Don’t Wake Up by Liz Lawler [Book Review]

I’ve never thought I’d be the kind to enjoy a “medical thriller.” Funny enough, I hate going to the doctor, so why not read a book about a doctor seriously off their rocker? I was describing a “medical thriller” to a coworker and made her laugh because when she asked me what a medical thriller was, I said, “Well it’s basically someone killing people in a doctor-y way.” So as the winter came to and transitioning to spring, I read a book called, “Don’t Wake Up” by Liz Lawler.

IMG Obtained from NetGalley

First, you meet this woman, Alex, who wakes up on – what she realizes – is an operating table. She has no idea what’s going on except she obviously got hurt in some way. Waiting for the doctor to tell her what happened, she takes in her surroundings. The lights, the noises. Then when the doctor doesn’t say a word – although she knows he’s there – things go off track really fast. She realizes she got knocked over the head and she is in danger here.  When she’s later found, and recovered, she tells the story of what happened. The mind boggling thing here is that no one believes her story. Everyone thinks it’s because she got knocked in the head by some branch (she was found out in the parking lot amidst some storm wreckage). Not her fiance, not her coworkers, not her family. People just think she hallucinated some crime. The key thing here is that the reason they believe this is that she wasn’t physically harmed in any way.

Alex is a doctor who works in the hospital where she has been treated, making this all the harder for her to be doubted and questioned. Yet, while Alex is striving to be believed, more crimes happen. Two women die. And then things really start to fall apart for Alex because now the police are really suspicious.

There is so much going on in this thriller. To sound cliche, it will keep you in the edge of your seat. Alex is a strong, but vulnerable and likable character. I appreciated the fact that she didn’t ever doubt herself, but continued fighting for what she knew happened to her. I felt so sorry for her – and outraged – while everyone was doubting her experience. I thought Patrick, her fiance, was kind of a flat character and I really despised him for thinking this was in her head. In fact that was so unbelievably annoying that everyone thought this about the main character.

There are some plot holes, one I thought was kind of big, but it didn’t sidetrack me too much (I don’t want to give it away as it pertains to a key factor of the plot). Also if medical thrillers like this make you feel squeamish, I don’t think you have to worry. I’m not into the blood guts and gore, I only had to skim past a couple of scenes that were a bit too vivid for my taste. Most of this takes place in a hospital, and I know some people really don’t like hospitals, so if that’s you, you may want to pass.

This isn’t available until May 18th but you can pre-order this on Amazon today. And make sure to add this to GoodReads so you don’t forget!

I received the above copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.