Before I Go To Sleep
Summary:
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. [from http://www.sjwatson-books.com/before-i-go-to-sleep/]
Group Reviews/Comments:
6 thumbs up
6 thumbs down
With such an even split among the group, I’ll start with what people agreed on. Even those that gave it a thumbs down talked about it as a fun, easy read. People enjoyed the way that the clues were scattered throughout the novel. And even those that gave it a thumbs up agreed that it needed much better editing and could have benefitted from being about 20% shorter. And most agreed that the ending was much too pat and cutesy. We all noted that even the thumbs down contingent finished the book.
Those that gave it a thumbs up felt that the main character’s emotions felt very real (Christine was a likable and sympathetic character), the writing was good and the setting in particular was well done. Some commented that the opening was very clever. The story was fun and enjoyable to most and because of this, it didn’t matter that the plot was implausible. There were even a couple readers who stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to finish.
The group members who gave it a thumbs down talked about the “impossible” plot, the predictable progression of the story, the overly pat ending, and that the setting was “over the top.” Some readers felt that the book had a strong start but deteriorated near the end. Although the thumbs up group liked the main character–Christine, the thumbs down group felt she was overly emotional. Combined with the fact that it was a mystery without a murder, someone commented that they liked the book at first, but they wanted to kill Christine to make it a murder mystery! Others chimed in about the story not making sense and the plot and character motivation not being convincing.
