An OK book which I didn't particularly enjoy finding it rather slow and pedantic at times. Whether it was the American English that got me (I'm English) but the text just didn't flow for me. The plot was quite interesting and had promise and there were odd highlights but I didn't take to the characters, especially Nick. So not one for me but only a 3 star as some may enjoy as not objectionable but on a personal level probably only a 2 star.

Powerful and poignant this is an exceptional exploration of grief and guilt and the impact it has on family relationships. It will break your heart.

The prose is gorgeous and insightful and the characters are multilayered. Very worthy of five stars.

I found myself drifting off whilst reading this book. The characters were both uninteresting and unbelievable and I didn’t warm to any of them. Overall I didn’t enjoy the writing style and I’m afraid this book was not for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC

This was a well written story of the long lasting impact of grief and loss. I thought the impact on each character was well portrayed and their relationships were well described as the complex things they are. It was quite slow to develop for me but an emotive read.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the chance to read this ARC, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The World After Alice is a moving read. It’s well written, powerful, full of messy family drama and the aftershock of Alice’s death that still haunts her family.

This is a snapshot in time spliced with flashbacks to both life before Alice’s death and during her funeral from each character’s perspective.

It’s dense, descriptive prose littered with words that will make most readers pause to look them up or try and guess. It can be quite jarring and off putting at first.

The pace is slow and purposeful, drawing a parallel with the way days and time stretches out in grief and allowing the author time to fully hone in on the complicated emotions of each of the characters. She does well to identify the question that it’s easy to imagine anyone whose life is intertwined with someone who does by suicide might ask themselves: “could I have seen the signs? Could I have stopped it?”

The book is rich with grief and guilt and the inability to communicate which, I’ll admit, drove me crazy. But I sat with my discomfort and endured the unlikable characters because these are humans in their rawest form, unable to maintain their masks in the face of insurmountable grief.

The author’s choice to juxtapose one of the happiest days of a lifetime (a wedding) with one of the saddest (loss of life) makes it an interesting way to explore the long lasting effects of loss on such a wide group of people.

Would I read it again? No. It was much too heavy for this thriller and fantasy reader and the pace was a slog 🙃 Am I glad I genre hopped to try it and read such beautiful prose? Absolutely.

A compelling and really emotional read of family’s and dealing with grief. It’s a read that stays with you and one that requires a good supply of tissues.

I’m a big fan of the American family saga and while I did enjoy this novel overall, it wasn’t the best of its kind. I found the characters and their complicated histories blurred together which prevented me investing very much emotionally. Some of that was down to the writing style which, as several others have said, is often showy and distracting. But it picked up for me as the wedding approached and I was glad I’d stayed with it. Giving it a generous 4 ⭐️

Oh the family drama! Reading this book feels almost voyeuristic! Alice died over a decade ago and her brother and best friend are now getting married. This brings the two families back together and brings back all the hurt and bad feelings surrounding Alice's death.

When Morgan and Benji tell their family's they are getting married it's a bit of a shock, they've kept the relationship a secret for a few years. Morgan was Alice's best friend and Benji was Alice's brother. She died a few years ago.

This is the story of the families saga that's gone on sinceher death and a little before, it takes you through various stages of events and people involved. There are several characters of various lovability some may not be loveable but most have some redeeming qualities. Family dynamics can be fun at the best of times and these 2 families don't disappoint although it's sort of split into more than 2 now. . Wish the happy couple all the best they will need it but they are definitely in love and know each other well.

I was torn but in the end decided that 5 stars was the fair rating the writing and story telling is excellent

With thanks to Penguin and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest review

I’ve spent the past few hours thinking about how to word my review. Actually this book will stay with me. It took me a while to get used to the writing style which is so perfect for this book

A book of loss, finding love and seeing the long term effects of grief. This is not a depressing book, in times very funny. However it has a very thoughtful message

I would be delighted to recommend this book to my friends

This book really gets to the nitty gritty of relationships as it builds up to a wedding between two friends from childhood. As we learn the background of each character it seems that any of them has the potential to create chaos and ruin the happy couple's special day. Initially the relationship between them all was rather confusing and I found the introspection and analysis a bit too intense and drawn out.

I couldn’t put this book down as wanted to know how the story would unfold. I did find the swapping between timelines a little rushed and not always were I wanted them to be but did need the context of what happened before to explain the behaviour at the wedding.
The characters were all interwoven while not seeming to like each other very much. Some of what happened seems irrelevant to the story but gave fillers as to the characters.
I enjoyed it but felt the ending was unsatisfactory.

This is a complex story told over flashbacks as the families and friends reach the event at the focus of the book.
While readers are very familiar with the technique of using several timelines in a story, this book has very little content which is in ‘today’ almost the entire book is in the past. I found myself hoping for part of the story to settle in the present.
The book is exploring the feelings of a bereaved group of people variously affected by the loss of one of their community. I found it well written with great feeling for the different characters who, of course are affected in different ways depending on the relationship with Alice. The end is interesting and different and certainly made me think.
Recommended

I think this may end up being a marmite book - some will love it, and some will hate it. I fell, unfortunately, into the latter camp, finding the prose style too mannered and overwrought. I had been attracted by the comparison to Anne Tyler but, unlike Tyler, the characters in The World After Alice never felt like fully fleshed people with lives and feelings and motivations of their own.

I have, sadly, been in a situation where a young person has lost their life and I am therefore aware of the strains that grief can put on the relationships of those affected and I found this book to be interesting and at times quite moving but overall I found it a bit too 'try hard' and felt that Green must have had a thesaurus to hand the whole time she was writing The World After Alice, some of the vocabulary seemed made up it was used so outrageously. I feel like too much emphasis was put on the style over the content and I was left disappointed.

It is not a spoiler to tell you that sixteen-year old Alice commits suicide by jumping off a bridge. Understandably her family never gets over the shock and loss. Her parents split up soon after and her father, Nick, eventually remarries and has a child with his new wife, Caro. Her mother Linnie, also has a new partner, Ezra, formerly her tutor when she was an adult student.

So, here we are, twelve years on from Alice’s death and thrust into the preparations for a wedding between Benji, Alice’s brother, and Morgan her best friend. Both parents and their respective partners are invited so although it’s not drawn swords at midnight, there is a certain amount of tension in the air. The timeline hops back and forth from the wedding to the characters’ back stories, so it can be a bit of a tangle to follow.

This all feels as if the author wanted to write a Really Great Novel, but just tried a bit too hard with her words and phrasing – who uses the word “alienly” for example. I honestly thought she’d made it up but no, it is in the dictionary. “In not two hours” is another example which is clumsy and makes me wonder if she’s choosing this odd way of writing in an attempt to be clever. Another one...’’Her friend group, a salmagundi of pseudo-intellectuals…”. Hands up those who know what “salmagundi” means. Well, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary it’s “a salad plate of chopped meats, anchovies, eggs, and vegetables arranged in rows for contrast and dressed with a salad dressing”. It’s certainly an unconventional way to describe one’s group of friends!

I’m afraid I can’t even make this to the one-third mark, which is disappointing.

I was fascinated by these characters and the way they were written. Even after a death life carries on in its messy, messy, way. I will definitely be reading more from this author.

A moving read that involves family life, relationships and the effect that guilt and grief have upon them. The author skillfully weaves the stories of many characters whose lives are troubled by the suicide of a young girl.

The story revolves around Benji and Morgan''s wedding which has been sprung as a surprise to his parents who are divorced. Nick, his father, has a new wife, Caro, and a daughter Avery. Caro wants another child. Linnie has brought along a partner, Ezra, who was her tutor as an adult student. She also has surpressed feelings for Paul, Morgan's father, and simmering resentment of Nick and his new family. Morgan was Alice's best friend. Benji is Alice's brother. Alice committed suicide years ago when she was sixteen. Her family have never got over her death, particularly Linnie. The story jumps to and from the wedding to give the back story of all these characters in these tangled, dysfunctional relationships. Personally, I think the author's style of writing got in the way of the story. She digresses a lot into detailed descriptions of thoughts and ruminations of feelings. A lot of people like this style but I think it is trying too hard to be literary.