Christine wakes in a strange bed beside a man she does not recognise. In the bathroom she finds a photograph of him taped to the mirror, and beneath it the words 'Your husband'.
Each day, Christine wakes knowing nothing of her life. Each night, her mind erases the day. But before she goes to sleep, she will recover fragments from her past, flashbacks to the accident that damaged her, and then-mercifully-she will forget.
Chilling, exquisitely crafted and compulsively readable, S. J. Watson's debut novel Before I Go to Sleep is a psychological thriller of the highest order. It asks primary questions. Are there things best not remembered? Who are we if we do not know our own history? How do we love without memory?

Posted On : Sunday, August 24, 2014 By carol@readingwritingandriesling

My View: This is by no doubt one of the best psychological thriller I have read this year. This novel is both a tense, at times unsettling, disturbing foray into the private life and thoughts of an amnesiac and a gentle examination of identity, infidelity, jealousy and history. Who are we really, whose story is true, and whose memories are correct? The use of a journal as a device to hear Christine’s thoughts, insecurities and truths worked well, particularly so in the last chapters to escalate tension and fear and to link events of the past and the now. The furious pace, the sense of urgency, my need for all to be revealed and understood made this novel a compelling reading. I found myself mentally urging Christine not to trust Ben, to get out; Ben - the all powerful, the keeper of all knowledge, the controlling Ben was not to be trusted. I was not prepared for the twist that had me lulled into a false sense of calm (But I won’t reveal the plot here). We were given permission to take some deep breaths at this point but only a few, then the fear escalated; I wanted Christine to get out QUICK. The sinister truth is revealed in a brutal manner. I did not see this coming. Then the denouement, a little too hurried and tied up neatly in a parcel wrapped with pretty string. Pity. This is a book that will reverberate in the minds and lives of many women either those working with or those survivors of, domestic violence; absolute power and control over others – domestic violence. This book was written with such sensitivity to the female protagonist in a powerless relationship that I did not realise until after I finished reading and looked up the author on the web that she was he. I read with such appetite I doubt there will be any ink left for my husband to read this next. I think it is a book he too may enjoy.