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The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

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Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
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“Before I Go to Sleep” Thrills While Still Capturing Depth

A middle-aged woman wakes each morning in an unfamiliar bed next to an unfamiliar man. That man is her husband, and that bed is the same one she has been sleeping in for the past 20 years. Two decades filled with events, moments, and people she doesn’t remember. This woman, Christine Lucas, has anterograde amnesia, the result of a head injury she acquired during a bad accident.

This is the premise of S.J. Watson’s debut novel, Before I Go To Sleep. Christine wakes each morning thinking she is still in her early twenties or younger and must piece her life together from the journal she has been keeping. Soon, she begins to question the only person she thought she could trust, her husband. She also discovers the chilling details behind her accident.

Watson does a beautiful job painting the life of a broken woman and the unreliable people helping piece together her past. His shocking twists leave both Christine and the readers questioning who can be trusted. However, this novel isn’t a page-turner simply because of the intense storyline driving it.

Watson is a talented writer whose stories are driven by their depth. Each page of Before I Go To Sleep is filled with such detail; it brings the characters to life and makes their situations seem real. At one point in the novel, Christine describes a memory she is recalling: a party she attended while in college. Though this party is merely the result of Watson’s imagination, it’s so easy to picture yourself there.

In addition, the characters are so normal that it’s easy to imagine them as our neighbors or even our friends. Though Christine’s predominant emotion is confusion, she still feels love, despair, happiness, and even shows a sense of humor. Her husband is not perfect either. He spends most of his time either working or caring for her, but he still feels frustration about being married to a woman who doesn’t even know his name. Because Watson’s characters are so human, it’s so easy to empathize with them, even when there seems to be a sinister motive behind each of their actions.

Given its gripping plot and its mysterious characters, it’s no surprise that Before I Go To Sleep was made into a movie. Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth star in it. However, despite these talented actors, it is unlikely the movie will be better than Watson’s thrilling novel.

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