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BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP
by S.J. Watson
Harper, February 2012
372 pages
$14.99
ISBN: 0062060562


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Christine wakes up every day thinking she's in her twenties. She's not. She doesn't know who the strange and much older man is who is sleeping next to her. She doesn't know who the older woman is in the pictures with him, the woman with her name. Ben, her husband, walks her through the apartment, brings her pretty much up-to-date, and then leaves for work.

Her telephone rings. It's a doctor, a man she has no memory of. He tells her to look at the diary she has hidden in the closet, and to take the cell phone with her that her husband has left for her. She looks in the closet and finds the diary. She has been writing in it for a little while, and has to be reminded every day to look at it. It is quite informative, more informative than Ben. Ben tells her she isn't remembering anything new, anything from before. The diary would lead her to believe that Ben is wrong. There are more complications, naturally.

Watson takes an abnormal, unfamiliar (at least to most of us) situation and brings it to vivid and frightening life. The reader sees this particular form of amnesia from the perspective of Christine, the victim. The research Watson must have done is amazing; the routine terror comes through quite clearly. Christine is a strong person, a strong character. Her doctor is incredibly patient, addressing her fears again and again while trying to get her to participate in whatever recovery is possible for her. He has his agenda, naturally, but it doesn't seem quite as "off" as Ben's, who seems determined to keep Christine to himself.

BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP is very mature for a first novel. The characters are well-developed. The story line and the plot both work quite well. Though the ending may not come as a total surprise to hard-core thriller readers, Watson does manage to keep the suspense going all the way to the end.

§ P.J. Coldren lives in northern lower Michigan where she reads and reviews widely across the mystery genre when she isn't working in her local hospital pharmacy.

Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, July 2012

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