Book Review: Before I Go To Sleep by S.J.Watson

Cristine's life is everything but ordinary. Every single day is a blank page for her. She suffers from amnesia and every morning she wakes up not remembering the last twenty years of her life. There is a diary that she writes every day, and she re-reads it every other day. But the most confusing is the sentence in the diary: Don't trust Ben. Ben is her husband, her loving husband who does everything he can to help her coping with her condition. She sees a psychiatrist who helps her to remember, who calls her every single day to tell her to read her secret diary. With every other day, memories rise from the dark. Is Cristine the person she thinks she is? Is the life she lives real or everything in her life is a lie? Who can she trust?

 Before I Go To Sleep is a complex drama that includes three main characters, Cristine, her husband and her doctor. Every single one of them is full of secrets, everyone has something to hide. Cristine hides her newborn memories, Ben hides the past, and the doctor hides himself from Ben. The three characters are very complex and it was very hard for me to connect with any of them. There is no much action in the story, but every dialogue is fullfilled with tension and doubts. Every time when Christine remembers, there is a question mark about that memory, is it real or is it just a fantasy? Can memories be placed?

I must say that the end really surprised me. I was expecting some turn-over, but I wasn't expecting that end. After so slow-paced drama, it hit me like a rock. The gripping end saved the whole story and that's why I'm giving it higher grade.

 My opinion: 4 / 5.