Thursday, 11 September 2014

Before I go to Sleep

SJ Watson's thriller relies on a very clever premise - if you suffer from amnesia and your memory starts afresh every day, how do you know what is the truth and that people are who they say they are.
Christine wakes up and has to piece her life together through photographs and written reminders on a Groundhog type daily basis. This could get repetitive and dull, but the excitement is that every time she uncovers a little bit of new evidence or hint of a lie, will she be able to note it down in time and then re-discover it before she goes to sleep.
Written in the first person, you are put into Christine's blank mind, but, frustratingly, you know what has gone before. Gradually you build up a picture of mistrust with her husband, Ben, as she discovers things that have been kept from her and with Dr Nash, a neural psychologist, but is it just Christine's natural paranoia following her accident? Her journal is a means for her to record her suspicions and remind herself of things that have recently come to light.