Book review: Every Time She Wakes by Petronella McGovern

I was a bit worried going into Every Time She Wakes by Petronella McGovern because it features a Groundhog Day scenario… so I made some assumptions about how it would play out. But… wow, McGovern throws that trope on its head as the world in which Suzanna (Suze) wakes each time is very different. Eventually she reflects on her daughter’s philosophy studies about timelines and dimensions, not in a woo-woo way, rather trying to make sense of her same-but-different adventures (and I’ve written before about my fascination with the parallel lives concept). In each though, Suze’s family is abducted, which ends in a tragic accident… at which point she wakes up. Again. In the past.

About this book

When careers counsellor Suze and her family are kidnapped from their home during a bushfire emergency, she thinks it's the end—until the van crashes and sends her two weeks back in time.

But only Suze remembers the terror that came before. Is it all in her own mind?

Then it happens again. And again.

With every loop, her world twists into a new version of itself. Suze must work out why this is happening and who is behind the kidnappings. But she's running out of time to save her family and wake up in a world she recognises.

My thoughts

I loved where McGovern takes this. In the opening of the book Suze and her husband Vincent are nervous about approaching fires, when they’re evacuated by a couple pretending to be fire fighters. The family is trying make sense of what’s happening when they have an accident… and Suze suddenly wakes up two weeks earlier. As any sane person would be, she’s confused by this but she goes with it, trying to understand what happened to her. And then history repeats itself, the family’s abducted; then an accident. Suze wakes again and this time struggles to brush off the events she (and no one else) experienced. What surprises her however, is that her life has changed. She’s in a different job and her nineteen year old daughter Frankie is studying something different.

The changed circumstances mean the scenario surrounding the family’s abduction this time around is different, but again ends in an accident. When Suze wakes the next time she’s again in a new job; as is her oldest daughter. It’s confusing and unsettling until she wakes to find someone missing from her life, and then it’s devastating. Suze bears an incredible sense of loss while those around her know no different.

In the background McGovern gives us a number of other players… Suze’s parents who feature slightly differently during each scenario but are always negative and belittle their only daughter. We’re introduced to a radio shock jock, Rowdy Mac (and I feel like McGovern was channeling a certain high-profile misogynist announcer; before later reflecting a circa late 1990s ‘cash for comment’ scandal) who Suze believes ruined her life. We learn two decades earlier she was working as a psychologist and a client accused her of sleeping with her fiance. Suze was fighting the baseless accusation when the patient went to Rowdy who leapt at the ‘sex scandal exposé opportunity’ continually referencing her in his show. As a result she lost clients, quit her job, moved back in with her parents and her father had a heart attack from the stress and humiliation.

Rowdy features in each scenario, but again… his connection to Suze and her world changes. Finally we spend time with Clio, friend to Frankie whose family are ‘influencers’ and live their lives online with the world looking in.

Every time she wakes Suze tries to work out what to do differently, to change what is yet to happen and to get her family back as it was. But it’s the changes to her past that she finds most upsetting, the parallel realities shifting as past-Suze has made different decisions to the original. And in each of those new realities she loses a little of herself and her identity, so she wonders… “Will I be left with nothing?” p 201

She starts to notice commonalties between past changes… yielding to others wishes (particularly her parents) rather than her own, eventually identifying a pivotal decision:

I’ve been replaying that behaviour ever since: repressing my own ambitions, giving in to others, keeping quiet, keeping the peace, keeping everyone one else happy.

To save my family, first I need to save myself. p 356

I have a notebook by the bath (where I read) to take notes as I’m reading and these notes have FASCINATING!!! scribbled in ink (and slightly blurred from errant bathwater). As a logic-lover I had to suspend disbelief at the events here, but I loved the theme of learning from our mistakes and not moving on  or growing until we do. This is a great read and one I highly recommend.

Every Time She Wakes by Petronella McGovern will be published by Allen & Unwin in late June 2026.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.