The Day Shelley Woodhouse Woke Up - Laura Pearson - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: Laura Pearson

GENRE: Contemporary Drama.

PUBLICATION DATE: April 6, 2024

RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A dramatic story about a woman who wakes up from a coma and realises that some of her memories aren’t exactly accurate. A great option if you know what to expect from this genre. Trigger warning for domestic abuse, though the writing handles it sensitively.

Plot Preview:

As soon as thirty-year-old Shelley wakes up from a coma, she insists that the police arrest her husband David as he was the reason she ended up in hospital. The medical staff advise her to calm down while the necessary is being done, but somehow, Shelley gets the feeling that she’s not being told something. As Shelley lies in bed, her mind goes wandering through the memories of her childhood, and through that exploration, she realises that her current memory is not exactly accurate. But what’s the truth? Why isn’t anyone telling her anything definite about her situation?

The story comes to us in Shelley’s first-person perspective, in alternating timelines of Then and Now.

I had first read this author in last year’s popular title, “The Last List of Mabel Beaumont”. While the book was pretty good, I couldn’t find anything that elevated it to a memorable level. It did all the right things, but didn’t push the bar in any way.

This book follows a slightly different route, with a younger lead character, some twisty turns, and an ending built on hope than perfection. Regardless, it is still predictable and the ending is still too good to be true – both of which bring down the overall impact.

The cover might fool you into thinking that this is a light read. But it is very heavy on domestic abuse and gaslighting. This kind of content is not part of just one scene but a steady occurrence in the story, partly because of how it shows the cycle of violence in families and the generational impact of living in such conditions. If domestic abuse is a triggering factor for you as a reader, better to stay away from the book. But I appreciated the way it was utilised by the narrative, showing not just the physical impact but also the long-term mental trauma of living with such a partner. The stats about domestic violence mentioned in the course of the story are sobering.

Shelley Woodhouse can be called an unreliable narrator, but not the way modern thrillers use this trope. Her memory is genuinely affected because of her coma, and as we hear the story in her first person, we see only what she sees. However, the writing offers ample clues to help us figure out that there are chunks of missing information in Shelley’s memory. This makes many reveals guessable.

I liked the use of the dual timelines in the plot. Though a bit convenient as a plot device, these two perspectives help us understand what in Shelley’s past might have led to her present. And the perspectives aren’t as straightforward as you’d imagine. Shelley’s past and present have enough thought-provoking scenes might make you wonder what you’d do in her place.

As common in the women’s fiction genre, the male characters had no depth. They are either good or bad, with no in-between. I wish this genre had believable men; it is not just women who are complex characters. However, the key women in the book are well-defined, be it the struggling eponymous lead who is trying to figure out what’s happening, or her best friend Dee who is her rock in every moment of trial, or even Shelley’s mother who is torn over her own tricky feelings. I liked the decision of making Shelley the landlady of a pub – an unusual career to read about in fiction.

The ending was as expected, and yet it offered some minor novelties. I liked how it combined despair and hope, and didn’t forcefully fit everything into a neat HEA. However, there’s one key reveal made towards the end, which I simply couldn’t accept; it was so farfetched!

Again, this is not a bad book at all, but it sticks to the formula pretty closely. Women’s fiction readers are anyway used to the stories being predictable, so this can’t be considered a negative trait of the book. However, this approach also means that the story isn’t going to stick around in my head for long.

Recommended to those who enjoy women’s fiction. This is a good-enough one-time read. Watch out for the trigger though. The ending might make it feel-good fiction, but the journey has some painful moments.

My thanks to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Day Shelley Woodhouse Woke Up”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

The digital version of this book is currently available free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

Note: If you are a fan of this author and liked this book as well as ‘The Last List of Mabel Beaumont’, you can subscribe to her newsletter and get a free short story titled ‘A Chance Encounter’. This story blends the world between the two books, and is set after the events of Mabel Beaumont. It’s a sweet enough story, but not a must-read.