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A review by melbsreads
If I Die Before I Wake by Emily Koch
3.5
Trigger warnings: hospitalisation, stalking, cancer, death of a parent (in the past), death of a child (in the past), attempted murder, death, medical crisis, cheating?? (I have no idea if it counts as cheating when the person you're in a relationship with has been in a coma for over a year and you've been told they'll never recover...)
I was incredibly intrigued by the concept of this - man is in supposed climbing accident, man ends up in coma, man is actually completely and utterly aware of everything that is happening around him but can't move or speak or communicate in any way, man hears friends and family saying that maybe his accident wasn't an accident and tries to work out what happened.
So the concept was great. The writing was solid and I liked the characters. I liked the way Alex's narration cut between the present and his attempts at making someone understand that he's completely alert and the past, detailing his relationship with Bea and his love of climbing.
But. It's a very passive story. Alex can't move, can't speak, can't ask questions. He's limited entirely to what he overhears, what he smells, and then attempting to join the dots. As such, there's not much of an investigation and not a huge amount of tension in the story because you know that Alex is just going to keep on lying in his hospital bed and wait for information to come to him.
So it was GOOD, but it wasn't great because as a thriller? It wasn't particularly...thrilling.
I was incredibly intrigued by the concept of this - man is in supposed climbing accident, man ends up in coma, man is actually completely and utterly aware of everything that is happening around him but can't move or speak or communicate in any way, man hears friends and family saying that maybe his accident wasn't an accident and tries to work out what happened.
So the concept was great. The writing was solid and I liked the characters. I liked the way Alex's narration cut between the present and his attempts at making someone understand that he's completely alert and the past, detailing his relationship with Bea and his love of climbing.
But. It's a very passive story. Alex can't move, can't speak, can't ask questions. He's limited entirely to what he overhears, what he smells, and then attempting to join the dots. As such, there's not much of an investigation and not a huge amount of tension in the story because you know that Alex is just going to keep on lying in his hospital bed and wait for information to come to him.
So it was GOOD, but it wasn't great because as a thriller? It wasn't particularly...thrilling.