Jean-Luke Swanepoel

Actual Rating: 2.0

The Thing About Alice follows many different characters who live on Elizabeth Street through the eyes of Alice — there's Mitzi, Rita, Gerty, Michael, Steve — who are all at different stages in their lives.

The blurb calls this book a study in character, and that was honestly what this was, with a sprinkle of slice-of-life. I personally have no problem with that, but I just found that the book didn't go into as much depth with any of the characters as much as I liked. It was a little hard to keep track of everyone when nobody had very definitive personalities and there was no opportunity to get to know each character gradually.

Plot-wise, it just felt like nothing much happened. There were a few moments that were pretty heart-warming, but it really didn't feel enough to carry the story. I reached the end of the book when I felt like I had just read through the exposition.

The writing style was something I definitely enjoyed though. It was pretty dialogue-heavy, and I really liked how that made the pacing very realistic during conversations. It was poetic in all the right places, and the blurb is absolutely right about it "not wasting a single word."

Ultimately, this was a really quick read for me, and I felt like it could've benefited a lot more from a stronger, streamlined plot, where the characters could have bigger roles in all the chapters. Part of it is on me, being someone who just naturally forgets who's who when there's a really big cast — but I feel like I could've grown to love the characters a lot more if I had more time with them. This had a lot of potential.… (altro)