I read about this book and was instantly intrigued by the plot. It was a little more of an easy read which I was craving after Alone in Berlin (Which don’t get me wrong, I loved!)
The book is based upon a woman losing 10 years of her life from falling unconscious after a step-class in the gym. When she wakes up she still imagines she is 29, happily engaged and pregnant. But she has turned into a bossy mother with a grieving past and going through a nasty divorce.
This story shows people that life does not always turn out how you expect, and even people can change a lot in the matter of 10 years. I thought it was really clever how with the character you were discovering who this 39 version of herself actually was, and what got her to her saddening situations she finds herself in now.
I really liked how the book was written, it was incredibly gripping and I was working out mysteries throughout the book, and finished it very quickly satisfied by the end of the book. It’s not the most breathtaking books of all time, but its a very good ‘holiday read’ and one that does make you think. It has a lot of meaning behind it while still managing to remain humorous and weirdly light hearted.
It expanded on the lives of Alice’s sister and grandmother, which I really liked. It included how they reacted to the accident and there own life’s situations and how they are handling their own. It was a great message of showing that peoples emotions aren’t always what is given off to other people, and strong fronts might only be showing how weak they are really feeling. The other characters perspectives gave a clear analysis on what Alice was now like. It was in first person (apart from the other characters passages) so I think this was much needed to understand more context and thought behind her accident and her current life situation.
I started to imagine what I would do if I was put int hat situation of having to collect ten years of your life back from no snippet of your imagination. It shows how much every thing counts towards the end result and I thought this was a really clever message within the book. I loved her character before the accident and the authors clever writing style made it clear that the person she had become people were not so fond of, and filling in the pieces to how she had become like this made the book extremely exciting and gripping.
Overall, it is a very effectively humorous and easy to read novel with much greater depth and meaning than first meets the eye and an incredible thought provoking story. I couldn’t think of anyone I wouldn’t recommend this to. It’s fast paced, makes you smile but also cry, light and dark hearted in a clever way and incredibly clever.
I loved it.
The novel is not classed as teen fiction but definitely suitable for teenagers age 13+, adults and teenagers would love it alike.