The Liberation of Alice Love: Book Review – Whimsical and Exciting!

The Liberation of Alice Love is an absolutely incredible read. It’s fun, it’s quirky, it’s exciting, and it’s a little dark all at the same time. Suitable for fans of any genre, this book is an adventure in and of itself, and you’re simply along for the ride.

Plot Overview

Alice Love has a good life. She has a steady, if tedious job. She has some decent friends, a good apartment, with a deposit for a place all her own ready to go. Alice has a good life, and that’s all. It’s good, it’s predictable… but it’s not great. It lacks variety and excitement. Despite that though, she’s’ relatively happy with how things are going. She’s settled into her routine, and she’s fully independent and self-sufficient.

All of that changed when she received a $700 bedazzled vibrator in the mail.

Alice initially chalks it up to a simple mistake. She has a chuckle about it, and moves on with her life. But the mysterious and extravagant item was the first of many strange things that began happening to Alice.

After some investigation and a trip to the bank, Alice discovered that she had emptied her account.

Wait, what? Alice certainly didn’t empty her own account…

And so begins the whirlwind of lies, obsession, adventure and revelations that Alice goes through to find out just what has happened. It turns out that the answer may be just a little closer to home than Alice would have ever expected.

My Thoughts

This is not the type of book that I would typically read, I’ll be honest. I picked it up from the store on a bit of a whim. The blurb on the back of the cover just stood out to me, and the illustration on the front cover was intriguing as well. It was essentially a rare case of judging a  book by its cover being a good thing.

A Strong Cast of Characters

This story has one of the most interesting sets of characters I’ve seen in a long time. Alice herself is honestly a very wonderful person. Right away you’re thinking that she’s probably one of the least deserving people, to have her entire life turned upside down and tossed around. She has her friend Julian, who she’s known for a very long time. They have a perfectly platonic relationship, with a history of Alice walking him through heartbreak and failed relationships. She’s got the best friend Cassie who also has a revolving door of lovers, which she’s very happy with – on the surface.

My favourite is probably Vivienne. She’s a very strong antagonizing character. She’s manipulative, conniving, deceptive, and just downright mean. She plays Alice like a harp – reeling her in, upping her hopes, only to send her crashing right down again. And Alice is to passive of a character to fight back. In the beginning anyway.

Alice Love is probably one of the most dynamic characters I’ve ever seen. Her progression as a person is not only incredibly vast, but perfectly believable.

So Much Adventure

I think one of the reasons the book stood out to me despite not being in one of my usual genres, was the word “liberation” in the title. I’ve always been a bit of an adventurous soul myself, so the whole idea of being free was appealing to me. As it turns out, “liberation” is one of the main themes in the book. Alice’s stuffy, normal life becomes a huge roller coaster.

Alice finds herself taking last minute trips across the world, signing up for fun, new things, and forging some unexpected relationships. Things she never would have done had this whole situation not arisen in the first place.

The novel is written in the third person. While useful in its own way, I often find it to be a little bit impersonal. I’m a huge fan of the first person and being right inside the characters head. In the case of this story though, the third person was absolutely the way to go. It was written quite well in my opinion, and the author never had you feeling like you were out of the loop or lost in any way. It created a very strong feeling of being along for the ride with Alice, as opposed to watching her go through it from her own perspective. It was absolutely brilliant actually, the way the whole thing was crafted.

I had goosebumps running up and down my arms more than once, and it seemed like every other chapter had my heart racing and adrenaline pumping. The book was truly an exciting read, and that’s not really a word I’d use very often to describe a book.

Conclusion

There’s not too much more I can say about this book. It was incredible and it blew my mind. If you’re a quiet, reserved young woman with an adventurous and rebellious mind sitting just underneath, then I encourage you to read this book. It will satisfy your desire for excitement, I assure you. I do think almost anyone would enjoy this novel though, it’s truly one of a kind and with that, I’ll have to just let it speak for itself.

Want to read?

Amazon has it for a great price – no matter what format you want! Paperback, hardcover, kindle. They have it all: