2016 Book #87 – Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson

41swg71-9rl-_sx335_bo1204203200_Title: Before I Go To Sleep
Author: S.J. Watson
Date finished: 9/21/16
Genre: Fiction, thriller
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: June 14, 2011
Pages in book: 358
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: Terryville Public Library

Blurb from the cover:

“As I sleep, my mind will erase everything I did today. I will wake up tomorrow as I did this morning. Thinking I’m still a child. Thinking I have a whole lifetime of choice ahead of me. . . .”
Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love—all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may be telling you only half the story.
Welcome to Christine’s life.

My rating:  4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I read this book for the Terryville Library’s Fiction Lover’s Book Discussion group discussion for this month (September). We haven’t read any thrillers really in book club this year so I was excited to read this one, especially since I haven’t read it before and its a pretty popular book/movie (movie starring Nicole Kidman). This book tells the story of Christine Lucas, who wakes up each day not realizing where or even sometimes who she is. Sometimes she wakes up thinking she’s a child, and other times she thinks she’s someone in her young twenties, but she’s really in her late forties. Christine has been living every day anew after a tragic accident leaves her with amnesia. Every time she goes to sleep the slate (her memory) is wiped clean and she can’t remember pretty much anything. Her husband, Ben, patiently guides her through this process each and every day, selflessly putting Chris’s happiness before his own. But then Chris starts seeing Dr. Nash, who is trying to help her recover her memory. And one of his methods involves her keeping a journal. This concept allows her to read events from precious days and commit those events to memory during the current day instead of losing them when she foes to sleep. But that is when Chris starts to notice that Ben’s stories don’t add up from day to day.  And with her memory loss putting her in such a vulnerable position, how much can she really trust her husband? Or how can she really afford not to?
Overall I ended up really liking this book. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to finish before the meeting (it was this past Monday) so I read over half the book already knowing what the ending was going to be and who the bad guy was. Somehow though that didn’t ruin the book at all for me. This book grabbed me right from the first page and I thought the author did a great job of drawing in the reader with the way the book was set up. I also thought the author did a great job of building tension in the story. I was completely freaking out towards the end of the book, screaming at Christine to RUN! While the thought that Chris missed so much of her life because of the amnesia is sad, I thought her character had a great amount of strength. I really liked this one and I would definitely recommend!

The bottom line: I liked this book a lot, it had me on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what was going to happen! A great thriller, I would recommend.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

One thought on “2016 Book #87 – Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson

  1. Pingback: 2016 Book #119 – The Twilight Wife by A.J. Banner | Rebeccabookreview

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