Twelve years after the tragic loss of 16 year old, Alice; her brother, Benji and best friend, Morgan are about to say "I do." Benji and Morgan's families are brought together again for the first time since Alice's funeral for this surprise wedding. As they are trying to wrap their heads around the upcoming nuptials, Benji and Morgan's families are reminded of Alice and the events surrounding and leading up to her death. They are all harboring secrets, wounds, and deep regrets. How will these feelings affect the wedding and will they come out on the other side unscathed?
Review:
The summary of The World After Alice really pulled me in and I was excited to read this story. However, I can simply say that this book was not for me, but I do think it could be for others. This story is extremely well written, but a little too well written for me. I was often pulled out of the story by words that I was unsure how to pronounce and even what they meant. I read for enjoyment not for literary masterpieces, but I know that others do so I am sure they will love this story. It is extremely character driven, so I felt it was slow. I didn't feel invested in any of the characters. It was also hard to pinpoint what POV I was reading at the beginning of a chapter because they were not clearly labeled and all sounded pretty similar. I do think that the storyline was interesting and that it could have been a great book, the execution was just lacking for me sadly.
The World After Alice publishes on 7/2/2024.
Thank you to NetGalley, Lauren Aliza Green, and Penguin Group Viking for this ARC of The World After Alice in exchange for an honest review!

I was interested to see how this family drama played out, but unfortunately, I couldn't get past the writing to the actual story. It feels very much like a debut novel where the author is trying to sound literary - she uses obscure words in sentences that don't sound natural. This showy type of writing tends to not work for me, and I DNF'd at 15%. Thanks to Netgalley and Viking for the advance digital copy!

The title is perfect for this one. It really focuses on the family members after Alice's death and how it affected them. It is a slower book and very much a character driven story.

This book really highlights the ins and outs of challenges that a family faces. Events like weddings and funerals can be challenging reunions for some, and this book details a family which has experienced great loss as they attempt to reunite for a wedding and all of the complications that come along with that. Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Viking | Viking for a copy of this book for an honest review.

A slow-moving, character-driven novel that may appeal to fans of complex family dramas with literary aspirations but ultimately wasn’t for me. The premise was a tragic but intriguing one: exploring the grief and trauma that affected her loved ones after 16-year-old Alice committed suicide twelve years ago and bringing the players back together for the surprise wedding of Alice’s brother to her best friend. The characters are well developed but so unlikable that I struggled to connect with any of them. The writing style is lofty and while sometimes lovely and profound, it didn’t seem to have much tension or forward momentum.

Also, as some other reviewers have noted, the language choices were frequently obscure and pretentious. Even as a reader who loves vocabulary, I found it distracting and it took away from the prose rather than adding to it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy of this book.

What is it about weddings that bring out all the everything? In this melancholy character driven novel, it's the marriage of Morgan and Benji, BFF and brother of Alice, who died 12 years ago. Their families have been meshed for so long and yet they all have secrets. And lies. This takes place largely in the present but does visit the past to reveal the truth about Alice. It's Alice that hovers over all of this, despite the current marital machinations among the parents and the marriage plans of Morgan and Benji. Green has written a novel that speaks to lingering grief. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A very good read.

This book needed better editing. There wasn’t one character that provoked any empathy. The story has been told many times and ways previously and I must say presented more strongly. I found myself skipping through chapters because the dialogue was banal.

This is a poignant family drama told in multiple timelines and from several characters point of view. The plot moves along at a steady pace and gives the reader insight into the characters. The setting adds to the drama of the story and heightens the expectations of the reader.

A sad and haunting debut story about how a family try to survive their daughter’s suicide.
As you can tell by the title, teenager Alice commits suicide by jumping off a bridge. Her remains are never found…
We see how the family reacts to and tries to cope and move on with life after having this news.
Twelve years later, Benji, Alice’s brother, and Morgan, Alice’s best friend send an invitation to their families to their wedding. No one knew about this, and they are all shocked! Poor Benji had the raw end of the stick from his grieving parents twelve years ago after Alice’s death. They were lost in their grief, especially his mother. His father was absent from Benji’s extra curricular activities, where he was always there before. Alice’s best friend Morgan is lost, but sees Benji’s sadness and loneliness and they are drawn to each other. This was when their secret relationship began.
Nick has been having an affair with his secretary and after he splits up from Linnie, marries Caro.
Ezra, Alice’s mother Linnie’s boyfriend taught Alice and has secrets to tell.
They all have regrets and struggle in each other’s company, and wish they could change things, but the outcome is always the same. Alice is gone…..
This wedding means they will all be together for the first time since poor Alice’s funeral. Things could be tense!
I found the story a little hard in places but all in all it is a good read. The plot is fab, but there is a lot going on for the reader to digest! I was hoping for a different ending but it wasn’t to be!!!
Many thanks to Penguin books for the opportunity to read this arc copy via Netgalley. My opinion is my own.
#Netgalley, #Penguinbooks, #LaurenAlizaGreen.

The World After Alice is a family drama that takes place at Benji and Melissa’s wedding, years after Alice, Benji’s older sister and Melissa’s best friend, ends her life. As the wedding weekend starts to unfold, the family members start reckoning with the past, and between some blunders, some secrets get revealed.

I read this one over a couple cool summer evenings and really enjoyed it. TWAA is a slow moving story, and we get a lot of perspectives and glimpses at different points in time. I enjoyed piecing together how everything would connect and learning about how everyone in both the families got to the part of life and mental state they are in. There is a lot of grief in this one, and I think moving through different characters really helped balance the sadness.Green's characters are well-realized, layered, and flawed, realistically not always aware of their own shortcomings.

With a lot of family dramas, things get a bit too crazy and loud. But TWAA takes a calmer and quieter road, which feels very true to the characters in the novel and the somber backstory. Beyond the story, Green’s writing is beautiful and elaborate. To me this was one of the times where the author’s writing style clicked really well with the story being told.

I enjoyed this one but it won't be for everyone. Reading about the death of a child can be hard. Morgan and Benji are getting married but they did not even tell their families they were dating so the invitation comes as a shock to everyone. Morgan's best friend and Benji's sister, Alice, died 12 years prior. The families have not gathered together since the funeral. We flash back to when Alice was alive and see how all of these people are interconnected. Alice was sixteen when she died. Her parents divorced after her death. We see how Alice's brother coped, her father, her mother. We see Morgan's parents and even one of Alice's teachers. We get different points of view from everyone involved. Also, her body was never found so what if... This is definitely a character driven novel which I am normally plot driven, but I found the pacing great and the different twists really kept my interest. The epilogue made me cry. (I did have to use my Kindle dictionary several times)

-Just because someone isn't grieving how you want them to doesn't mean they aren't doing it.

-The most human instinct: to make meaning out of chaos.

Alice took her own life twelve years ago. Her best friend and brother are now to be wed, they have been secretly dating and got engaged without their parents' knowledge and spring it on them at the last minute. The story takes place over a weekend and we also have flashbacks to the "before" leading up to the event where Alice tasks her own life.

Alice is a main character of this story, even though she is dead and not physically represented, because she is in the other characters' consciences throughout. This is a very character-driven story and they are written wonderfully, flaws and all. I could look past all their faults because of what they went through.

The writing of this tale is very dry so I can understand the low ratings BUT I also found the writing to be very engaging. I was intrigued right away, I wanted to see how all this would play out, and because of that, I liked this a lot more than most reviewers.

This is such a sad story and how Alice's death affected everyone in her inner circle and continues to do so. There are a lot of secrets and grudges held because of past hurts. These characters are going through pain, loss, grief and guilt. These feelings were almost characters as well. Everyone is trying to look and get past these feelings to go forward with a celebration. This was such a great debut and I have always loved a good family drama as long as it isn't my own family.

The World After Alice by Lauren Aliza Green is a recommended family drama following two families brought together to celebrate an unexpected marriage.

Morgan Helmsley and Benji Weil surprise their families with a wedding invitation to Maine. The two kept their relationship a secret up until now. Their wedding will be the first time the two families have been together since the tragic death of sixteen-year-old Alice and the fallout that followed twelve years ago. Alice was the sister of Benji and best friends with Morgan and no one has been the same since her death. Now the guests arrive in Maine but with them also arrive with their own agendas. It is a miasma of old wounds, secrets, and hurt.

This is a character driven novel and it closely follows the relationships and interactions between them. All of the characters have depth and are fully realized individuals. None of them are particularly likable, but they are depicted with a raw, emotional honesty. They are all flawed people. It becomes clear how intertwined these family members are and how terribly wrong everything could go for Morgan and Benji.

The pace is slow and the relationships are complicated, which results in furthering slowing the pace. The overall tone is rather sad and depressing. The narrative is told in alternating timelines, before and after the suicide and then the present day. This didn't work as smoothly as I would have preferred. This also served to further slow the pace. The language is

Personally, the overall premise that Morgan and Benji must invite family to their wedding rather than simply inviting who they wanted and announcing it to the rest, was one that I thought was ridiculous. Thanks to Viking for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy. I was intrigued by the premise of this book, but the execution was lacking. The characters were poorly developed and unlikeable and the jumps back in time were hard to follow. I also hated the author’s use of obscure words that no one has used unless they were studying for the SAT or living in the 17th century. Her editor should have told her how much this takes the reader out of the story. I eventually just stopped looking them up after about the tenth one. Sorry, but I definitely cannot recommend this book to others.

I think this book would be an excellent fit for anyone who loves Notes on Your Disappearance by Allison Espach or even Ask Again, Yes. This is a character driven deep dive of a family brought together for a wedding but bound together by a terrible tragedy years before. My only issue with the novel was the deeply dislikable characters! I have to be able to like someone in a character driven story. That said, I know plenty of customers who will enjoy this, and appreciate the high quality of the writing. I will absolutely read the author’s next book!

Many thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Viking for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I think that the blurb correctly sums up this story of the surprise wedding of a brother and and best friend to a 16 year old Alice, who took her life. Its 12 years later and Alice's parents are divorced and barely speak. Benji, her brother, has been secretly dating Morgan, Alice's best friend. The 2 surprise their family and friends with their wedding in Maine.

The author does a great job with the timelines as you read about the lead up to Alice's death and the present day. There is so much going on with the families, relationships, grief, and "life" that happens after such a tragic event. I would categorize this as a "life in progress" story that makes you think about the messiness of life and the tragedy of grief.

This is a debut book for this author and I look forward to more books offered by Lauren Aliza Green. It's about a couple who suddenly get married and their families weren't even aware they were even dating. I did have a hard time connecting myself to some of the characters and I felt like it dragged in spots. It's about love, family and grief. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review. To be published July 2024.

A multi layered family drama with how everyone copes with the death of Alice. Set twelve years after 16 year old Alice passed away, we see two families reunite for the wedding of Alice’s brother to her best friend l. Tensions run high as many of the characters haven’t seen each other in years. This one was enjoyable although slow at times. The author writes beautifully. Overall I’d read another book from this author.

Wow, what a beautiful and emotional story. These characters felt so real and compelling. I loved the writing style and I'm dying to read more from the author now.

What a mixed up web of people and relationships in this book!! Benji and Morgan love each other and want to finally get married. They didn't tell their families because they all live in the world after Alice died by suicide. The books delves into life before and after Alice and what potentially led to the climactic event that changed everyone's lives, and then the fall-out as it was at the time of the wedding. So many intricacies and hidden connections and so many flawed characters. It was both heartbreaking and head shaking all at the same time! A good but somewhat slow read.