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The Trouble with Alice
You think you re the perfect couple. And then the unthinkable happens...
Kit and Alice are enjoying a luxurious weekend abroad when their car spins off a mountain road and into a desert valley. Their lives are changed in an instant.
In the aftermath of the accident, their faith in each other is shattered. Suddenly it is as if they hardly know each other at all.
The Trouble With Alice is a love story told backwards a touching, surprising novel about two people who have to fall apart in order to learn how to love...
Kit and Alice are enjoying a luxurious weekend abroad when their car spins off a mountain road and into a desert valley. Their lives are changed in an instant.
In the aftermath of the accident, their faith in each other is shattered. Suddenly it is as if they hardly know each other at all.
The Trouble With Alice is a love story told backwards a touching, surprising novel about two people who have to fall apart in order to learn how to love...
- GenresFiction
306 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2011
7 people are currently reading
96 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
December 1, 2013
The Trouble With Alice is a love story told backwards a touching, surprising novel about two people who have to fall apart in order to learn how to love.The Trouble With Alice is a unpredictable novel which holds a story about two people from two different back grounds. The story starts off with bang as Kit and pregnant Alice are on holiday in Jordan and end up in a tragedy car crash. Through the yellow air the car fell, and then out of the sunlight and into the shade of a mountain. With a flash and a bang it hit the ground and careered the rest of the way down the stony hill landing on its roof changing their lives in an instant. The story weaves between the past and the present. Very sadly Alice has a miscarriage which appears to put tension and strain on Kit and Alice relationship. The once perfect couple seem to have to fall apart in order to learn how to love. The Trouble With Alice holds a novel about the nature of real love. Credit to Olivia Glazebrook as this is Olivia's very first novel.
February 6, 2018
Sorry, very disappointing indeed! Kept waiting for it to 'kick in'. It never did. Long, rambling boring passages of prose, reaching no conclusions. Devoid of almost everything.
Read
February 2, 2020DNF
January 7, 2023
It was so hard to first just get into the book, and then it got very interesting and the story seemed to move but it was the most disappointing ending. Just overall wouldn’t recommend the read.
December 28, 2011
The Trouble With Alice opens with a moment that changes lives. A moment caught with perfect precision and crystal clarity.
“Through the yellow air the car fell, and then out of the sunlight and into the shade of the mountain. In the air it turned over, catching the light with a glint and a flash before – bang – it hit the ground and careered the rest of the way down the stony hill on its roof.”
Kit and Alice were on holiday in Jordan. They hadn’t been away together before, and they wanted to go before Alice was “too pregnant to enjoy herself.” Before their lives were changed by a baby.
They both survived that terrible accident without major injuries. Except one. Alice lost her baby.
That could have drawn the couple together or it could have pulled them apart.
It seemed that it would pull them apart. As she mourned the loss of he child Alice withdrew from the world, and then she became anorexic. Kit didn’t know how to cope. He had moments of anger. Moments of guilt. Moments of confusion.
The portrayal of the emotional journey that followed the miscarriage is vivid, and moving.
The story moves between past and present, and it become evident that differences that hadn’t mattered in happy days of early romance and future planning mattered a great deal.
But life had to go on. And life did go on. I saw two their different characters, and how they were formed by very different backgrounds, I came to understand both Kit and Alice a little better. Neither was a hero and neither a villain. They were both flawed, fallible humans trying to cope.
The storytelling was clever, and it balanced honest and restraint beautifully.
And please note – both.
This is the story of both Kit and Alice, setting out their relationship. How it blossomed. How it was jolted. How it fractured. Maybe irreparably …
It is a story very well told.
This is not a comfortable read, but it is compelling.
And a very promising debut.
“Through the yellow air the car fell, and then out of the sunlight and into the shade of the mountain. In the air it turned over, catching the light with a glint and a flash before – bang – it hit the ground and careered the rest of the way down the stony hill on its roof.”
Kit and Alice were on holiday in Jordan. They hadn’t been away together before, and they wanted to go before Alice was “too pregnant to enjoy herself.” Before their lives were changed by a baby.
They both survived that terrible accident without major injuries. Except one. Alice lost her baby.
That could have drawn the couple together or it could have pulled them apart.
It seemed that it would pull them apart. As she mourned the loss of he child Alice withdrew from the world, and then she became anorexic. Kit didn’t know how to cope. He had moments of anger. Moments of guilt. Moments of confusion.
The portrayal of the emotional journey that followed the miscarriage is vivid, and moving.
The story moves between past and present, and it become evident that differences that hadn’t mattered in happy days of early romance and future planning mattered a great deal.
But life had to go on. And life did go on. I saw two their different characters, and how they were formed by very different backgrounds, I came to understand both Kit and Alice a little better. Neither was a hero and neither a villain. They were both flawed, fallible humans trying to cope.
The storytelling was clever, and it balanced honest and restraint beautifully.
And please note – both.
This is the story of both Kit and Alice, setting out their relationship. How it blossomed. How it was jolted. How it fractured. Maybe irreparably …
It is a story very well told.
This is not a comfortable read, but it is compelling.
And a very promising debut.
August 20, 2012
Ok, enough already. I got further with this book than it had any right to expect of me, but its sheer blandness got me in the end. A relationship is under strain, then it breaks up, then...who cares? Unsympathetic, unbelievable protagonists surrounded by a coterie of two dimensional, middle class characters, drowning in treacly, leaden, faux-lyrical prose, no story to speak of, no energy, no point.
I wonder sometimes why some author are offered representation by literary agents and others aren't. And who actually makes the decision to publish a book and why? And I conclude that I do not understand anything about the publishing industry.
I wonder sometimes why some author are offered representation by literary agents and others aren't. And who actually makes the decision to publish a book and why? And I conclude that I do not understand anything about the publishing industry.
July 20, 2012
Gripping in parts and nicely paced, however the characters can be hard to empathise with, particularly Kit. There are obvious shifts and at times it felt more like a short story than a novel. Will leave you drawing your own conclusions in certain areas, which is part of its technical strength. Intrigued to see what Olivia might reduce next.
February 28, 2014
A story of a relationship break up following a tragic accident. I found it hard to bond with any of the characters and, sadly, struggled to feel compassion to their situations. Reading out of my usual genre with this book, so perhaps this is not really a book for me. Touching of some dramatic issues, I wanted so much more, but was just left with a feeble break up.
April 15, 2013
This thoughtful and unpredictable novel explores a couple's relationship from the point of an accident through what follows. The characters are convincingly and believably drawn and you travel with them through their bumpy road toward understanding what real love is. I would have rated it more highly but there is a little more language than I like to tolerate.
March 13, 2014
Overall I mostly liked this book, but had a problem with some unnecessary (in my opinion) graphic descriptions, and also with some of the back and forth time line with characters and their memories, etc. I definitely liked the basis of the storyline and was really engrossed in finding out what would happen, especially to Alice.
January 6, 2015
First I absolutely hated it, it was so depressing to read. But in the end it had me in tears and it made me laugh.
I'd say: read it for the ending. (even though there's not a tailored ending, it kinda just stops telling the story further... which I like because it's real. And it feels like a real life story)
I'd say: read it for the ending. (even though there's not a tailored ending, it kinda just stops telling the story further... which I like because it's real. And it feels like a real life story)
June 18, 2012
Don't know what to make of this book. I enjoyed it but didn't love it. The main characters Kit and Alice I couldn't warm to. I had sympathy for what Alice went through but that was about it. Kit I don't think had any redeeming qualities for me.
July 14, 2012
I liked a lot of this book - although I felt the ending left me with a lot of questions. I did like the way it was set out and how it made me question a lot of things that people might perceive to be ideals in relationships etc.
August 7, 2012
Sad couple re-evaluate their lives whilst telling their story, after Alice loses their baby. Not a pair it is easy to warm to but when you read of their upbringing that Larkin poem comes to mind. Interested enough to wonder what happens next.
April 25, 2013
This book started off ok, it had potential and I expected to enjoy it. However the main characters are despicable, cold unfeeling and as the book progresses I found that I really couldn't care what happened to any of them. The ending was awful, I will not be reading another book by this author.
January 24, 2016
When I started this book I really liked it. The characters were interesting and the story kept me guessing. The story took a turn and seemed like it could be two different stories. The ending was a let down.
September 22, 2016
I found this book interesting but only because it was sort of difficult to follow. The story, at times, didn't make much sense and it jumped around from one character to the next. That said it was an ok read.
February 20, 2025
This book made me emotional, but in the end I do think it was a bit incomplete in its conclusion. Sometimes books do that for the sake of reflection or ponderance of the major themes but that's not really what I think Glazebrook did here. Its a short and sweet read though.
June 17, 2011
An interesting character study that examines the detonation of a relationship.
August 15, 2011
I thought it was a good book involving an interesting relationship. I liked the questions to the author at the end which gave some interesting insight into the story.
August 9, 2013
I guess I shouldn't mark it as "read". I got 50 pages in and realized I didn't care about either Kit or Alice in the least. This just was not the book for me.
August 13, 2013
Please don't read. I spent time on reading this book and I am very upset that I read it. The story line is weak and it lacks interest through out.
June 2, 2014
quite haunting - i still think about it
April 19, 2014
Poignant, funny and powerful.
August 15, 2014
I didn't enjoy this. I found the characters shallow and selfish and thoroughly disagreeable.
April 17, 2024
It never felt like there was a peak in the story. All slow and sad. Loved the dog though.
April 9, 2015
Love story in reverse.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews