One of My All-Time Favourite Books: “Before I Go To Sleep” by S.J. Watson

The jacket sums it up better than I could:

“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.”

This was a page-turner that I found impossible to put down. My friend Heather brought it to book club to share, and am I ever glad I snatched it up first.

At the suggestion of her neurologist, protagonist Christine begins to record her daily events, and the doctor prompts her every day to find her journal and reread the past entries in an attempt to relearn her life and jog her memory.

Published this year and classified as a “thriller”, I found Watson’s story (which just happens to be his debut novel) both compelling and disturbing, and could barely stand the suspense as I searched along with Christine for answers to her growing questions.

I’m sure my friend was amused by my mid-book wild predictions (can’t share them here, as it I don’t want to spoil the first half of the book for you) but as much as I thought I had things figured out, I was wrong. There are lots of twists and surprises to this one. It’s a must-read.

Visit the author’s website at http://www.beforeigotosleep.com/.