ALEXIS COE

Alice+Freda Forever (2014) is an award-winning narrative history book. It was a New Yorker "Books to Watch Out For," an Amazon "Books of the Month" for history, a Paris Review "Staff Pick," and made the fall to-read and year-end lists at Flavorwire, Bustle, School Library Journal, MSN, and many others. It was a finalist for a Cybils and a Lamba, awon a Gold IPPY, and made ALA's Books of the Year. 

 

"[Alexis Coe] retells it here with the color and liveliness of a novel." --Andrea DenHoed, the New Yorker

 

"An astonishing look at love as a tsunami, the wild violence of passion, and a young woman undone by her own heart."--Caroline Levitt, the San Francisco Chronicle

 

"Coe’s narrative covers the perceptions of sexuality, women’s role in society, racial hierarchy, media manipulation, and even mental health, but she never strays too far from the heart of the story: the tragic romance between two women forty years before the word lesbian would be in circulation." --Justin Alvarez, The Paris Revew 

 

"Both girls deserve something more dignified than scandal and something more human than scholarship, and Alexis Coe provides it.Alice + Freda Forever is a fine book, one devoted to its characters and eager to understand exactly how their story made headlines but then faded from history."--Casey N. Cep, Pacific Standard

 

"Coe is a calculated flamethrower. She writes urgently, with a lulling, captivating intimacy that makes readers forget the story took place more than one hundred years ago."--Anna Pulley, After Ellen

 

"Coe empathizes — you can read how deeply she’s lived the story — and hits the right beats. As a drama, this works: it’s almost pitch-perfect. You’ll be talking about Alice and Freda after reading this book."--Los Angeles Review of Books 

 

 "...a book that must be devoured....With simmering prose, careful reserach, and eloquent analysis, Coe weaves an absolutely abrosbing tale of crime and passion, violence and discrimination, gender and feminity, lust and the all-comsuming power of love."--Moran Ribera, Bustle 

 

"Thumbed through the gorgeous hardcover and was instantly absorbed."--Rachel Smalter Hall, BookRiot

 

"Coe establishes a thrilling, almost lurid tone....gripping treatment of love gone dreadfully wrong." --School Library Journal (starred review)

 

“I dare you to pick this one up and try, just try to put it down.” --Peter Orner, author of Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridgeand Esther Stories

 

“…Alexis Coe’s skillful research and documentation never distract from her heartbreaking narrative.”--Elizabeth Wein, New York Times bestselling author of Code Name Verity

 

"A historically resonant reminder of how far societal tolerance has come and that it still remains a work in progress."--Kirkus

 

"Coe writes with a historian's eye for detail and the kind of compassion that was denied to the people whose lives she reconstructed more than one hundred years later."--Anna Pulley, The East Bay Express

 

 “(A) lively, provocative history….a well-written effort that makes the most of its source material on two levels, both as true crime and as social commentary” —Publishers Weekly

 

“This thoroughly researched exposé….could also serve as a gritty rebuttal to idealized period romances extolling the virtues of demure and genteel femininity.” --Kathleen McBroom, Booklist

 

"...to open the book is a bit like stepping into an exhibit."--Los Angeles Review of Books

 

“With prose that simmers with intellect and longing, conscience and sly eloquence, Alexis Coe has finally granted Alice and Freda the one thing they so desperately lacked in life: the grace of a story beautifully told.” —Avi Steinberg, author of Running the Books

 

 “This is a captivating account, and readers will quickly become absorbed in the suspense surrounding Freda’s murder.” --April Sanders, School Library Journal

 

“Though the history recounted in Alexis Coe’s Alice + Freda Forever is captivating in its own right, Coe also provides a larger context for it, elevating this to the level of a societal indictment.” –Tobais Carroll, Vol. 1 Brooklyn