The End of Alice
Ratings8
Average rating3.9
The End of Alice treads the thin line between the evil and the everyday and caused a major controversy when it was first released in the US. The story centres on the correspondence of two paedophiles: one, the narrator, is a middle-aged child-killer serving his twenty-third year in prison; the other, his slang-speaking, sweet-seeming admirer, is a nineteen-year-old girl intent on seducing a young neighbourhood boy. Slowly, through these letters, the narrator's dangerous character emerges.
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This is the toughest, most reluctant 5 stars I will ever give a novel. I hated every second of it and yet, [b:The End of Alice 75479 The End of Alice A.M. Homes https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1336321638l/75479.SY75.jpg 2702599] excelled at what it set out to do. Yes, the content that is described in the synopsis is present, and it pulls no punches; you know exactly what kind of novel you're in for from page 1. But it is far from cheap, and as the novel unspools in a beautiful-prose-with-horrible words way, you find the narrator may not be as reliable as you thought, and that situations and memories are blending together, past and present. This is the first book that made me close it for a moment to collect myself (Second place for that honor belongs to [b:Sister, Maiden, Monster 60784461 Sister, Maiden, Monster Lucy A. Snyder https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1649700559l/60784461.SY75.jpg 95849272]'s “brain honey”... HURK). I genuinely gave thought to putting it down permanently. There are no heroes here, only victims, and those who took their victimhood and turned it into outright evil. It is disgusting, intriguing, sad, and abhorrent. The ending is perfectly ambiguous. If you're looking for the most fucked up book that doesn't rely on cheap shocks, congratulations, you've found it. I will never touch this novel again.
