Book Blog - BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP by S.J. Watson

This week is our usual book blog and we've opened it up to include any book, no matter the genre, that we've read recently. I decided to feature an adult book, BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP. I read some of the reviews and comments for this book and the topic fascinated me. My grandmother suffered from Altimezer's desease before she died. Watching her memory disentigrate was heart breaking, but also brought up so many questions in my mind about how memory functions in our brains.

While the story is captivating, I also admire the author's craft. The content of the story makes for a very difficult writing structure. How do you write from the first person perspective where the main character can't remember anything that has happened before, but the reader can? Reading the story with the mindset of a writer AND a reader makes for a fascinating exercise.

From the author's website:

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.

But it’s the phone call from a Dr. Nash, a neurologist who claims to be working with Christine without her husband’s knowledge, that directs her to her journal, hidden in the back of her closet. For the past few weeks, Christine has been recording her daily activities—tearful mornings with Ben, sessions with Dr. Nash, flashes of scenes from her former life—and rereading past entries, relearning the facts of her life as retold by the husband she is completely dependent upon. As the entries build up, Christine asks many questions. What was life like before the accident? Why did she and Ben never have a child? What has happened to Christine’s best friend? And what exactly was the horrific accident that caused such a profound loss of memory?

Every day, Christine must begin again the reconstruction of her past. And the closer she gets to the truth, the more un- believable it seems.

P.S. All of the Muses will be speaking this Saturday on a panel for the SCBWI CA Northcentral Spring Spirit Conference. If you're there, please stop and say hello.