Before I go to Sleep by S.J. Watson

As I sleep, my mind will erase everything I did today. I will wake up tomorrow as I did this morning. Thinking I'm still a child. Thinking I have a whole lifetime of choice ahead of me ...' 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.

After a number of unsatisfying reads I was almost drooling over this book.  I had seen it being reviewed by a number of trusted reading friends and, while I avoided reading the reviews, there was something about the book that just drew me in.  When I saw it on the Express shelves in my local library just shouting my name - Hazel, read me, read me - I just had to pick it up.  

Even physically it did not disappoint.    A beautifully covered hardback with the rough edged thick paper inside.  There was nothing about this book that was, so far, letting me down.  I know, you are thinking that I am setting myself up for a big disappointment if the story does not live up to my expectations.  Thankfully it actually did live up to them - woo hoo.

Ok the basic concept has been done before, where someone loses their memory when they sleep and they have to solve the mystery that is their life.  Think the movies Memento (Guy Pearce) or even While you were Sleeping (Sandra Bullock) and you would not be wrong the idea is an old one but (and for once it is a good but) this author just seems to get it right.  He manages to get the balance between the emotions of Christine having to live this half life and the conspiracy theory that she believes is going on around her.  The characters are beautifully developed and so well written that I felt I could picture each and every one of them  This is aided by the fact that Christine does not automatically know what each person in her life looks like (or who they actually are) so she writes down a very descriptive journal to remind herself.

The story itself was an absolute page turner for me and my sympathies and suspicions kept bouncing back and forwards between three of the main characters - Dr Nash, Ben and Claire - which, I think, is what the author was trying to achieve.  I could actually almost project myself into Christine's mind and felt some of the same confusion that she must have felt each day about what to believe.  Such a page turner that I slept in the spare room just so I could sit up really late to finish it.

So why did I drop one star giving it 4 out of 5.  Well the ending was good but not mind blowing.   The last 40 or 50 pages were not as good as the other 300 as I guessed most of what was going to happen by then.  Don't let this put you off reading as up to that point I was really torn and had a number of conspiracy theories myself and really cared what happened to most of the characters.

A book well worth a read and one that you will inhale as it flows so well.