Before I Go To Sleep

By: S J Watson

Narrated by: Susannah Harker

Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of CWA Best unabridged Crime Audiobook 2012.

Winner – CRIME THRILLER OF THE YEAR – BRITISH BOOK AWARDS

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.

©2011 S J Watson (P)2011 Random House Audio Go

Critic reviews

“Quite simply the best debut novel I've ever read.” (Tess Gerritsen)

“Brilliant in its pacing, profound in its central question, suspenseful on every page - and satisfying in its thriller ending.” (Anita Shreve)

“A deft, perceptive exploration of a fascinating neurological condition, and a cracking good thriller.” (Lionel Shriver)

“A terrific first novel - well-written, genuinely unsettling and psychologically very plausible. Thrillers seldom come much better than this. Loved it, read it in one.” (Joanne Harris)

“An exceptional thriller. It left my nerves jangling for hours after I finished the last page.” (Dennis Lehane)

“So high-concept, so ambitious and so structurally brilliant. It's so rare to read a thriller that's perfect in every detail, but this one definitely qualifies!” (Sophie Hannah)

“A deeply unsettling debut that asks the most terrifying question - what do you have left when you lose yourself?” (Val McDermid)

“A truly amazing debut. The central character, Christine, is beautifully drawn. It's hard to imagine a more compelling, believable and sympathetic portrayal of a damaged human being. I loved it from start to finish.” (Mo Hayder)

Brilliant! Great words, and great story!

I wish that I had thought of it. Such detail, really enjoyed it. Kept the traffic away.

Great oration ...overstretched book

The orator is excellent. The book is unnecessarily stretched with a lot of details that could have been skipped .
Overall an avoidable book.

like a thriller version of 50 first dates

If you could sum up Before I Go To Sleep in three words, what would they be?

Twists, enjoyable, gained momentum

What did you like best about this story?

As the listener, I wasn't always sure who was to be trusted, so it kept you second guessing what was happening. Got better as you became more involved.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Not a lot of intonation in the readers voice. Too flat and monotonous for me.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, too long, but did put it straight on when I got into the car so I could keep going with the story.

Any additional comments?

I found the chronology a bit confusing. I'm still unsure about some of the time frames. Also, it was pretty slow starting out, but as the story unfolded it became more interesting.

Very good premise, not so great execution

The book starts out well and has great potential. Unfortunately somewhere along the way the author decided to go into long, tedious descriptions, thoughts, ruminations of the main character and the like. Over, and over, and over. In an audio book it's a lot harder to skip the boring bits, and there were plenty of them. Cutting the book by about a third would have improved it immensely.

In addition the narrator sounded like a robot and read the book in a monotone.

If they come out with an abridged version with a different narrator, maybe try that.

Well read, intelligent, psychological thriller!

I was worried that a story whose main character is an amnesiac could come off as sort of a cheap story trick, like the ending 'then I woke up and realised it was all a dream', but this story really works, its well though out. The story is told from the first person point of view, Christine, the amnesiac in question, and we discover her story a little more each day. There is something very unsettling about this book from the beginning. Well imagine if you woke up with no knowledge of yourself or your life, who would you trust? That is scary. As a listener you are not sure if the doubt is valid or if there really is something more sinister going on. Then just how much we are in her head is claustrophobic and adds to the sense of something being really wrong, when she talks to someone, she is searching for clues as to who she is, so we are there with her, in her head, not just witnessing the conversation. I was very eager to keep listening to find out what happens next. The end, well you see it coming, but that isn't a weakness of the story, on the contrary, it just fills you with a sense of wanting to warn her, like someone about to get attacked by the boggy man in a film. The characters are all well developed, seem like real people. Please I want to know what happens to Christine the day after this book ends!

The reading is very good too. The voice is soft and feminine, matches the character of Christine very well. Its not read boring and flat, but neither over emphasised which can get annoying after several hours of listening.

After getting several books that were so disappointing I didn't even finish them, I finished this one over a long weekend. I really recommend it.

started slow but moved on fast!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I actually thought this novel was going to be tedious but it was not. I have recommended the story to many other. To hea that it will be come a film next year is an exciting event.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The book had a fantastic twist. I had guessed it initially but then second guessed myself. When it all came to an end I was still in shock.

Excellent!

So well written, gripped me to the very end, trying to figure it out. Perfectly narrated.

The central idea is positively scary!

The idea that everything is erased from your memory each time you go to sleep is a frightening one and one that is totally new to me.
The book is beautifully read and is a very taut psychological thriller. I found it impossible to work out the full denouement so it kept me in suspense up to the very end.

Must listen!

I loved it and will watch the movie next.

Can't think of anything I didn't like about it.

Download now.

Good idea

Good idea! A nice psychological thriller, maybe a sightly repetitive at the beginning but well written