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

Christine is a woman who wakes up each morning in a panic not knowing who the man next to her in the bed is.  And she doesn't recognize the middle aged woman staring back at her in the bathroom mirror.  And each morning the man patiently explains that he is Ben, her husband of over 20 years, and that she had a horrific accident 20 years ago that wipes her memory everytime she goes to sleep.   Each day she also gets a phone call from a man who tells her he is a Dr. Nash who is working with her without her husband's knowledge to try to bring some memory back.  Each day she writes in a journal what happened that day and hides it in her closet and each day Dr. Nash tells her where to look for it.  As the entries start to add up, and as she rereads them each, Christine starts to have some questions and some things are not lining up and making sense.  But who does she trust and believe?  Her husband? Dr. Nash? herself?  She can't even remember yesterday!

This was one tense, page turning, can't put it down psychological thriller.   Christine is totally dependent upon her husband, Ben, each and every day to fill in the facts of her existence.  But as she journals her days something in her tells her not to let her husband in on what she is doing just yet.  And the more she journals and rereads her days, while answering some questions it also raises so many more.  The tension in this book runs through each page  and doesn't let up.   The pacing is really good and keeps you riveted and turning the pages to find out what is going on.  Your emotions are really engaged with the main character as it is so hard to imagine this happening to anyone and the utter confusion they would live under on a daily basis yet the book is inspired in part by the lives of several amnesiac patients whom the author mentions in the author's note at the back of the book.  You really are rooting for Christine to get her memory back or at least to get the questions answered.

I gave this a 9/10