Disappointed

Question:

I am 21 years old and have been reading the Alice books since I was 12. I love the series, I would wait and save all year so I could buy the next book. When the most resent book came out “Alice on Board” I was super excited. I bought and read it and was very disappointed. This book seemed like you just threw it together. It had none of the usual humor or “deep-ness” that the previous books had. I was reading it and hoping it would get better but it didn’t. Hopefully the final book will be better.

Phyllis replied:

I’m sorry that you were so disappointed in “Alice on Board.”  It’s sometimes hard for me to figure out exactly why a reader doesn’t like a particular book.  For example, I personally thought that the dilemma with Pamela’s mother was very deep on several levels, and you felt the book seemed to be thrown together, yet I probably put in more research and planning on this than many of the other Alice books.  But that doesn’t mean you should like it.  Some readers simply want the old Alice, in familiar surroundings with her best friends, but if I stay true to my character, she has to grow and experience new things, new places, new people.  And perhaps I simply didn’t do a good enough job of that.  I hope that all the readers waiting for the last book will realize that if I am taking her from 18 to 60, she is going to experience many new things, make new friends, have different attitudes about her life, and this is true of her best friends as well.  You will see what happens to all your old favorites, and I hope there will be enough humor and deep-ness and suspense and poignancy to satisfy your journey with Alice all these years.  Thank you so much for writing.