Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Before I Go to Sleep

In this book, we follow Christine a middle-aged woman who when she falls asleep each night her memories of that day and multiple ones before are forgotten and lost and she wakes up in a confused state. She wakes up to a husband she doesn't remember, seeing a face in the mirror she doesn't recognize and having no idea how she got to this point, to begin with, other than she had an accident years ago that messed up her memory.

So I saw multiple people rating this book super-low because it's unrealistic but because I saw those reviews I was able to suspend my belief in this book just a bit. But even with that I genuinely don't think this book is entirely unbelievable (I know that TWO parts, in particular, could be like ok...that doesn't make sense) and maybe the disbelief comes from Christine's condition-I don't know enough about the brain and memory to refute anything though so I will say I enjoyed this book for what it was.

I listened to this on audiobook and I think the narrator did a fantastic job portraying a lot of the confusion and worry that comes along with the main character's condition. Also not to mention I was really wanting to know what happened to Christine all those years ago. I found myself on the edge of my seat, super excited, and also beyond nervous for her.

I can't imagine how terrifying it must be to wake up every day and have no recollection of anything other than the earlier parts of your life-maybe. It was so interesting and suspenseful and I had a great time getting to enjoy it.

Also, the way the audiobook worked made the flash-forwards and flashbacks kind of fuse together but rather than ruining my experience it intensified it because I wound up feeling as confused as Christine did and I think it genuinely put me in her shoes.

I will say the only reason this isn't a 5 or a 4.5 stars is simply that I can see where there were some issues with the entire story. Also because near the end my interest did kind of wane just a tiny bit-but besides that it was a super enjoyable reading experience for me.

Content Warnings

novi's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I read this in one sitting. It's so fast paced and I kept wanting to know what actually happened because right from the first page until the end, the suspense is always there. As we read more, we know that we can't trust any character in this book, not even the narrator (it uses first person pov from the main character). This book scared me a lot of the times and I didn't see the twist coming, even though it's not something very extra ordinary. But it's still good. I was scared that the ending of this book will haunt me, but thank god it didn't lol so this is not that disturbing. Even though if it did, it means it's really really good. But I still like it nevertheless.

Half of this book, we're reading the main character's journal, but it's not written in journal style, more in the novel style. Which is a bit weird since she has to write it in secret and she basically didn't have a lot of time to barely write before she sleeps and forget everything all over again, yet she wrote in novel style. I am used to writing journal entries for hours and I don't think I can do that lol. I understand why the author decides to do this, though, because if we readers read a journal version of it, we wouldn't grasp the entire situation

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mlebarrow's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Not the best written book but interesting enough to keep me invested in what was going to happen. Decent pace until the ending, the peak was quick and the aftermath was too perfect. Disappointing ending really.

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anigoose's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Bear 🐻 content was completely non-existent, 0/10.

As someone with neurological conditions, AND who studied advanced degrees in cognition and neurolinguistics, it really bothers me when authors pick the nebulous realm of "memory stuff" as a way platform to build their story upon.

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raegan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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