Member Reviews

Wow! What a debut! "The World After Alice" is a must-read emotional novel of 2024. The story is about the wedding of Morgan and Benji. Years ago, Benji's younger sister, Alice, passed away at the age of 16. Morgan and Alice were best friends, and since Alice's death, neither family has been in touch until now. The wedding preparations are usually stressful, but the emotional layer makes everything more challenging.

I highly recommend this 5-star novel, and I also suggest you keep a box of tissues nearby. The emotions are incredibly raw and real. I always enjoy reading well-written books that explore family dynamics with all their dysfunction because even if you've never experienced what the characters have, you can still relate to their perspective. In "The World After Alice," the characters are so well-developed and relatable that you feel as if you know them in real life. I cannot believe that this is Lauren Aliza Green's first novel, and I look forward to reading everything she writes in the future!

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Thank you to NetGalley! This book is an intimate look at two families greatly impacted by tragedy and the ultimate nuptials tying them together. I generally love a detailed family drama and this bunch certainly had their share of (intertwined) issues but I ultimately found this book too soapy.

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The writing in this book is pretentious to the point of being off-putting - the odd sentence structure, the SAT words thrown around like they were going to make all the horrible characters seem better than they are - it all just served to dull down whatever emotion the reader should have felt about and for the characters and the event which is at the center of the story. Not an easy read on a number of levels, this novel deals with hard topics - choices and their consequences, secrets and deception, grief, the sometimes fleeting chances we miss to secure our own happiness, the unbearable loss of a child/friend/sister, and all the ways family relationships both undo us and save us when we need them most.

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“The World After Alice” is a debut novel by Lauren Aliza Green. Let me be upfront - this book is depressing. Benji was my favorite character and although I tried to like the others (especially Morgan), it was just too difficult to keep trying after a while. Granted, losing a child at any age is difficult - so I understand why family dynamics for both families were complex .. but, this book was loaded with miscommunication, secrets, and appalling behavior. Additionally, Ms. Green used a number of elaborate words that a) made me wonder who used them, and b) paused my reading because I couldn’t figure out from context what the author was trying to convey. I don’t know if this book needs an additional editor pass, but at times the story seemed secondary to character insights. Overall, an interesting look at how suicide affects more than just the person who has died - it affects their family and their loved ones in very different ways.

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I found this book held promise but was downright depressing and unbelievably slow . I just did not really like the characters at all . Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy

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The good:
This book had a slow start but pulled me in. I couldn’t stop wondering where the story was going to go.

An interesting cast of characters.

The bad:
At times the author’s chosen vocabulary gave an air of pretentiousness and was annoying. I’m not sure how much, if any, will be lost to the average reader due to this particular choice.

I wish there hadn’t been an “Ezra” in this story. It felt clunky and unnecessary.

Overall:
Not great, not terrible - this is not a life-changing, eye-opening, overly moving book. What it is, however, is a good escape on a rainy day. It’s not all rainbows and butterflies like so many other books. It’s different.

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The World After Alice, by Lauren Aliza Green, is an absolutely beautiful novel set during a Maine wedding. The backstory is the suicide of the groom's sister and the bride's best friend. Definitely read with a box of tissues nearby!! There are so many secrets and resentments that come to light, all layered and interwoven among the characters that feels very dramatic but also completely realistic. Highly recommend!

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I eagerly requested this book after reading that it was so highly anticipated to be great. I, however, found it to be just plain depressing. I did not like any of the characters enough to care about them or want to continue reading the book, so I abandoned it about a quarter of the way through.

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This book was honestly very well written. It was amazing how so many characters could be developed at such depth within 320 pages. Sometimes, for me, the depth was a little too much and I had a hard time getting through the long paragraphs of backstory.

However, seeing the connection was so neat and you really felt like you got to know them on a personal level. You can’t convince me they aren’t real people with the way Lauren Aliza Green brings them to life!

Suicide is sometimes a hard topic for me to read about, but it was refreshing that instead of romanticizing it like a lot of books do, we got to see the impact Alice’s life and death had on those in her circle.

Overall this is a great, unique read by a very talented author. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the early copy in exchange for an honest review

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This was DEBUT that read as if the author was a seasoned writer. The whole thing was beautiful and I can't wait for more!! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher!

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i’m not crying. okay. i’m crying!!!! this read was so bittersweet and i absolutely loved it! i don’t think i have anything negative to say about it. it was all around a wonderful read.

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This debut novel was an unexpected 5 star for me! The novel moves back & forth between 12 years ago, when a teenage girl, Alice, committed suicide, and the present, as the 2 families who were simultaneously torn apart and pulled together by the tragedy attempt to move forward as Alice’s brother and her best friend get married in Maine.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one, but it sucked me in & I loved all the different character perspectives. Her writing is also absolutely breathtaking, and she does a fantastic job of exploring deep themes (suicide and depression, loss and grief, infidelity and marriage) in a tasteful, beautiful way.

Obviously this novel has some upsetting content, particularly suicide & grief, but in my opinion it is tastefully done and the ending was gorgeous. I really loved this book and it’s one of those novels that I think I’ll continue to think about for days to come. 🤍

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The World After Alice is a book about how the family and friends of a girl, Alice, deal with the loss of her after she jumps from a bridge. The book did a fantastic job of getting into the minds of the characters and I felt I really got to know them and feel what they were feeling. Although I felt at times the book had so much description and details that it started to get long for me, I’m glad I didn’t skip ahead. The ending was perfect and had me crying. I highly recommend this book about love, family, loss, and guilt.

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“On days like today, each of us is Job, wondering why the Almighty has brought upon us this suffering.”

I found the characters living in “The World After Alice” to be a dreary and depressing group. It’s to be expected after the death of a beloved teenager. Life is never the same and the book slowly revealed events, conversations and interactions that led up the to the night Alice jumped off the George Washington bridge.

Sadly, every family member except for Benji was unlikable. Most of them were making bad choices before Alice died and continued to do stupid things as they dealt with their grief…or avoided dealing with it.

Some of the most interesting and wise words came from a Rabbi

The writing was beautiful but seemed overdone and excessive to me, with many rarely used words. It was very poetic and insightful, but a lot could be cut out to make the story move along better.

Advanced reader copy courtesy of the publishers at NetGalley for review.

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Benji and Morgan kept their relationship secret because they knew their families would not approve; Morgan was best friends with Benji’s sister when she killed herself at sixteen. Now that they are getting married, they ask everyone to come together to celebrate even though there are affairs, divorces, hurt feelings, and secrets between them. The World After Alice by Lauren Aliza Green asks what happens when two families torn apart by a tragic death come together years later, and the answer is not much. Even with all of the flashbacks that attempt to fill in the story, Green leaves a lot to the imagination, and not always in a good way. There are a lot of characters taking up unnecessary space, and others just don’t get enough time to become believable. Green tells an interesting story, but it could have used some more editing.

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Wow. What a book. A debut at that!! I rarely read a book like this….guess I’ll call it ‘Women’s fiction’. I usually prefer suspense, thrillers that draw me in & keep me in their grips. But this simple book about 2 families did so easily. The writing is superb, so well written you can’t help but picture the characters. All are so realistic & beautifully flawed. IDK what to say except I know you’ll enjoy this story as much as I did.

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This book was deeper than I expected from the description. It held my interest well enough to earn 4 stars although I did have a couple issues with it. I found one of the story lines too coincidental. I also felt a couple smaller scenes didn’t work well for me. It’s funny that I chose to call them scenes as I could definitely envision this book as a play.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early release in exchange for a fair and honest review.

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The writing style is heavily narrative, and purple prose abounds. While I don’t personally enjoy it (and stopped after chapter 1), the target market should be solidly 3-4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC.

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Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Morgan is both excited and nervous about getting married to Benji who she has known for years. They are getting married in Maine and hope there families can be civil to one another. I xant wait to read Lauren's next book

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Normally, as soon as I've finished reading, I w rite and post my review so that I can remember. This time, I sat and waited for my tears to dry before beginning. This was not only because I was so moved by the novel, but because it brought back my own grief for loss of a child, though not, in my case, by suicide. The lovely ending was not the only time I cried, but the epilogue was stunning.

How did Lauren Aliza Green manage this tour de force in a first novel? Is she a therapist, a psychologist? (An English major for sure, as. I don't believe I have ever had to look up the meaning of so many words and used in such unusual ways.)

There are no minor characters here. Each deeply felt and skillfully drawn person is fully realized. Green gets us into the head of each one, showing what makes them behave the way they do. What caused Alice to jump off the bridge? Nearly everyone bears some of the blame. Or do they? Describing the interconnected intricacies of the plot would not do this book justice. It must be read without preconceptions. It must be experienced and internalized.

Many thanks to Penguin and NetGalley for this ARC to experience and review.

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