“The Day Shelley Woodhouse Woke Up” - Laura Pearson

🪶 Pearson is the author of “The Last List of Mabel Beaumont” which I enjoyed. This one is definitely heavier. Trigger warning: DV.

🪶 TDSWU is told in 2 POV: Shelley’s childhood memories, and Shelley’s present time in which she has recently awakened from a coma due to horrific injuries that landed her in the ICU. In her present, she has no immediate memories of her accident or her recent past, and she’s struggling to piece things together; the medical staff don’t want to shock her system, so she is deliberately not given any details. 

🪶 We, along with her, are left to work out how she ended up in the ICU so she can begin to learn what is to become of her when she eventually is discharged from the hospital. It’s a very disarming narrative because we feel Shelley’s vulnerability acutely.