Cover Image: The First Time Lauren Pailing Died

The First Time Lauren Pailing Died

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Member Reviews

I received a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to read this book as I love any stories that involve a sliding doors type scenario. In this story we follow Lauren and the different lives that she leads. We also learn how things that happen to her affects the lives of her family in different ways. We also have a missing person mystery which is the common thread throughout Lauren’s different lives. I really enjoyed this book and will definitely read any other books this author writes.

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This is one of the best timeslip stories I have ever read. The blurb does not do justice to the incredibly clever writing!
Lauren dies for the first time as a teenager and is then catapulted into other versions of her life, each time as a slightly older woman, with many of the same people around her but who are all slightly different, except Peter Stanning, who goes missing in every version of Lauren's life and in every version she feels compelled to find him.

The way the book is written, from 3 main standpoints, allows you to easily keep track of which time/experience/reality Lauren is currently in and who is there with her and what is different.. The variations in her life keep you hooked, along with the ever present mystery of what happened to Peter Stanning.

I can't say more without spoiling the book for others, so will end by saying buy it and read it- it is amazing!

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Whoa! This book was very well done, I've definitely never read anything like it before.

It's quite hard to review without spoiling, and I think this is one you should go into knowing as little as possible. I wasn't HOOKED until about halfway through, but when the hook started, it was strong.

I really enjoyed this story! Five stars!

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This book is gripping and sometimes confusing.
When the first Lauren is born in the 1960's and become a teenager in the 1970's her life couldn't be happier until a holiday turns into to tragedy and she dies, for the first time.
Lauren is now born in the 80's and living life in the 90's but her old life keeps creeping back with shiver of silver lights and she cant remember what this is happening.
Every time Lauren dies and comes back there is only one person that comes back with her thoughts and that's Peter Stanning. Why is he so important to Lauren and can she find him.

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Part One opens in the 1960’s with the narrative voice of, Lauren Pailing, a child who is able to see mysterious shafts of light which appear arbitrarily at random time, and which only she can discern. To reveal more about these sunbeams would be to reveal a spoiler. By the end of Part One, it is the 1980’s and Lauren Pailing has died. I wasn’t immmediately captivated by Lauren’s story, but I persevered and I’m so glad that I did because this is a real slow-burner of a story and by the time I reached Part Two, I was thoroughly absorbed by this time-slip ‘Sliding Doors-esque’ premise.

Part Two switches between various different narrative voices across time and is underpinned by the mysterious disappearance of Lauren’s dad’s boss, Peter Stanning. A sparkling and inventive read, which I found to be poignant and moving, and would chime with fans of Life After Life, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and Netflix’s The OA. This is an impressive and accomplished debut novel and I will definitely seek out any future books by Alyson Rudd.

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I found this book fascinating.

Lauren Pailing sees other worlds through beams of light. I really think the best way to learn about this story is to read it, so I won't go any further in describing the plot!

The book is confusing, but in a good way. You are forced to keep reading to try and piece together the clues and see if you can complete the picture. I read this book in a morning, taking it out and about with me and reading little chapters at every opportunity. The writing allows for this sort of dipping in and out and lends itself well to readers with a short time frame. I found myself musing on the plot lines and characters and I know I will read this book again and again.

This is an absolutely stunning novel and I look forward to reading other books by this author. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy.

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Thank you to Netgalley and HQ for an advanced copy of this book.

I very much enjoyed this and read it all on a rainy and chilly Sunday, it is splendidly written and the perfect read for a day like that.

I think the best way to go in to this book is with as little information as possible and that is why I shall not include a synopsis/overview of the story because I would hate to take any of the joy from a future reader. I will say this, if you read Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life and felt there was something lacking then this is the book for you (also if you enjoy Life After Life you will like this).

I look forward to reading more from Rudd in the future – definitely one to keep an eye out for.

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The premise is intriguing: Lauren dies several times and we see different versions of her life and the lives of her family played out. But Lauren has the ability to peek into those different worlds, and gradually they start to merge.
The first two-thirds of the novel flipped between Lauren’s different lives and stories. I didn’t find the characters wholly three-dimensional and the writing was sometimes a little jarring: a bit ‘once upon a time’.
But as the book went on, it grew on me and I really enjoyed the last third. I started to feel for the characters and the mystery of the neighbour’s disappearance - the connection between Lauren’s worlds - began to be solved.
So I did find it a game of two halves (or three thirds!) but I would recommend it as it’s original and clever and I think it will really work best for readers who like their novels very plot-driven.

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What a great book! I am always drawn to stories about the different ways life can pan out if different choices are made, but this is a much cleverer idea, which works brilliantly. Lauren is a very sympathetic character, but all the people in the story are believable and I really cared about what happened to them all. And I am still chuckling about Schrodinger's Rabbit!

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An amazing book that keeps you guessing all the way through. Thanks to netgalley and the author for allowing me to read it.

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A strange but intriguing read.

Lauren is introduced to us as a girl growing up in a tight-knit community, in a more carefree time before the internet and mobile phones. Her life is idyllic until she dies......... Even though I knew from the title that was going to happen, it still threw me as I was loving reading about her childhood.

As I read this book I was thinking of the film sliding doors, that I believe was on the basis of one action takes life a different direction. There's a more scientific idea behind this book and the story it creates.

I enjoyed following the different variations of Lauren and her family.

One line that stuck with me is someone asking her 'whats a cat!'

3.75 strange and intriguing stars

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Brilliant and lovely. One of my favourite books of the year so far.

I read The First Time Lauren Pailing Died in a single enormous sitting because I simply couldn't put it down. Every one of the parallel lives was fascinating in its own way and kept me reading. I loved the concept of the mysterious beams that only Lauren could see, windows into other lives, and I found it utterly convincing. Some things change from world to world, often quite fundamental things; but some things stay the same.

Alyson Rudd has a gift for making you care about her characters. I wanted Lauren to be happy, but likewise all the different variants of the people whose lives she touched and left behind. A profoundly moving book, full of grief and loss, yet at the same time glowing with hope. Highly recommended.

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As a child, Lauren sees strange lights, like sunbeams, that show her pictures of her family - but different. She draws what she sees, using art to understand the world as she grows up. Then she dies, and wakes up in one of those different pictures, having to make sense of a subtly different world.

There are several different threads to this, which sound confusing to describe, but aren't when reading the book! One thread follows her mother, as she deals with her grief and eventually has another child. Another follows her father, in a thread where her mother cannot cope with her grief. Lauren's own story continues, and eventually so does that of the world in which she dies for the second time. It's a fascinating picture of who Lauren became in two different possibilities of grown-up Lauren (and she's an appealing character) as well as how families deal with grief. One consistent thread is the disappearance of Peter Stanning, her father's boss - it has implications throughout the story for how each of the characters comes to understand their current situation. I also liked the subtle differences between worlds - one has no cats, and Lauren has to draw one to explain what they are, other differences are lightly touched on in characters' conversations.

I really enjoyed this, and would definitely recommend it! Thanks to NetGalley.

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Many thanks to Net Galley and the publisher at HQ UK for giving me the chance to read and review this book in advance of its publication in exchange for an honest review!

For me, this was a fresh, original piece of writing, and my experience reading it was thoughtful and joyful.

Right from the beginning, in the 1960’s, Lauren is an intriguing girl. We watch her growing up and we see her mesmerised by her ‘sunbeams’, her own secret, though one that seems to find its way into her drawings and paintings. She is an interesting character, even more so when she dies and reawakens in a ‘new life’.

The story alternates often between the different characters in the multiple worlds, but despite this it is extremely easy to follow, and not once was I confused at what was happening in each. Aside from the differences in Lauren’s life and the lives of her family members, there are subtle changes in the worlds themselves too. One has a female president in the 1990s, but Britain has never had a female Prime Minister. Another has extremely slow-boiling kettles and cats don’t exist. Life is a little less colourful, less bright. These small details are woven nicely into the story, padding out the different worlds and making them more distinguishable for the reader.

Though we follow Lauren herself through her various lives – jobs, boyfriends, husbands, children, deaths – we also follow her family members, and the ways in which they deal with their grief. In this, the story is made more poignant, more touching, than if we were simply to follow Lauren. I really enjoyed learning about Bob and Vera’s fates in the lives where Lauren has died, as well as the ones in which she lives. They are all wonderful characters, and though their lives are mostly very middle-class and seemingly idyllic in most ways, I enjoyed reading about them.

The way in which Alyson Rudd has managed to bring the different lives together through the mystery of Peter Stanning is smart. His story doesn’t take precedent over Lauren’s at all, but rather runs alongside it. At first it is almost unimportant, but as more parallel lives come into play, so begins an investigation into Peter and what may have happened to him. It all concludes very nicely at the end, in a very satisfying way.

To conclude:
The writing is lovely. It is extremely readable, almost like the author is chatting with you. It’s very cleverly done, and kept me at once entertained, and enthralled in the storylines. I really loved Lauren – she is so likeable. The grief of her family is felt by the reader too because you quickly get to know and love her too. Overall, it is a touching exploration of grief, loss, and love, is an interesting and beautiful read, and I would recommend it to anyone after something a little bit different, a little bit magical.

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I was completely mesmerised and absorbed by this novel and devoured it in a couple of days. It wasn’t just the story of Lauren and her parallel lives but it was also the story of those that loved her and grieved. Not sad, not mawkish but for me uplifting and truly beautiful.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher.

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This is my kind of book. I have read several of these alternative lives / timeslip novels and I thought this was a very good example of the genre. It is beautifully writen and there is a tinge of sadness and regret running through it. I did get a little confused when the chapters changed and had to remind myself who some of the charactes were. I think I may have to read it again to fully appreciate the theads. I liked Lauren as a character and also her parents in their various incarnations. Ron's character was more developed in the chapters without Vera. I did like some of the versions better than others - I preferred Lauren in her Tim days to her Simon days, and was sorry to see Luke written out. The hints of changes in the parallel worlds, kettles, cats, Prime ministers etc. were subtly done. The thread of Peter held it together and the ending explained it satisfactorily.

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Lauren Pailing is 13 when she dies in a tragic accident, yet she awakens as Lauren in a very slightly different setting where she needs to get used to her new reality. All along, Lauren has had the unsettling ability to see images that others can’t, that we learn are parallel realities.

With the continuation of Lauren’s new story, the reader also follows the impact of Lauren’s death on those close to her in the first reality… and then it happens again. The only unchanging constant between her stories is the disappearance of Peter Stanning – can finding the answer to his disappearance help Lauren to resolve her own life?

Reminiscent of Sliding Doors, or Kate Atkinson’s ‘Life After Life’, although not novel in its premise of chaos theory / parallel universes, this is intriguing with a wealth of interesting characters; a highly enjoyable read.

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** spoiler alert ** I enjoyed the style of writing,it felt almost chatty,and so the first part of the book,Laurens life up till 13 felt like a catch up with a friend.
Then she dies.
The style of writing didn't change,but obviously the story did.
Luckily it wasn't a book with huge cast of characters that you struggle to keep up with,just family,a few husbands,and one missing guy and his family.
I was pleased there was an ending to Peters story.
It took till fairly near the end for Lauren to do some investigating on her other lives,and not really sure for me that added to the book.
Overall it was Enjoyable,and definitely one I'll tell others about.

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Lauren is able to see beams of light which no-one else can. When she looks into the beams of light, she can see glimpses of alternate universes. The book follows Lauren and her parents as her life splits into divergent paths after an accident.

I enjoyed the book and liked the characters as they were written. I've read a few other stories in this genre and this one is not bad - it's more Sliding Doors than Kate Atkinson's Life After Life but very readable.

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An enjoyable read, really beautiful prose. Bears a lot of resemblance to other time travel type books, and is likely to be linked to them, but worth a read for fans of the genre.

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