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Her Name Is Alice: My Daughter, Her Transition and Why We Must Remember Her

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When my third child was born, I was told I had a boy. The baby was given a boy’s name and raised in that gender. But when she died, twenty years later, she died as my daughter, and will forever be remembered that way.

Alice Litman died by suicide in May 2022, aged just twenty years old, having already waited almost three years for her first appointment at a gender identity clinic.

In stunningly beautiful prose, Caroline Litman captures the realities of an often-messy journey navigating both her daughter’s transition and the days, weeks and months after Alice’s death.

Searing, urgent and utterly unique, Her Name is Alice is the raw, human story of a mother’s love and grief for her child – and of a young trans woman who is impossible to forget and who must be remembered.

319 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 13, 2025

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205 people want to read

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Caroline Litman

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
Profile Image for Ruth Brookes.
318 reviews
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December 12, 2024
As the government doubles down on a ban on puberty blockers for under 18s, with a decision to make the ban permanent, further politicising access to lifesaving, affirmative healthcare for trans youth, I bring you a review of a new must-read memoir publishing next year. 

‘Her Name is Alice’ is Caroline Litman’s frank account of her daughter, Alice’s transition, the challenges she and her family faced and Alice’s eventual death by suicide. A tough subject for sure, but important, timely and beautifully written.

There is an ease and accessibility to Caroline’s writing. It’s all so relatable, the normality and messiness of family life, a child struggling with their mental health; who hasn’t been there? 

Caroline doesn’t shy away from relating her own struggle to accept and understand. There are conversations with friends whose need to air opinions comes at the expense of listening to lived experience. Also the battleground to be seen by health professionals, and noisy judgements shouted by media and mob.

At the heart of this story is Alice, a young woman in distress, let down by a system that had her waiting almost three years (at the time of her death) for an appointment at a gender identity clinic. It’s a sobering, heartaching read. At Alice's inquest the coroner concluded that Alice's wait for gender-identity services contributed to a decline in her mental health. 

It’s also worth noting that, in the seven years before the Bell v Tavistock case, there was just one suicide of a patient whilst on the waitlist. In the four years since, with further restrictions on access to treatment, there have been sixteen suicides. I fear this figure will grow. 

I’m privileged to have a number of friends with trans or non-binary kids, each of them unique, beautiful, clever, funny and embodying such bravery in the face of a toxic narrative repeated throughout the media and society as a whole. Thank you to the publishers for sending me this proof. I was glad to read it and honour the life of this lovely young woman. 

A powerful, deeply moving and beautiful memoir. Please read it, keep Alice’s memory alive and advocate for change. 

Publishing 13th March💔🏳️‍⚧️
Profile Image for Adele Shea.
734 reviews19 followers
March 8, 2025
I always give honest reviews but if I wrote about this book as honest as I usually am I think I may look like a horrible person to people who have not read it yet.

Caroline lost her child to suicide, the pain she and her family must of gone through doesn’t bare thinking about. Alice was totally let down by so many professionals. What she must have gone through mentally and also physically is so upsetting. She was just a child and had no support from the people who are supposed to be helping. My heart breaks for her.

In regards this book, unfortunately, it mostly infuriated me. This book is called Her Name is Alice, but I felt this book was just mainly about Caroline and how Caroline felt everyone should see and feel things Caroline’s way. If you didn’t do things the way Caroline expected you to then you are wrong and not a nice person. You could feel the anger in every word and all the book succeeded in doing, in my honest opinion, was make her look like a very selfish person. I feel for the friends she pushed away and has wrote about as some of the portrayal of them makes it look like Caroline has a vendetta against them.

I am giving this book 2 stars. I can’t give more because all the book did was make me angry and not in the way Caroline expects. The way it’s written diverts the anger in the wrong direction. The direction the anger, felt by the reader, should be aimed at is the professionals and authorities and unfortunately this book didn’t go that way.

Alice, you were so troubled and so beautiful and you were let down by so many. I hope you are now at peace and I hope your story will help as many people as possible in the future.



Profile Image for Grace -thewritebooks.
398 reviews6 followers
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March 14, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for an eARC in exchange for an honest review

This is a book that tells the story, unflinchingly, of Alice's suicide: the lack of support from our Health services beforehand, and the unfolding story of what happened after. It feels near impossible to write a review for something so tender and personal, but also Litman deserves such recognition for the way she has put this memoir together.
As our government and wider society continue to demonise trans people, and make it harder and harder for anyone to be seen for gender-affirming care, there are real and agonising consequences. I think this book makes it so clear that people need to be reading the news critically - what are they gaining from pushing an anti-trans (and anti-queer) narrative and are these exaggerated fear-mongering stories really reflecting the day-to-day lives of the more than 200,000 trans people living in the UK.
I could find no faults with the frank and heartfelt way that Litman wrote, and I'm left with the feeling that all of us need to be prepared to learn more and do more to support those in our communities who are vulnerable.
Profile Image for liv ʚɞ.
452 reviews121 followers
March 11, 2025
thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review! <3

’I don’t need certificates or medals to find ways to talk about Alice. Her attributes alone do her justice’

Her Name is Alice is a poignant, heartbreaking and important look at the life and death of Alice Litman, a young trans woman who took her own life in 2022. Her mother, Caroline, dedicates this memoir to her transition, the complete failures of the NHS, UK government and society at large to respect and understand Trans people, and the grief of Alice’s family.

This is an exceptionally important book, and one that highlights the inadequacies and transphobia that is rampant in UK legislature and medical establishments. Alice was repeatedly let-down, again and again by services that could have and should have been there for a woman dealing with incredible dysphoria and anxieties. Caroline repeatedly outlines the hypocrisy of the NHS, that an appointment for an ear infection was seen in a matter of weeks, but for something as important as Alice’s gender, one wasn’t offered for months.

Learning about Alice herself was heartwarming. By the end of this memoir I felt like I knew her, that in another life we could have been friends. It is a testament to Caroline that she manages to capture Alice’s personality, her charm and humour, so perfectly.

I was further drawn to Caroline’s admissions of her own past innate transphobia. She was often honest to the point of painting herself a villain, condemning her past self at every turn. While reading this memoir, I respected her self-criticism, and her willingness to speak on her own flaws. However, my greatest critique of this book is also to do with Caroline. For a book dedicated to Alice, I felt often like I was reading a book about Caroline. Constantly I felt myself wondering why on earth I was reading about Caroline’s sub-par childhood, rather than Alice. I am not at all saying that Caroline shouldn’t write about her grief, and I am certainly not saying that Caroline shouldn’t write about her relationship with her daughter. I just wished I could’ve seen more of Alice.

Overall, Her Name is Alice is a well-written, insightful memoir, that I think now, more than ever, people should be reading.
Profile Image for em.
636 reviews96 followers
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January 24, 2025
An incredibly moving book. Litman describes Alice with so much love and pride that I felt as if I knew her myself. She is honest, even to the point of self incrimination, with her initial transphobia and difficulties around Alice’s transition, which further demonstrates her inescapable grief and regret around Alice’s suicide. I adored reading the chapters when Alice was alive and pairing these chapters with days, weeks, months after her death really drove home the mournful memories Litman and her family had.

Memoirs, especially those around someone who has passed, are incredibly difficult to write (I assume), and difficult to read. This was a heavy book, both because of Alice’s suicide and the sadness and fear felt by the trans community. Litman balanced this book well, I wanted her to heal while understanding the grief she was feeling that she was being given the support to heal, whereas her own daughter wasn’t. After finishing this I found myself reading about Alice online, the inquest and what her family had to say.

A poignant book that’s needed now more than ever. Alice deserved better, we need to do better for her trans community and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. Kudos to Litman for penning such an emotional tribute to her daughter.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for kindly providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. #HerNameIsAlice #NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
41 reviews
August 3, 2025
A very well written book that had me trying to hold back tears on the tube 💔 such a young life lost 😔. Has inspired me to do more to help the trans community 🩷🏳️‍⚧️
13 reviews2 followers
December 20, 2025
This is a beautifully written book; a wonderful tribute to Alice, and one of the best depictions of grief I’ve read. It’s a warm, vividly human portrait of a young woman who found herself trapped in the middle of the profoundly dehumanising “trans debate”. Her mum’s determined for us to see Alice as she really was, after she was failed by endless institutions who refused to. Everyone should read it.
Profile Image for Laura.
20 reviews
March 20, 2026
So unbelievably important. A powerful memoir telling the story of Alice’s life as a trans woman, and her family’s grief following her death by suicide in 2022. Everyone must know the reality of trans people’s experiences of mental health difficulties due to societal/political discrimination and neglectful access to gender-affirming healthcare, and use any privilege they have to advocate for a better world. Caroline’s story is also such vital representation of complex grief following a bereavement by suicide, intertwined with the additional complexities of grieving a trans person whose identity is so often invalidated and insulted.
This is my second time reading this book, and it was just as influential re-reading it as it was when I read it the first time.
1 review
April 10, 2025
I'm not trans. I'm not nonbinary. I don't have kids. I know the grief of losing a relative to suicide but that was sudden and unexpected. What I don't know is the turmoil and heartache that must be involved in seeing what may be coming and feeling unable to stop the decline.

Caroline Litman does two important things in this book: 1. Writes about Alice, celebrates Alice and ensures her life is one that, although it was cut short, is not forgotten. 2. Writes with brutal honesty in a way that must have been difficult - especially when acknowledging feelings and actions that she may regret with hindsight.

I have always shied away from memoirs detailing tragedy but with the way the lives of trans and nonbinary people are being used as a political football and with so many people being utterly ignorant and making proclamations having never met a trans person I felt it important to have some insight into what is clearly a huge problem - the high self-harm and suicide rate amongst trans people.

I was surprised how much joy there is in the book. I was pleased that the author ensured her husband and other children also featured prominently. I am all too aware of how suicide can impact so severely on a parent that their partner and other children feel less important or even entirely unimportant in the years that follow. I feel I have learned a great deal by reading this book but also it has not changed how I felt before reading it: trans people are beautiful souls who need our love and support not condemnation, suspicion or ludicrous assumptions that they harbour some malevolent reason for transitioning.

Caroline, that must have been an incredibly difficult book to write and your ability to bare your soul and be so honest about something so personal is remarkable. I bought the book when it came out and was so captivated that I then bought the audiobook so I could also listen on my long commute in the car. I think I will probably come back to it and read it again one day.
Profile Image for d.
60 reviews
February 2, 2026
Overall this was a good book, but two things:
1) The author using the word ‘whilst’ too much. I’m not joking. It is legitimately in every other sentence in some chapters. It was one of the most irritating things I’ve read in a long time simply for that and I almost stopped reading the book.
2) The author compares losing her trans daughter to the extremely hard experience of living as a trans person in this world and alludes to this more than once. There is 100% place for the mom’s extreme grief. But I can tell you as a transgender person (and I’m from the U.S.), that losing anyone is not the same as trying to live as a trans person. As an out trans person I’ve lost 3 grandparents, multiple close friends- absolutely horrible. There are so many resources to process grief. When you are trans your government is after you, your rights have been taken away, you might have family or friends who have abandoned you, your constantly deadnamed and misgendered, there’s the whole healthcare disaster, and random people want you dead. Not to mention dealing with what is going on in your brain. I found this extremely distasteful and offensive she wrote this in a book not only about her daughter, whom she didn’t accept in the beginning, but a book that would certainly be picked up by members of the LGBTQ community.

If Alice’s story wasn’t so compelling and relatable, this book would be 1 star only.
Profile Image for Chelsea May xxx.
655 reviews4 followers
February 13, 2026
It took me a month to read this book by audio. I was so intrigued to read this book and it really let me down. I am going to give my honest opinion. Am sorri but I wasn’t a fan of this book at all the book is called Her name is Alice but it was mainly about Caroline Alice’s mum and how she dealt with the death of her daughter and she felt about Alice’s death and what she did to help her with grief. Yes I do admit we heard story’s and Alice which I liked hearing about as we learnt about Alice and her life and why she chose to become a women and how Alice struggled with the aftermath of her decision which I did found really heartbreaking and devastated to hear about and how people treated her. Alice had such wonderful parents and friends that helped her through her decision and helped her become the true her. I was devastated and upset to hear that Alice sadly thought death was the only way out of the mental health situation she was going through. I just honestly thought this book was more to do with Caroline Alice’s mum more and I really didn’t like some of the things Caroline came out with as some of it was disrespectful and not needed. I just hope Alice story will be told for years to come as a lot of people can learn from the mistakes that were made against Alice and her gender and mental health xxx
Profile Image for Lesley.
549 reviews17 followers
May 1, 2025
I was sent a copy of Her Name Is Alice by Caroline Litman to read and review by NetGalley. I requested this book because I myself have a 21 year old transgender child. Though heartbreaking this memoir is beautifully written, with alternating chapters between then and now which I believe was the very best way the author could have framed her story. Though my personal circumstances are slightly different to the author’s, with my child transitioning from female to male, which I think can be more acceptable – and possibly even ignored – by the general public, I found that many aspects of Alice’s life as well as the family resonated strongly with my own experience. I was horrified to read how every part of the health system failed Alice and I dread to think how recent legislation will affect the transgender community in the years to come. I am thankful that I haven’t had to go through the same trauma, and I am also thankful to Caroline Litman for writing about Alice. This is a very important book that should be read by everyone.
Profile Image for Sophie.
1 review
July 16, 2025
I had to pause reading this book because of the court ruling, it was a little to much and I felt a bit helpless. I think it’s important for CIS Women to read this book (for reference I am a cis woman), and to understand Alices life and what she had to go through, how many hoops she had to try and jump through to be taken seriously. I don’t know how anyone can read this book and still think trans people don’t deserve space and rights. It’s such an important book. I think I will suggest it so every gender critical person I meet, see if I can change their mind. Thank you very much Caroline for writing it.
Profile Image for Morgan Greensmith.
365 reviews7 followers
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March 17, 2025
A moving memoir following the author's mental health struggles and her daughter's along two different timelines. This book is incredibly timely given the drastic decline in transgender life quality and rights in the last couple of years, and Caroline paints a picture of her daughter's struggle with so much justified anger and love. I'm not afraid to say this book made me feel sick to my stomach, because it doesn't shy away from anything.

I especially recommend this to trans allies.

Thank you to HarperCollins for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Profile Image for Victoria Smart.
47 reviews
May 31, 2025
I listened to the audiobook version narrated by the author. It’s visceral grief of a mother losing their child, of regret and doubt and above all rage at the lack of medical support, despite her mother being trained as a psychiatrist.
A stand out extract for me was Alice’s godmother describing Alice as a sexual pervert even though she knew that wasn’t true. A damning indictment of the influence of social media and its corrosive polarisation of opinions.
The book is well written and excellently narrated. Highly recommended.
2 reviews
October 8, 2025
This is a raw and uncompromising read. It feels like grief. It takes you through the aftermath of a suicide, but in parallel, traces Alice's life through the lens of a loving, imperfect mother, one with her own demons. Fear and love dance and compete with each other throughout. Whatever your views on the transgender debate, allow yourself to read and honour this story of a young life cut short. It's a stunning read, in both senses.
Profile Image for Gem ~.
991 reviews46 followers
March 3, 2025
Such a powerful, raw and important book. It is about grief, the realities of being Trans and also a damning indictment of how young people's mental health services are woefully inadequate and overstretched. It is, I hope, something that will be useful for so many to read to see the truths about these issues and to importantly see the human cost when we don't get things right.
Profile Image for Kate Henderson.
1,624 reviews51 followers
March 17, 2025
This was a really heartfelt and emotive book, but despite the sadness in Alice's life within the book - there is so much hope too.
Caroline Litman was so supportive over her childs' transition. I think parents of trans children will find this book really informative.

I enjoyed the structure of the book, going back and forth within Alice's life. Allowing the reader to get to know Alice as a person and not just how she died.

It is a tough read at times, but incredibly insightful and eye opening.
Profile Image for Phoebe.
150 reviews
May 2, 2025
Beautifully written memoir. Incredibly touching and reflective. I appreciate the author’s sensitivity and thoroughness on transgenderism. Another important and very real trans story to remember. May Alice’s story be remembered and shared by many.

I recommend the audiobook! I personally listened to it. It is narrated by the author, Caroline Litman herself. She does a wonderful job!
1 review
December 10, 2025
I thought I had some understanding of the issues raised in this compelling book. I didn’t. I was so moved by this mother’s heartbreaking story of the loss of her daughter that I found myself thinking about Alice at different times in the day. If you want to understand issues around transgender better, read this book. Alice will stay with me for a long time.
Profile Image for Lyndsey Cannon.
4 reviews
March 15, 2025
This book is brutally honest and written so well. It’s so good at reminding despite how “gender critical” people spin the what ifs and lies they spread that trans people are still human. They still deserve human rights !
1 review
March 20, 2025
This is a wonderfully powerful book. Despite the sadness, it flows beautifully between happy memories, the challenges that Alice and her family face, and the aftermath of her death.
Please read this book and hear her story, whatever you currently believe/think/ read elsewhere
362 reviews2 followers
January 15, 2026
I rarely have no words. But I don’t think I do. The description of the rawness of grief is astounding, the bravery in its call to action and the love for Alice and the systemic failure towards her, remarkable.
52 reviews
February 25, 2026
this was really disappointing. I was really interested in Alice's story but this was Caroline's grief story and her overcoming her initial transphobia, which although a story worth telling wasn't what it was advertised as. She also comes across terribly.
Profile Image for Alli Thompson.
148 reviews6 followers
January 27, 2025
An incredible, deeply emotional book. Keep saying her name. Her name is Alice.
1 review
April 13, 2025
An outstanding book which bravely deals with grief yet is witty, heartfelt and a real page turner. Truly a book of our time.
1 review
April 30, 2025
This is an extraordinary book.
I found it difficult to put down.
Most compelling and profound.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews