Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson

Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love - all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story. Welcome to Christine's life.

This book has been chosen as one of the books for both Richard and Judy Book Club 2012 (WH Smiths) and The TV Book Club (More 4) and since reading it, I can understand why. It is a  which is unputdownable. With clues throughout the book as to Christine's history, the reader is able to discover the story but Watson still manages to add a shock every now and then.

Christine wakes up every day not knowing where she is or who the man asleep in the bed next to her.  Each day she starts the day looking at the photographs around the bathroom mirror and the scrapbook her husband, Ben, has made and listening to him explain she had a car accident which left her unable to remember any her life. It sounds very scary to live with, but what happens in the book is even worse!

I was instantly captured by the book when I started reading it. It is one of those books that you want to read just one more page before putting it down but you end up reading a few more chapters, if not finishing it very quickly. 

Most of the book is written as Christine's journal, which she writes and reads each day to enable her to 'remember' what she did in previous days. Through the book the reader is able to understand her confusion. There are moments during the book that I felt for Christine and although I do not want to include any spoilers in this review, there were times when I knew something was not right and Christine was in some danger but it was not until the very end that the true danger she was in was revealed. 

It is due to the incredible writing style of Watson's that this book is fast paced, highly addictive and full of twists and turns which keeps the reader guessing until the very end.

This is S J Watson's debut novel and I am looking forward to his next release in anticipation although it will be difficult to top this one.