #bookloversofinstagram #readallday

Interesting story following Alice's family, both right before/after her disappearance, and 10 years later. I did enjoy it, but some of the characters weren't as fleshed out as I would have liked. Benji, her brother, for one. The focus was mostly on her parents, and I didn't find either of them particularly likable. The teacher character was a bit strange for me, and I couldn't quite figure out his role. I did like her writing, and I plan to read more from her, but I guess this story just wasn't my favorite.

I think this just wasn't the right time for me to read this book. Grief can be a hard subject for me to read. Character driven novels don't always work for me either. I can see why others would like this one but it just isn't the right book for me unfortunately.

Beautifully written, but there are so many characters and so many tangential storylines that didn't quite come together for me. I'd definitely pick up Green's next novel though because I think she has real talent as a writer.

Lovely debut. I see a lot of promise in this author, The book took some time for me to get through, and knowing it was a debut I gave it a lot of room to work through. It needed something a bit more to take it to the level of the kind of engaging story the premise deserves.

Thank you to Penguin Group Viking and NetGalley for the ARC of The World After Alice.

I enjoyed the overall theme and message - life after losing a sister, a child, a friend. But the story was so dry and a touch uninteresting. The details were lost to me not long after finishing it. What I did enjoy was the storyline of handling your marriage after infidelity and losing a child. I think Linnie handled herself with poise and grace when interacting and dealing with Nick. I know that her attitude didn't happen overnight, however, it is a message of hope when two people still must co-parent after they lose each other. I wish the characters were more dynamic and had more personality. I just wasn't invested in any part of the story and didn't feel that I had anyone to truly root for.

The World After Alice is a heavy and deeply emotional story that takes place a dozen years after the death of the eponymous character, at the unexpected wedding of her best friend and brother. Loads of family drama and chaos ensue as no one was even aware of a relationship. I enjoyed the story but found it hard to engage with at times, to the point of having to force myself to continue. Green is an excellent writer and I think she has the ability to tell an engaging story, but for me this one fell a bit flat.

My thanks to Penguin Group/Viking, the author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Great story of Grief, love, yearning, revolving around a wedding, concentrating on the views of each individual as they were affected by the unexpected suicide of a young person that influenced their lives. Very well written, very emotional, book.

Lauren Aliza Green takes a devastating experience and builds a family drama around it. When Alice tragically died twelve years before the book opens, many were impacted, especially her family and the family of her best friend. Flash forward and Alice's best friend, Morgan, and her brother, Benji, are preparing to marry. As the families are forced together, wounds from the past are exposed and the events that led to Alice's death are revealed. This was difficult book to read for me as I like my books a little more light hearted. This book is for readers who like to delve into the psyche of the characters and learn all of their secrets. It was well written, but not my favorite.

This novel begins on the eve of Benji and Morgan’s wedding - who have only recently revealed to their families that they have been dating for years. 12 years earlier, Alice, Beni’s older sister and Morgan’s best friend, committed suicide at age 16, and everyone has not been together in the same place since her memorial. The book is told through multiple perspectives - Benji and Morgan, Benji’s divorced parents and their new companions, and Morgan’s dad, both during the wedding weekend and in flashback sections set just before and after Alice’s death.

If The Wedding People was too light of a dysfunctional wedding weekend book for you, then this one is for you. It’s quite sad and melancholy throughout, dealing with not only the immediate grief and trauma of a suicide, but the long lasting repercussions on the lives of people touched by it. It’s also an absolutely beautifully written book with very vivid, flawed characters, which is especially impressive considering this is a debut novel by a young novelist. I loved it, and look forward to seeing what she writes in the future.

An emotional and beautifully written story that delves into grief, growth and love. It is a character driven novel with family drama and secrets. The characters are flawed and relatable.
Many thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Viking and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

A portrait of a family grieving the loss of the daughter, Alice. as a teen, going back and forth from the past to the future where Alice’s brother is marrying her best friend from. Lovely character development and beautiful writing but some of the threads just didn’t connect for me.

This book wasn't for me and didn't clearly label the POV of the characters. It was too confusing and I didn't like it.

A story of two families still dealing with the emotional impact of Alice's death when they are reunited 12 years later when Morgan, Alice's friend, and Benji, Alice's brother announce their marriage. Everyone involved has their own secrets and story of what happened and it all comes out in one eventful weekend leading up to the wedding. Overall, a story of grief and secrets and how the families cope.