The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
Published 2017 · 384 pages · 110,000 words · about 7 hours at an average pace · Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Thriller & Suspense, War Fiction
How hard is The Alice Network to read?
The Alice Network scores 23 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 28 out of 100
- Period-appropriate language. Espionage and military terms.
- Sentence structure: 28 out of 100
- Abstraction: 20 out of 100
- Plot-driven. Ideas emerge through action, not exposition.
- Information density: 38 out of 100
- Rich historical detail integrated into fast-paced narrative.
- Narrative indirection: 22 out of 100
- Dual timeline requires the reader to hold two stories simultaneously.
- Symbolic density: 15 out of 100
- The network itself as symbol of invisible female labor.
- Ironic distance: 12 out of 100
- Straightforward emotional engagement with the characters.
- Resolution withholding: 28 out of 100
- The cousin's fate and Eve's secret held until the final act.
- Structural complexity: 25 out of 100
- Alternating dual timelines converging at the climax.
How The Alice Network is regarded
The Alice Network holds a literary regard score of 28 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.