Being Lauren

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Being Lauren

Category:	Fiction
Author:	Melanie Rose
Publisher:	Matador
Price:	£7.99
ISBN:	1-905237-12-X
Pages:	300
Reviewed in issue:	1

Jessica has it all: a job, a dog and a promising new boyfriend. But after being struck by lightning in a thunderstorm, she finds her consciousness split in two. Part of her seems to have taken up residence in the body of an unknown mother of four called Lauren.

It's a fabulous idea – independent singleton turns into the domesticated wife and mother she might have been – and the beginning is both gripping and spooky. As long as Jessica/Lauren is both bewildered and scared, the novel is an edgy page-turner, evoking other tales of women stepping into other women’s shoes: Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. But as Rebecca/Lauren starts to adjust, the storytelling sags into a plodding realism, totally unsuited to the material. Being Lauren becomes more reminiscent of a quiet week on Wife Swap.

The edition is attractively produced and reasonably priced, but sloppily proofread. I could see it working well in another medium, a TV drama perhaps.

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