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Before I Go To Sleep

by S.J. Watson (Goodreads Author)

3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 · rating details · 66,374 ratings · 9,477 reviews

Christine wakes up every morning in an unfamiliar bed with an unfamiliar man. She looks in the mirror and sees an unfamiliar, middle- aged face. And every morning, the man she has woken up with must explain that he is Ben, he is her husband, she is forty-seven years old, and a terrible accident two decades earlier decimated her ability to form new memories.

But it’s the pho...more

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published April 28th 2011 by Doubleday

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Man Booker Prize Eligible 2011

2nd out of 154 books — 226 voters

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The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

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165th out of 571 books — 511 voters

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Community Reviews

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Oct 10, 2012 Lou rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: june-read

June 15th 2am 2011

I am writing this down in my journal
I must do this otherwise I fear tomorrow I might not remember anything.
Anything about the book I read today or about me or my wife, well she says she is.
I woke up this morning and my eyes were cast upon a striking beautiful woman in an even more striking body wearing nice lingerie that fits like a glove.
I have no idea at that moment who she is, she says she's my wife but I don't remember being married! I am trying to piece together my lif...more

127 likes · like · see review

Jul 08, 2011 Cassy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Cassy by: CNN 2011 article about summer reads

Shelves: physical-own, 2011, fiction-adventure-and-mystery, region-europe, event-met-author

Sometimes I get flipped around while I sleep. My head ends up where my feet should be. As I wake up and wave my hand in the air for the nightstand, the freak out begins. Where the heck am I? It only lasts a few seconds before I figure it out, but the depth of my disorientation during those few seconds is always surprising to me.

So, the book and I were off to a good start when, on the page one, Christine wakes up confused in a strange room. Unfortunately for her, it is not as simple as seeing th...more

95 likes · like · see review

Jun 25, 2012 Jeanette rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: miss-trees

I can overlook a lot of bogus-tude for a good story, but this one exceeded my implausibility tolerance threshold. The analytical portion of my brain wants to give this an even lower rating, but it did hold my interest, so I have to be fair. It has a sinister edge that keeps you reading---at least until you start figuring everything out long before it's revealed.

If I listed all the laughable incongruities and convenient coincidences, I'd ruin it for people who just want an absorbing escape read....more

131 likes · like · see review

Jul 24, 2012 Jason rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: for-kindle, 2012, reviewed

My negative attitude is a ruse, I swear it. I am such a positive little outlooker. Nearly every book I read starts off with five stars in my head. It barely has to earn anything; it just has to hold on to what it started with. But wow, this book fell off a cliff or something! What the hell happened??

First let’s back the truck out of these plot holes and start from the beginning.

The premise of this psychological thriller is fairly straightforward. The first person narrator has amnesia. More speci...more My negative attitude is a ruse, I swear it. I am such a positive little outlooker. Nearly every book I read starts off with five stars in my head. It barely has to earn anything; it just has to hold on to what it started with. But wow, this book fell off a cliff or something! What the hell happened??

First let’s back the truck out of these plot holes and start from the beginning.

The premise of this psychological thriller is fairly straightforward. The first person narrator has amnesia. More specifically, she has a mythical combination of several different forms of amnesia which happen to co-exist simultaneously at the exact same time. Maybe that should have been my first clue. She has retrograde amnesia as a result of a mysterious traumatic episode that occurred years earlier, and on top of this she has anterograde amnesia which affects her episodic memory: she cannot retain anything new. My second clue that this book would be an eye roller is that she has a short-term memory capacity of many hours—essentially an entire day’s worth—and it is erased only when she falls asleep, which flagrantly stretches the definition of anterograde amnesia by a large margin.¹

So this unreliable narrator with her unreliable memory is trying to piece together the details of her life while basically having to start from scratch every day. I love the idea of this. I love the idea that without memory retention, one cannot build experiences and without experiences, he cannot forge interpersonal bonds with others, which means he cannot develop relationships or attain any kind of emotional maturity or love. He cannot even experience the feeling of anticipation because it would require a preexisting sense of future combined with a knowledge of the past, both of which are conspicuously absent when you have to be reminded every morning that you have amnesia to begin with. There is no future, there is no past, there is no anticipation of anything. It is only the here and now. Because of my interest in this I was able to suspend my beliefs a bit regarding the nuances of the narrator’s form of amnesia.

Still, Watson manages to muck it all up. The narrator’s sense of mistrust, confusion, and paranoia are there, but the frustration of her existence is glossed over at each subsequent sunrise for the sake of plot progression. And the ending, OH GOD THE ENDING. It devolves so quickly to predictable Sleeping with the Enemy–style fare that all enthusiasm for the psychological part of the story is lost. Truly, I think this could have been a decent novel, I really do. Watson’s clichéd structure, though, leaves too much to be desired and the book simply does not live up to its potential.

¹After writing this review, I came across a blog post by the author who sort of corroborates my assertion that the narrator’s form of anterograde amnesia is somewhat of a fabrication. Sort of.(less)

103 likes · like · see review

Dec 12, 2012 Petra X rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

If you lose your memory about people and events, then you lose yourself and you become the dupe for any and every scurrilous schemer because how can you tell who your friends are if you don't even remember them? And so it is for Christine who remembers only what she is told that day but can use a diary to remind herself of what she had remembered the day before. If you don't work out the ending, which isn't original but appropriate, then it's a really good read, if you do, well, it's still an ok...more

20 likes · like · see review

Jun 21, 2011 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Michael by: Michael

Shelves: thriller, mystery, 2011, british-literature

I was recommending this book by one of my trusty Goodreads friends and while I wasn’t too sure about it I decided to give it a go. I was thinking this would be a book similar to 50 First Dates but what I go was a book that reminded me more of Memento. Before I Go to Sleep tells the story of Christine Lucas, who is trying to piece back her life after suffering an accident that has caused her to have anterograde amnesia. Chrissy can remember everything that happens to her during the day but as soo...more

28 likes · like · see review

Jan 19, 2012 Nikki rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

I picked this up somewhat on a whim. A couple of people had been talking about it, and I saw it in the Kindle store, and I just thought... fine, okay. I'll go for it. I read it in about four chunks. It's pretty riveting, actually. The unreliable narrator is reasonably well handled and as long as you're prepared to go along for the ride, it works reasonably well. I guessed the big twist fairly swiftly, then thought I'd got it wrong, and then it turned out my first guess was right. That was pretty...more

33 likes · like · see review

Jul 13, 2011 Mo Shah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011

Argh. What a frustrating book. I want someone else I know to read it so I can discuss it with them, to see if they agree with my conclusion. Sarah, you should read it and let me know what you think.

I really really liked this book in the beginning. The concept, while not strictly novel (I can recall maybe half a dozen stories where amnesia like this features prominently) is utilized to great effect. The mystery is initially built quite satisfactorily, and you're drawn in as a reader.

Fairly soon...more

90 likes · like · see review

Oct 12, 2011 Brenda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Brenda by: Michael

Wow! What an amazing debut novel! I could not put this book down, it completely captivated me, I was wanting to know what would happen next, I was afraid with her, for what would happen next.....

Christine Lucas (Chrissy) goes to sleep each night, and wakes up in bed with someone she doesn't recognise, the house is unfamiliar, the clothing is not hers! The man she wakes up next to tells her he is her husband, Ben, they have been married for 22 years, they are very happy, and very in love. She had...more

31 likes · like · see review

May 30, 2011 Stacey (prettybooks) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-after-university, read-in-my-twenties, young-adult-fiction

Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?

This really is my sort of thriller: psychology combined with mystery, no gore, and a puzzle that needs to be solved. If you’re interested in cognitive psychology then this is definitely a book for you.

Christine wakes up every morning thinking she is still in her early 20s until she looks in the mirror and realises she’s 47 years old. The bathroom is plastered with photographs but she has no recollection of her friends, fa...more Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?

This really is my sort of thriller: psychology combined with mystery, no gore, and a puzzle that needs to be solved. If you’re interested in cognitive psychology then this is definitely a book for you.

Christine wakes up every morning thinking she is still in her early 20s until she looks in the mirror and realises she’s 47 years old. The bathroom is plastered with photographs but she has no recollection of her friends, family, her life and even her husband. She is able to transfer things from short term to long term memory but is unable to retain them for longer than 24 hours, meaning that when she wakes up every morning, the majority of her episodic memories – personal, autobiographical memories – have disappeared, and only her procedural and semantic memories (such as how to do things, the names of objects) remain.

We know as much – and as little – as the amnesiac in this novel. What I love about thrillers is the excitement of attempting to piece together the truth and this is something that is particularly important in this story. Christine is not being told the whole truth but a world where it is extremely difficult to distinguish fantasy from reality, what really is the truth? Christine is advised by her psychologist, Dr. Nash, to keep a journal in order to remind herself every day of who she is. It is the only thing she can trust and is the instrument through which Christine tells us her story.

I managed to guess the dénouement a few pages before Christine realises and I did not find it to be unrealistic or overly dramatic. The prospect of constant amnesia is frightening enough, but imagine knowing that it was a consequence of someone’s actions? I enjoyed this début thriller immensely and loved the way it was told. The narration could have easily become repetitive and irritating but Watson makes every day incredibly moving, emotionally frustrating and thrilling. Overall, I enjoyed the combination of psychology and mystery, and the unravelling.

This book was obtained as an eGalley from the publisher for review. (less)

13 likes · like · see review

Jul 21, 2011 Joe rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I only read reviews on Goodreads after I have read a book. I do this because after reading those reviews I wonder if I have read the same book as those reviewing it. Most start by giving a somewhat lengthly explanation of the plot of the book. Why? tell me what you thought. I know what it is about. I want to know what you thought of it. At this point I get really crazy because the opinions almost always are positive. I wish these people were my high school English teachers. I would have gotten A...more

90 likes · like · see review

Feb 17, 2012 Rose Ann rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012

Holy Poop! lol What a page turner!

I did not know how the author was going to be able to keep my interest...if Christine was waking up every morning, forgetting everything she learned from the day before. I was wrong!

I can't even imagine waking up every day not knowing where or who you are. Relying on a man who says he's your husband, a doctor that sees you secretly, and a journal. Starting new every day!
This journal she kept was her lifeline. Each day, creating her life story from scratch. If s...more

11 likes · like · see review

Sep 25, 2011 Doug Bradshaw rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

From the very first sentence of the book I virtually became the protagonist, an amnesiac struggling to figure out who and where I am and why I'm in bed with this older man in a home I don't recognize and then when I look in the mirror, I barely recognize my reflection: this older woman with wrinkles and body starting to sag a little bit, naked and blank both mentally and physically, totally lost and scared and befuddled.

Every day is the same awakening until with the advice of a therapist, she s...more From the very first sentence of the book I virtually became the protagonist, an amnesiac struggling to figure out who and where I am and why I'm in bed with this older man in a home I don't recognize and then when I look in the mirror, I barely recognize my reflection: this older woman with wrinkles and body starting to sag a little bit, naked and blank both mentally and physically, totally lost and scared and befuddled.

Every day is the same awakening until with the advice of a therapist, she starts to keep a journal and then incrementally adds various things she learns so that she doesn't have to totally re-learn her life every day.

There is huge genius and likability in this book on many levels, from her innocent and blank feelings about her husband's silly body parts, his need for sex, her duties as his wife, memories of lust from her past, her normal and somewhat randy behavior along side of her long time best girlfriend in college, to the normal things in the average life of an average couple cooking fish and peas for dinner.

Just because you're an amnesiac, it doesn't mean that you aren't intelligent and don't have instincts and feelings about the way you are being treated and cared for. As I moved along the story-line, there were many subtle clues about the real world that started to scare me, wondering what in the hell is going on, what the husband is doing, why is he so loving and patient, why does he give her slightly different answers to the same questions, what motivates him to be with her, to love her, his sexual relationship with her, etc.
I don't want to give the plot away, but the book moves fairly quickly from nervousness and wondering, to extreme stress and fear.

This is an excellent and unique book with many different levels of thought about life, relationships, roles, friendship, daily existence, etc. And, it gave me a little bit more insight into female thinking (or at least I once thought). I loved it.

Note after the review: One of my friends told me the author is male. Dang, but I don't like the book quite as much now. LOL I'll leave the five stars but I feel a little wronged somehow. (less)

23 likes · like · see review

Aug 25, 2012 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-thriller, 4-stars, read-in-2012

This book is disturbing, thought provoking, page turning.

Every morning, Christine wakes up with a stranger in her bed and sees a stranger in her mirror. Every morning, Ben gently explains that he's her husband, and that an accident 20 years ago left her with just a 24 hour memory.

Dr Nash suggests she keeps a journal, writing down all that she does each day. Through the journal's revelations, and a series of experiments he encourages her to try, Christine beings to get fleeting flashbacks, and r...more

6 likes · like · see review

Dec 12, 2011 Jan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: wishlist, family-drama, thriller, favorites, library-copy

Initially, I thought the premise of the book would be a less comic "50 First Dates". I was wrong...very wrong. The story of Christine sucks you in right away and you immediately see how terrifying not remembering anything from your past would be, which Christine experiences each and every morning. From characters so real you feel you know them, the story unfolds via the journal her doctor requests she keep and read each morning. I heartily suggest you begin this book in the morning as you'll not...more

11 likes · like · see review

May 29, 2012 Megan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was just OK. It hooked me right away, then got boring, then got good again at the end. The writing was fair, although I got bored with some of the repetition (which is expected, I guess, considering the nature of the story). Overall, it was entertaining and kept my interest. Also, I'd be interested in reading some non-fiction accounts about this subject (the heroine's rare form of amnesia), as it seems like a fascinating topic.

13 likes · like · see review

May 26, 2011 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: top-rating-books

Imagine this. You wake up one morning in an unfamiliar bed with a man you dont recognise next to you. You go to the toilet only to realise your hands look different. You look in the mirror to see yourself only alot older than what you can remember. The man you seen in bed says he is your husband Ben and have been married for many years but you cant remember this man and you cant remember ever being married. This is what happens to Christine who has to go through the same thing every day.

Due to a...more

15 likes · like · see review

Jun 27, 2011 Luanne Ollivier rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

You might have heard about Before I Go To Sleep - the debut novel of S. J. Watson. You might have heard that it's an addicting, incredibly well crafted, finely honed suspenseful tale that will leave you turning pages long into the night.

Everything you've heard? All that and more! What an amazing debut! Rights have been sold in thirty countries already and the film rights are sold as well.

Christine wakes up early and finds herself in bed with a middle aged man. One she doesn't know and can't quit...more You might have heard about Before I Go To Sleep - the debut novel of S. J. Watson. You might have heard that it's an addicting, incredibly well crafted, finely honed suspenseful tale that will leave you turning pages long into the night.

Everything you've heard? All that and more! What an amazing debut! Rights have been sold in thirty countries already and the film rights are sold as well.

Christine wakes up early and finds herself in bed with a middle aged man. One she doesn't know and can't quite remember how she got there.

"Usually I can remember how I get into situations like this, but not today. There must have been a party, or a trip to a bar or a club. I must have been pretty wasted. Wasted enough that I don't remember anything at all. Wasted enough to have gone home with a man with a wedding ring and hairs on his back."

She creeps into the bathroom, but the hand that flushes the toilet looks wrong. And when she looks into the mirror, there's a middle aged woman looking back. That can't be her - she's twenty five, that woman is at least 45... And then the man wakes up and tells her who she is - his wife. His wife who had a bad accident that left her with head injuries and severe amnesia. She literally cannot remember anything from day to day.

"You've had amnesia for a long time. You can't retain new memories, so you 've forgotten much of what happened to you for your entire adult life. Every day you wake up as if you are a young woman. Some days you wake as if you are a child."

Ben her husband goes off to work. The phone rings and she answers it - it's a man who says he is a doctor treating her and tells her to look in her closet for her journal. And along with Christine, we read what she remembers. Until she goes to sleep and forgets it all again.....

Can you just imagine waking up with no memory and reading a journal you've written with what you've learned or remembered about yourself? Every day. As we get further and further into her journal everyday, the questions arise - should Christine trust the doctor - or her husband?

S. J. Watson has done a phenomonal job at intensifying the suspense and building on it in subtle layers. I was reminded of classic Alfred Hitchcock films. The ratcheting tension is thoroughly delicious. The cover art is great too, with the fogged mirror and the woman peering through. Loved it, loved it, loved it!!

Be warned - you won't be getting too much shut eye yourself until you turn the last page of Before I Go To Sleep.(less)

11 likes · like · see review

Jul 15, 2011 Jennifer (Crazy-for-Books.com) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, mystery-suspense-thriller, read-in-2011, read-on-nook, received-for-review, received-in-2011, virtual-book-tour, ebook

From my blog:

"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.

And so begins Before I Go To Sleep,...more From my blog:

"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.

And so begins Before I Go To Sleep, the debut novel of the oh-so-talented S.J. Watson. Our protagonist is Christine Lucas, a 47 year old woman who suffered a terrible accident twenty years ago that caused an anomaly with her memory - every morning she wakes up not knowing who she is. Some days she wakes thinking she is a little girl; other days she believes she is back in college, before her accident. She never remembers that the man laying beside her in bed is her husband, Ben. Each morning he must remind her who she is, where she is, how old she is, and what happened to her. Post-it notes and pictures cover her bathroom mirror as a reminder of her life.

As the novel opens, Christine receives a phone call from someone named Dr. Nash who tells her that they have been secretly meeting him for quite some time in order to try and regain her memory. She agrees to meet with him. During the course of their meeting, Dr. Nash returns a journal to her, explaining that she has been recording her daily activities and that she may be able to find some of the answers she is looking for in the pages of her writings.

Intrigued, Christine rushes home and begins reading. This is what comprises most of the story - Christine reading back through her life over the past weeks. Some haunting and startling realizations begin to make their way to the surface. Christine is being lied to. Someone she trusts is not telling her the full story. But how will she ever find out the answers when each day begins like the previous one never happened? And who can she trust?

This book is riveting and taut with such undercurrents of psychological tension that you will not be able to put it down until all of the answers are revealed in the shocking conclusion. I absolutely loved this book and it is my favorite of 2011 so far. In the words of Tess Gerritsen, this is “Quite simply the best debut novel I have ever read.” Truly. I couldn't say it any better. Just read the book and see for yourself.

My Rating:

(less)

7 likes · like · see review

Aug 26, 2011 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you are looking for a psychological thriller that will have you guessing until the very last page what is happening, then I have the book for you. This is the best thriller that I have read this year and can hardly believe that it is the author’s first book.

Every single day Christine wakes up not knowing who she is, where she is, and who her husband is. It is the same scenario every day as she makes her way to the bathroom, where pictures are layered upon the mirror that explain who she is an...more

12 likes · like · see review

Jul 30, 2012 Joanie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookclub, south-shore-readers

I had to engage in lots of suspension of disbelief to let myself enjoy this book. In the end, I looked at it as a summer beach read and I was able to get sucked in.

The problem is that I've worked with people with brain injuries for over 10 years and in that time I have NEVER seen anyone whose memory resets every night. It doesn't happen. People with short term memory impairment forget what happened within minutes. They hate you, you leave the room, you come back 5 minutes later-they're excited...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jul 09, 2012 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Let me first say that I don't believe that I'm this book's target audience. I was torn between a 4 star and 3 star rating. Again a 3.5 would more closely match the rating I'd like to give.

The book is very well written at least in some ways. You'll get to know Chris quite well, especially as you will spend her days with her each one beginning with her not knowing who she is, where she is, who shes with or how she got here.

Following her through the days as she tries to put things together and to...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jul 28, 2011 Nicole rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Warning, totally spoilerific review.

I suppose I should have known that I wouldn't love this book, because I'm not a fan of "Trust me, you have amnesia" kinds of stories (50 First Dates, I'm looking at you). Still, it got such good reviews from so many different individuals and outlets that I thought that I might like it. In a way, I did, although I think that wanting readers to believe in the amount of coincidences and instances of negligence that had to converge before this novel's circumstanc...more

22 likes · like · see review

Jul 22, 2011 LG rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone looking for a page-turner

Shelves: recommended

This book’s cover had been eyeing me for days, so yesterday afternoon I relented and started reading Part One. Problem was, I could not put it down. Birds were chirping outside before I finally closed the back cover to go to sleep. But it was totally worth it. Christine’s condition sounds as fantastic as Leonard’s in Memento, but this apparently, tragically, happens. She relies on her husband to explain her life to her, every single morning. But she has not told her husband about Dr. Nash. Why??...more

3 likes · like · see review

Sep 27, 2012 Shannon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am writing this down in my journal, before I go to sleep... no, not because I will not remember when I wake in the morning but because I have to say that this debut novel was hard to put down. I oscillated between trusting and not trusting, not knowing who to trust if anyone, including Christine, the woman who wakes everyday, unsure of her surroundings, shocked at her own image etc.

The only reason I did not give this 4 stars is because I felt that it was hard to believe that anyone could love...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Gatorman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A fascinating and compelling thriller from first-time author Watson about a woman who, for reasons that ultimatley become clear, is suffering from amnesia that causes her to forget all her long-term memories and only permits her to retain her short-term memory for 24 hours until she goes to sleep, after which she forgets again, reminiscent of the film Memento. I found myself turning pages rapidly wanting to find out where the story was going. Although the ending wasn't completely surprising it w...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jun 18, 2012 Maciek rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller-mystery-suspense, read-in-2012

Here is a One Sentence Review: Before I Go To Sleep is a nicely written, taut and suspenseful thriller, lacking complex characterization of most characters and suffering from some tin dialogue, but making up for these flaws with its paranoid atmosphere, developing tension nicely and systematically all the way through until the very end, though Shutter Island it is not and doesn't escape the descent into the maudlin soap opera territory, which leaves a sort of a bad taste, but knowing that film r...more

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May 10, 2011 Barb rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: vine, contemporary-fiction, read-in-2011, suspense, new-in-2011

I had high hopes for this book to be a real nail-biter, edge-of-the-seat kind of thriller, that's what the testimonials and the promotional materials bill it as. Unfortunately for me it didn't live up to the hype.

I will say that it was easy to read and I read it in one day, eagerly anticipating the ending. However, what makes this story work is Watson's manipulation of reality in order to prolong the suspense. If the story had been more well grounded and believable I would have given it higher...more

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Jun 19, 2012 Megan Baxter rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Before I Go To Sleep is okay. The writing is nicely tense, and Watson does a good job of creating a sense of foreboding as the reader discovers what's going on at the same pace as the narrator. The book feels a little gimmicky, but the writing isn't bad.

The main character in this book has the kind of amnesia where your short-term memories disappear every time you go to sleep, and never make it to long-term storage. Or at least, aren't accessible there. She's 20 years older than she remembers, a...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Brittany rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What if you woke up every morning in a strange bed, next to a man you didn't know, unsure if you even know your own name? You get up in your confusion and go into the bathroom and look in the mirror only to see that you have wrinkles on your face and you are twenty years older than you thought you were. Sounds like a nightmare, doesn't it? Only it isn't. This is how Christine lives her days, every day, since her horrible car accident that left her like this. She must be told daily by Ben, who cl...more What if you woke up every morning in a strange bed, next to a man you didn't know, unsure if you even know your own name? You get up in your confusion and go into the bathroom and look in the mirror only to see that you have wrinkles on your face and you are twenty years older than you thought you were. Sounds like a nightmare, doesn't it? Only it isn't. This is how Christine lives her days, every day, since her horrible car accident that left her like this. She must be told daily by Ben, who claims he is her husband, although she feels as if she is meeting him for the very first time. She is given little choice but to believe and trust him and go about her day only to discover more things about herself and her life, things that she is keeping from Ben and doesn't want him to know about. Christine learns she has been meeting with a doctor quite frequently who calls her every day to remind her that she has recently started writing a journal, a journal describing how her life has been the past few weeks from her point of view. With the help of her own written words, Christine finds out that her husband has been hiding certain details from her, such as the fact that she had a son, that she had successfully written a novel, and perhaps most important of all, that she did not become this way because of a car accident. Instead, the event that impaired her so devastatingly was actually becasue of a horrific attack that left her bloodied, broken, and her memory virtually erased. The more she writes and reads her journal, Christine begins to get glimpses of memory back and starts to show progress. Yet, there are still questions that are left unanswered.... Christine must figure out why Ben has been keeping things from her and is not telling her the whole truth. Most foreboding of all, Christine needs to know why on the front of her journal are the words "don't trust Ben" that are written in her own handwriting.

Before I Go to Sleep is a thrilling first novel that keeps the reader guessing until the twist ending that won't soon be forgotten.(less)

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Would the book have been better with a different ending?	24	185	May 22, 2013 07:41pm
Mysteries & C...: * May Group Read: Before I Go To Sleep	42	104	May 20, 2013 10:27pm
How would you deal with re-inventing yourself every morning after you woke up?	2	30	May 12, 2013 06:21am
Bookworm Bitches : December 2011: Before I Go To Sleep	75	341	May 08, 2013 08:13pm
THE LISTS: Update 100% Before I go to Sleep	1	6	Apr 25, 2013 06:59pm

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About S.J. Watson

S J Watson was born in the Midlands, lives in London and worked in the NHS for a number of years.

In 2009 Watson was accepted into the first Faber Academy ‘Writing a Novel’ Course, a programme that covers all aspects of the novel-writing process. Before I Go to Sleep is the result.

Now sold in over 30 languages around the world, Before I Go To Sleep has been also been acquired for film by Ridley Sco...more

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Quotes from Before I Go To Sleep

“We’re constantly changing facts, rewriting history to make things easier, to make them fit in with our preferred version of events. We do it automatically. We invent memories. Without thinking. If we tell ourselves something happened often enough we start to believe it, and then we can actually remember it.” — 84 people liked it

“What are we, if not an accumulation of our memories?” — 48 people liked it

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