Tia, the Asian housekeeper, oh so amusingly refers to Silvia as “Mrs Shit”: “Tia has been taught to swear by her two sons who were born and grew up in England, and who amuse themselves by cajoling her into using utterly inappropriate language. Whilst I did find him to be a well-developed character, I found him extremely dull and found myself wishing that he'd just stop talking. It's a story about loss and saying goodbye, but it's also a story about finding the truth and finding love.

For example, when Jo tries animal therapy on Silvia, including a stick bug who "alien-like" clamps onto her face and "does a little clinging-on bouncy dance instead.Some of the characters felt a little too bonkers and I was worried the book would end up feeling forced with these character-based chapters. As I am meant to, I started the book feeling certain ways about several characters and slowly and with revelations suddenly found victims and their controllers were switching places, reasons for behaviours were shed light on, misconceptions were cleared. Each brings their own issues and slowly reveals Sylvia's past, their issues and relationships with her bringing the reader into the know of just who Sylvia is. Though there are quite a few narrators, they were all very distinctive and even if it didn't have their names at the beginning of each chapter, you'd know who they were. Each chapter is about an individual character, often running as their own monologue of their thoughts about Silvia or the things they have to say to her.

I understand that the whole point of the novel with its multiple storytellers is that we understand how multifaceted people are and that different people mean different things to different people, but there is no cohesiveness within the character of Silvia. This book follows Silvia Shute, who is currently in a coma in hospital after falling three floors from her balcony.Though this is written by a comedienne, it does have quite a lot of serious issues brought up which added sincerity and seriousness to the writing, which I appreciated. I didn’t like many of the characters apart from Winnie and Cassie (and Willow), but it was interesting to read how their stories interacted as they talked with Silvia - their friend, ex-wife, employer, mother and patient - who was in intensive care in a coma. Then, there were other aspects which really irritated me, such as the VERY OVERUSED dialect of Winnie. Additionally, it's hard to believe that each one of these characters would speak aloud and at such length to the comatose Silvia - pouring out their thoughts and dreams in a busy hospital.

I will not include any spoilers, but the book has one of the most awful characters ever written, the most hateful person ever.The story centres on Silvia, who is in a coma following a fall from a balcony, the setting is predominantly the hospital and the narrators are a series of visitors Silvia has over a period of time. After having read "A tiny bit marvellous" - Dawn French's debut fictional novel - I had high hopes for Oh Dear Silvia, but I was also slightly apprehensive.