Book Synopsis
Christine wakes up every morning in an unfamiliar bed with an unfamiliar man. She looks in the mirror and sees an unfamiliar, middle-aged face. And every morning, the man she has woken up with must explain that he is Ben, he is her husband, she is forty-seven years old, and a terrible accident two decades earlier decimated her ability to form new memories.
Every day, Christine must begin again the reconstruction of her past. And the closer she gets to the truth, the more unbelievable it seems.
Review
WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
I found myself getting slightly frustrated whilst reading this, I was actually tempted to skip to the end quite a few times. It didn’t help that the author Steve kind of gives away the ending. “Don’t trust Ben” I mean WTF! How about adding that to the middle or something?! I love reading suspense/crime/mystery novels for the guess work and you get to come up with your own assumptions.
However, I liked the premise of the book and that the narrator is Christine because it made the book very interesting, especially because she believes what Ben tells her and has to rediscover everything again and again everyday. I did get slightly annoyed when she would doubt her own memories and let Ben and Dr Nash tell her she was making them up. I found all the parts about psychology and neuroscience interesting mainly because I understood what Dr Nash was talking about. At the mention of episodic memory, fMRI, etc I got excited, being a psychology undergrad and all.
I loved the ending! It was the best part, finding out everything that happened and all the action was brilliant; even though I’d guessed as much way before.
So i’ve mentioned this in a post earlier but this “NOT THE END” business at the end of the book. What does this mean? Will there be a sequel? If so do you think Mike is still alive? Also this is being made into a film so I’m excited to watch it when it does eventually come out. I wonder who they’ll pick for Christine. Who would you like to play her?
I’ve rated this book 4/5. If you liked this book you should read Sister by Rosamund Lupton and Room by Emma Donoghue.