Ohhhh. I finished, just the other day, an amazing proof copy of a book due out next month. Before I Go to Sleep was an incredible debut by S J Watson and I have fallen in love with adult fiction all over again.
The title of the post says it all to be honest. Christine wakes up each morning, unaware of the past twenty years of her life. She gets out of the bed she shares with her husband, Ben, and sees the pictures round the bathroom mirror, explaining who she is. But each morning, Christine also remembers. A little more each day. And Ben isn’t telling her the whole truth.
This novel was simply brilliant. As Christine begins writing everything down, and remembering some of it on her own, her life begins to make less and less sense. It’s a wonderful mystery that kept me gripped right to the end. It also kept me guessing, and whenever I thought I had the answers, Watson would switch everything around and have me guessing all over again.
Christine is a brilliant character, determined not to give in to her condition, but to fight it. Each day, she is given the chance to begin again but she never chooses to forget. I cannot really explain how good this book was without giving away a whole lot of plot (which I don’t want to do) but I really urge you to read it.
I might not have read a lot of crime thrillers, but I’m pretty sure this is how they’re supposed to be done.
