Book Review: Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson

This is a much-hyped thriller debut, that has been reviewed by several bloggers and got high praises. I think it got a bit more hype than is warranted. Nevertheless this is a great novel that deserves 5 stars anyway.

According to the cover of the book, the movie rights have been sold to Ridley Scott. Which means that a movie may or may not be made of this book in the near or far future. I think it would make a great movie!

Before I Go To Sleep: What it is about

Christine wakes up every morning not knowing were she is and who the man is next to her in bed. Every morning she learns anew that she’s had an accident years ago and can only retain memories of one day. As soon as she goes to sleep, she forgets everything again.

Unbeknownst to her husband Ben, she is in contact with a doctor, a neurologist, who is trying to help her improve her memory. He calls her every morning to tell her she has a journal hidden in her closet, which she reads and adds to. She also meets with the doctor every few days.

Through the journal, she realises that she sometimes has memories from the past and by reading the journal each morning she learns about herself and her past. She discovers that there is something strange going on. Her husband doesn’t seem to tell the truth about certain events. Is this just to protect her from learning about dramatic situations? Or is it so he himself doesn’t have to keep telling her the same stories over again?

Whilst this book starts off in a quiet way, eventually it turns into a thriller where Christine’s life isn’t safe.

Before I Go To Sleep: What I thought

I almost gave this book 4 stars, because it didn’t live up to the hype. But after careful thinking, I decided that wasn’t fair. The book was very good, but not quite as I expected. The thrilling element only started towards the end of the book. Early on, it was clear that some things didn’t make sense, but they were easily explained away. So, rather than sitting on the edge of my seat from the start (so to speak), which I had expected, I read a beautiful book about a woman with a memory problem and her attempts to find out more about the past.

The book is very well written and although the individual entries in the journal are a bit long (I wouldn’t think she’d have the time to write that much on a day), they told me all I wanted to know and nothing more. In other words, it never became boring.

I did some courses on memory during my psychology study so this topic is extra interesting for me. At first, the memory loss that Christine had seemed improbable to me, but then the doctor in the book actually said how rare Christine’s situation was, and so, it immediately was believable again!

I found it strange that Christine didn’t have much of a drive to do anything during her days, but later realised that she was busy enough figuring out who she was, etc. I wondered whether she chose the same clothes from the wardrobe every day as she wouldn’t know what she’d worn the day before.

A fast and good read, very believable. Only the end was a little too convenient for my taste.

Rating: 5/5 stars

I got this book: free from Harper publishers (ARC)

I read this in: English, the original language

Number of pages: 360

First published: 2011 (June)

Genre: thriller

Extras: There is a facebook page for this book and there may be another facebook page with excerpts of the book (that page didn’t work for me, but you try!).