Imagine waking up with no knowledge of who you are or who any of the people around you are. This is the case for Christine who wakes every day with the memory of the day before and most of the days before that wiped as she sleeps. When a doctor calls and informs her they have been working on getting some of her memory back, she discovers a journal she’s been keeping and learns that a lot is being kept from her that she might not actually want to discover.
Before I Go to Sleep is a masterpiece of compelling literature, impossible to put down until you, like Christine, know the truth behind her memory less. Her world is so small, too, that it’s difficult to see the bigger picture as she pieces bits together of the life she does not remember, thanks to what the two men in her life – her husband and her doctor – tell her or help her remember. There are numerous hints along the way but the end still remains a true shock.
It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel, the writing is so on point. Tense, gripping and full of twists and turns, Before I Go to Sleep will certainly keep you up at night.
For the adaptation, BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP assembled an impressive cast, with Nicole Kidman taking on Christine and Colin Firth and Mark Strong taking on her husband Ben and Doctor Nash respectively. Seeing as the story revolves largely around three characters, it certainly helps to have a cast that impressive.
Inevitably, changes have been made for the adaptation. Christine keeps a video diary rather than a written one and it’s been ten not twenty years since her accident (possibly to explain how she somehow knows how to use a digital camera!). Yet, none of these changes are so large that they distract from the story as a whole and it’s truly impressive that even when you are familiar with the ending and know what is to come, you are still kept on the edge of your seat as the tension and suspense builds throughout.
Rowan Joffe, director and writer of the adaptation has created a superb thriller here that respects the novel but is itself a great film.
Watch the film first, read the book first – it doesn’t really matter. Just make sure you do both.
Book [usr=5]
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