Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson

This month we read a psychological thriller, Before I Go to Sleep by S.J.Watson.

A sub-genre to the thriller genre, psychological thrillers rely on the protagonist resolving the issues in the plot by using the processes of the mind, rather than by physical strength. Features of this style are often a first-person narrative and access to the protagonist's thought processes.

Thrillers of all types rely on holding the reader's fascination by slowly revealing the 'truth' and that that 'truth' is not too easy to guess within the first half of the book. The reality is that readers are used to this device and often try to guess the truth at the outset as a kind of game rather than let the story unfold. The prize going to the reader who was "least fooled" by the author. In addition thrillers provide an opportunity for people to look for inconsistencies in the plot.

In this book the author had a great plot idea with a protagonist who could not hold memories from beyond her mid-twenties for more than about 12-16 hours and thus was the ultimate in the unreliable narrator. Many of our bookgroup, however, still found that despite this device the story twists were too easy to guess and found many holes in the plot.

The publisher asks us

Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?

The Sydney Morning Herald says

Christine has a problem with her memory: most mornings when she wakes she thinks she's 20; other days she's a child; then there are the days when she has no idea who she is at all. If the handsome, middle-aged, married man sleeping next to her comes as a bit of a surprise, it's nothing compared with the shock of seeing her forty something face in the mirror.[..]the novel is so good in fact, its use of point of view so extremely accomplished, it's easy to overlook Watson's literary shortcomings, minor as they are: the fashionable but these days overused short,crisp sentences; and the absence of literary experimentation, always disappointing in a debut.

However the proof of the novel is in the reading and this bookgroup received mixed ratings despite most agreeing it was a page-turner. For some it was because the genre simply doesn't appeal, for others it was because the twist was, for them, too easy to guess and for yet others it was the lack of literary style which meant they were kept interested for half the book but not the second half. For those who liked the book it was because it was a page-turner and was the right book to read at the right time.

Our scores range: 5.0-8.5
Average: 6.95