Awakened by Laura Elliot @tinymeetsworld

Thank you to @netgalley , the author and @angryrobotbooks for this amazing ARC ♥️

As both a scientist, a chronic pain sufferer and a mother who is getting no sleep with a baby, this book hit me emotionally hard!! I was instantly completely immersed and nodding my head at so many parts.

Just the way in that science is portrayed, as both being clinical but managed by a human who has emotions, was done absolutely perfectly. I rarely reread books, but I’ll be getting a physical copy of this because I feel that I’ll get so much out of it on future reads also.

The writing style is fascinating; you’re very much in the mind of the main character Thea, who is an interesting persona to say the least, and I just loved that she battled with trying to advance science/research with ethics. People can view scientists as cold, uncaring and clinical but we are really not; we care about what we are doing and want to help people, and I love that the author recognised this and addressed it (thank you!).

It addresses chronic fatigue syndrome empathetically and people with pain conditions. So many quotes stood out to me. I loved this one “the problem with the pain scale and an outside perspective is that it presupposes a starting level of zero pain… from that starting point we then assume that anyone who’d suddenly found themselves at a pain level of nine would be screaming. But what happens when the starting point is a six or seven? What would be the point in screaming? Where does tolerance diminish and animal instinct kick in?” - Love this!!! As someone who has a damaged nervous system and my body doesn’t understand normal pain stimulus, I’m in constant pain. But I’m used to it, so I can manage life with it. Does it mean I’m not in pain? No! Like I said; this was an emotional read for me, even before I get into saying how exciting the premise is, the twist at the end and the on point character development.

I will end my ramble here, but it’s a 5 star from me, and if any of the above resonate with you, please do read it. And if not, then you’ll want to read it for the plot anyway!