Rachel Reviews: Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson

It's a great idea for a story. Christine is a woman who cannot remember her life once she has fallen asleep. Every day, she wakes up and is reintroduced to the people who inhabit her world and every night, she forgets them. It's a difficult thing to get your head round and from a writer's viewpoint, a tricky thing to write about, I would think, but Watson has it all figured out and this is a well-crafted book which is tense and bewildering, leaving you, like Christine, wondering what the hell is going on.

Christine is a married woman who lives with Ben. Every morning she wakes up next to him and doesn't know who he is. He has plastered pictures all around the mirror to help with her orientation when she gets up in the morning. This marginally lessens her panic but it remains unfamiliar to her, even if the information is correct. And so it repeats. Except that we as readers enter the story at a point where Christine begins to write a journal and it is in the writing of this journal that Christine's recovery starts to gain traction. She has appointments with a Dr Nash who phones her every day and points her in the direction of the journal in order for her to recollect what she has learnt and so, each day from this point forward, she doesn't start with a completely blank page. The idea, from the doctor's point of view, is that if blocks of memory can be preserved from day-to-day, then perhaps the brain will be able to use that foundation on which to build and recall more, and help to reconstruct Christine's life for her.

Watson does the confusion that Christine feels very well and also leaves us guessing throughout the book about who is trustworthy and who isn't, leading to an ending which is highly charged and surprising. Can she trust Ben, her husband, who she wakes up next to every day? Who is the red-haired woman in her flashbacks and why can't she remember her name, even though she feels like a best friend? Was she ever a mother? Is Dr Nash who he says he is or is he another manipulator with a motive?

It's good, a gripping and perplexing read, as you try to grapple with what is happening to Christine. You are led to the truth in a similar way to Christine as more and more is remembered by her and the picture of who she is and what her life was is gradually revealed.

As thrillers go, this is pretty thrilling!

Rachel Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐