Before I go to Sleep - S J Watson

 A good book that lives up to its hype.

courtesy: bookpeople.co.uk

Well, the story goes that the author was on a writing course and at the end of it came up with this novel which went on to become crime thriller debut of the year. I wasn't sure if I could hope the book to be that good. I have found the hype actually works against the book. Anyways, having read it now, I liked it and was surprised to find that for once the hype has not let the book down.

Gist:

A woman suffers from memory loss such that each day she wakes up and it takes her a day to figure out who she is and piece together her life. However, by the end of the day when she goes to bed, all the information is erased from her memory and when she wakes up the next day having to start start all over again. She then takes it upon herself to find out who she is and how she got the amnesia.

What works:

• The premise is good and the first few pages just race by.
• There are not too many characters to defuse attention and the author does a good job of maintaining the tension to some extent.

What doesn't:

• Although, the first few chapters are great, once Christine the central character, takes it upon herself to figure out why she is the way she is, the plot seems to clog with details which weighs it down. 

However a great read and quite an impressive debut. I will be definitely picking up more of her books.