Critical Praise
“An exceptional thriller. It left my nerves jangling for hours after I finished the last page.”
“Imagine drifting off every night knowing that your memories will be wiped away by morning. That’s the fate of Christine Lucas, whose bewildering internal world is rendered with chilling intimacy in this debut literary thriller…. You’ll stay up late reading until you know.”
“The summer’s single most suspenseful plot belongs to BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP…. pure page-turner.”
“Quite simply the best debut novel I have ever read.”
“Memories—real, false, and a bit of both—are at the heart of Watson’s haunting, twisted debut…. Watson handles what could have turned into a cheap narrative gimmick brilliantly, building to a chillingly unexpected climax.”
“This mesmerizing, skillfully written debut novel works on multiple levels. It is both an affecting portrait of the profound impact of a debilitating illness and a pulse-pounding thriller whose outcome no one could predict.”
“An intriguingly fresh look at the amnesia-focused psychological thriller…. A captivating and highly suspenseful read, populated with believable characters who lead the reader through a taut, well-constructed plot.”
“Watson’s debut novel unwinds as a story that is both complicated and compellingly hypnotic…. Watson’s pitch–perfect writing propels the story to a frenzied climax that will haunt readers long after they’ve closed the cover on this remarkable book.”
“A deft, perceptive exploration of a fascinating neurological condition, and a cracking good thriller.”
“Brilliant in its pacing, profound in its central question, suspenseful on every page and satisfying in its thriller ending.”
Amazon Best Books of the Month, June 2011: Every day Christine wakes up not knowing where she is. Her memories disappear every time she falls asleep. Her husband, Ben, is a stranger to her, and he’s obligated to explain their life together on a daily basis—all the result of a mysterious accident that made Christine an amnesiac. With the encouragement of her doctor, Christine starts a journal to help jog her memory every day. One morning, she opens it and sees that she’s written three unexpected and terrifying words: “Don’t trust Ben.” Suddenly everything her husband has told her falls under suspicion. What kind of accident caused her condition? Who can she trust? Why is Ben lying to her? And, for the reader: Can Christine’s story be trusted?
At the heart of S. J. Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep is the petrifying question: How can anyone function when they can’t even trust themselves? Suspenseful from start to finish, the strength of Watson’s writing allows Before I Go to Sleep to transcend the basic premise and present profound questions about memory and identity. One of the best debut literary thrillers in recent years, Before I Go to Sleep deserves to be one of the major blockbusters of the summer.
Copyright
BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP. Copyright © 2011 by S. J. Watson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Watson, S.J. (Steven J.)
Before I go to sleep : a novel / S.J. Watson. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-0-06-206055-6 (hardback)
EPub Edition © JUNE 2011 ISBN: 9780062060570
1. Women authors—Fiction. 2. Memory disorders—Fiction. 3. Life change events—Fiction. 4. Identity (Psychology)—Fiction. 5. Psychological fiction. I. Title.
PR6123.A884B44 2011
823′.92—dc22
2010043159
11 12 13 14 15 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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