Hey friends! How are you doing? I woke up pretty happy today which is usually not the case. This weekend is my free weekend and I already told myself I’m going to spend it resting, reading, and eating. I recently finished reading Before I go to sleep by S.J. Watson and had a full meltdown on my Instastory. (You should follow me to watch my real-time reactions to the books I read). I knew I was going to write a review on the blog the moment I finished reading it. (I’m keeping my promise of posting more book reviews on the blog.)
Version of the book I read
I read the paperback published by Black Swan in 2012.
Synopsis
“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.
Every day, Christine must begin again the reconstruction of her past. And the closer she gets to the truth, the more unbelievable it seems.”
My thoughts
I randomly bought this earlier in the year from my second-hand book plug on Instagram after I read the synopsis and checked out the Goodreads rating. It sounded like a book I’d like and it was only N1,000 (Naira) which is pretty cheap especially in “Buhari’s economy”! Before I go to sleep started off with the main character, Christine, who wakes up every morning not knowing where she is or remembering anything about herself. She wakes up in bed beside a man who is apparently her husband and he is ever so patient and willing to explain what happened to her that she was involved in a car accident that left her with antegrade amnesia. Every day, we go through this dizzying experience of her waking up a stranger to herself and it started to get a little boring but as we start to uncover some secrets and get answers to the “why” and “how”, it picked up. She keeps a journal and reads it every morning to try to jog her memory and through this, we find out her husband might not be telling her the full story.
The writing was great and engaging. The pace was a little slower in the first half. With every journal entry, It started to feel like an unending cycle. To be honest, the plot twist made it worth reading and it shook me because I suddenly realised how horrifying and creepy this book is. I have read a lot of thriller novels and while this didn’t grip me as much as I wanted it to in the beginning, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Rating
The moment I finished reading Before I go to sleep, I had a sudden need to read another thriller/mystery novel but I haven’t been able to find any.
Have you read Before I go to sleep and did you enjoy it?
- Tosin
I haven’t read this book before or frankly even heard of it so thank you for sharing your review. I usually wait a day or two after reading before writing my review and settling on my rating as I do have it change once in a while in the meantime. ☺️
Thank you for reading. It was such a random buy. Re- ratings, I need to do that more. 😅
I particularly chose to read this review because I see this book in my neighbourhood thrift bookshop and wanted to see if it’s worth buying. After reading this, I’ll probably buy it next time I go there.
Glad you read my review. I hope you enjoy reading it when you eventually buy it.