Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson

Before I Go To Sleep (2011)
S. J. Watson

Grade: B+

Genre: psychological thriller

Sex scenes: the boring type you get in mainstream fiction

Source: library

There was a lot of hype about Before I Go To Sleep when I was on a work experience at Random, which is how this book was brought to my attention. It was high in the charts and the book club title on Eastenders for that week. The concept sounded interesting and my curiosity was piqued; being a Random book, it was likely deliver. When I saw it at the library, I thought that I might as well go for it, otherwise I would never pick it up again.

Memories are precious things; without them we would have no identity, no links with our fellow humans and nothing to attach us to the world around us. Christine knows what this is like; or, at least, she re-learns what this is like on a daily basis. Every morning, she wakes up lying in a stranger’s bed, next to a married man after a one-night-stand, with no idea where she is. The truth is that she lost her memory in a terrible accident and has to re-learn everything about her life every day before she goes to sleep, only to forget it all again by morning.

My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares

My Name is Memory (2010) (Hodder & Stoughton)

Ann Brashares

Grade: A-

Genre: YA romance

Sex scenes: fade out

Source: library

Re-incarnation can be boiled down pretty simply to the idea that when you die, you get born again in a new body. Daniel is pretty familiar with the concept: he's only done it dozens of times, again and again for the single purpose of finding the girl he loves - Sophia.

Daniel isn't your average re-incarnate. Unlike 99.9%* of the population, he has the unique ability to remember every single one of his past lives. Not only that, but he can recognise souls: people who were part of his past lives, which is how he manages to find Sophia every time. The names 'Daniel' and 'Sophia' are their names from their very first lives when they met and though they've changed time and time again, Daniel hangs onto the comfort of their familiarity. He's been filthily rich and dirt poor across several continents; some lives were substantially shorter than others but not in a single one of them has he managed to get Sophia (on the times he's managed to find her) to remember her past lives with him so they can have their happy ending.