If you need a book that will captivate you with characters and complexities of families, this may be the book for you. I enjoyed this one and I appreciated the opportunity to read it! Thank you.

This is the story of Alice’s teenage suicide and its impact on family members and friends, not only at the time, but years later. There’s lots of guilt to go around. Was mom too demanding? Did dad’s affair cause too much pain? Did a close friend’s harsh words influence the decision. How about the teacher she was attracted to? Was he somehow responsible?

This was a difficult read for me, not necessarily because of the subject matter, but rather the author’s writing style. At times, I got irritated with what seemed to be pretentious verbiage and over-the-top flowery descriptions. Obviously that’s just my opinion. It’s quite likely that this writer is just way smarter than me. :) In any event, the subject matter was interesting and thought provoking. A good effort by a debut novelist.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read this advance reader copy.

There was so much possibility here: Alice's brother and her best friend finding each other years after she dies, falling in love and getting married, bringing al of the people closest to Alice together, fractured families and tenuous connections. Unfortunately, the execution did not work for me.

The story is told in alternating timelines between present day, the months before Alice's death and the day of her funeral but the transitions aren't smooth. The pacing was incredibly slow and the characters were either flat or just not likeable, with the exception of Benji. I would have liked to have known more about Alice.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Benji and Morgan are getting married, an event that can bring out the best and worst in families, especially when there is a lot of baggage among them. What is interesting in this story is that the bride and groom are the calmest of the group.

In The World After Alice we learn how her last days and death have had lasting and damaging effects on two families. The couples are divorced, with three children plus more from the remarriage of one. All are bound together through the death. All have painful secrets that they have been struggling with and that threaten to boil over. The wedding is just the emotional event that could be the trigger.

There are many characters in this novel, and it is interesting to see how the author develops each individual’s story while simultaneously presenting the events that intertwine them. The conclusion is quite satisfying.

Hmmmm how to review this book. Parts of it ~ let’s say about a third of it ~ is good and the story was flowing good and I was buying into the characters. The second third, the story went off track a little but I could still hang with it. The last third I think was another book or the author’s musing. The sad part about all of this is is it is all mixed together. I did finish it. I will recommend to friends and family after a little forewarning. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy for my honest review.

I have very mixed feelings on this book. First, and I am reluctant to say this but feel the need to, the authors penchant for using 25 cent words was just annoying! Granted I enhanced my vocabulary, but I felt like she was just showing off. Perhaps her editor might encourage her to drop a few?

As far as the story, I enjoyed it. The author was able to show the emotions of all the players in this very sad story of suicide. I did feel invested in the characters and especially felt for Benji, the brother of the deceased.

Recommend for all public libraries

This started out really strong but fizzled out over time. I enjoyed the overall story but the way it was told made it hard to get through. I hate feeling like I’m dumb when I’m reading for pleasure…but I had to use a dictionary every other page. I did love Benji & Morgan. Benji’s meeting to set everyone straight chefs kiss!!

I REALLY wanted to love this book.....but I didn't. It was too pithy and too predictable. Too many characters, leading to none of them being fully developed. I struggled to stick with this one and it took weeks for me to finish it. Such a good idea, but such bad execution.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A beautifully written story about what happens to families when one of their children commit suicide.

Morgan and Alice are best friends until Alice’s behavior begins to alarm Morgan. Benji is Alice’s brother and now they are engaged.

It doesn’t seem like everyone has moved past the death, however, and the complicated relationships between the families have only deepened.

The main story takes place during the wedding weekend. We hear from each character both then and now.

The writing is wonderful and you can feel the pain they felt. One of the best debuts I have read.


NetGalley/ Penguin Group Viking July 02, 2024

A gripping family saga as two families try to heal after a terrible tragedy. Benji's younger sister and Morgan's best friend, Alice tragically passed away over a decade ago. They have been secretly dating and reveal this to this to their families by inviting them to their wedding. Throughout the wedding weekend, family secrets are revealed that threaten to the happiness that Benji and Morgan are seeking.

Every once and a while I come across these fiction stories that seem to be a jumble of words with no real plot line. Its like the author thought up a really intriguing title for the book, but forgot what it was about.
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I had a hard time finding much that was interesting to me. It was like listening to my grandma tell me about a cousins wedding she went to five years ago. Nothing special, no plot twists or climax in the story. Just a mundane recap of a sad day in the life.

And who really was Alice? I really don't remember.

This read probably deserved a 2 star rating, but I gave it 3. It was just ehhh...

I struggled a bit to finish this one. It was hard to keep the characters straight, and a lot of the information was relayed in a passive way. About 80 pages in, I found that I didn't care about the wedding or about the people involved.

What a depressing, clunky tale. I struggled to keep track of all the characters for the first third of the book and once I had them all straight, found most of them unlikeable. The use of little known, "intellectual" words scattered throughout felt forced and snobby. None of this worked for me.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Alice's unexpected death leaves her family struggling to find the way to move on without her..
She's always been the one who kept them organized, balancing her work and family life.
How do they go on?

Years after the loss of Alice, her family is forced to face old memories, fears, and feelings. It is a bit of an emotional read, but completely worth your while.

The premise was initially intriguing. That and the average rating is what prompted me to read it. It is definitely well-written especially for a debut novel. The characters are also drawn well and multilayered, just like real people. Most families have secrets of some kind, dysfunction and messy dynamics and the author certainly captured this as the story progressed. That being said, some of the connections between some of the characters felt a little hard to believe and almost gave me soap opera vibes. I wanted to enjoy the book but in the end I can only give my honest opinion that it was just ok. The more I read the more disinterested I became and just wanted to finish. I think that this is is a very promising author but for me this book just didn’t deliver as I hoped it would.

I have found myself in a bit of a slump, picking up several fairly sad books in a row. This one didn’t lift off for me and I grew more and more disinterested.

When Alice is in high school, she jumps off a bridge in Manhattan. She had been a high achieving violinist and though there were signs that something was wrong, all those close to her ignored them. Now, years later, her brother Benji and her best friend Morgan are about to get married. The union comes as a shock to both families as they had hidden their relationship for years. Her parents have divorced and her dad brings his much younger wife and child to the wedding. Her mom brings her new boyfriend who is a college professor. Green does a wonderful job of weaving all the characters together. They had crossed paths years ago in often disturbing ways. The story is told both in present time and in flashbacks so that the backstories can be filled in. It was a bit slow at times but overall this is a thoughtful novel about grief and family secrets. I look forward to future offerings from Lauren Aliza Green. I thank the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

The World After Alice by Lauren Aliza Green had a great premise and I thought I would love this because I love family drama, especially when it takes place around an event like a wedding. Unfortunately, I got bored a lot while reading it. I was counting down until I could finish this book and start another. The writing was fine and the storyline should have kept me entertained but it definitely lacked something. I don't think the characters brought anything to add to the story, which is sad because it should have been a very character driven story. Unfortunately, this did not work for me.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I loved the premise. Benji and Morgan are getting married in Maine. Benji’s sister committed suicide as a young adult and Morgan was her best friend. His parents marriage dissolved and his father Nick cheated with and then married his assistant. Benji’s mother is now with Alice’s old professor that she had an inappropriate relationship with. They will all converge at the family property and be forced to get along for the wedding weekend. I liked the story of how all the family members lives were affected and how they moved on after Alice’s death. However. in flashing back and forth to the different characters backstories and the present day wedding I feel like we lost the thread of Alice’s story. I wanted to get to know Alice more and her story. The whole thing with her professor was ambiguous and confusing. Her mom being with the professor and also almost being in a relationship with Morgan’s dad didn’t work for me. There were also so many high level vocabulary words I had to look up that were unnecessary and didn’t add to the story. This was a muddled story to me and didn’t quite active what I think it set out to do.