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Post 7: The End


This book has been heralded as a “pure page-turner” and “heart-racing” and in my opinion, the ending is the only part which lived up to this praise. In the final pages of Before I Go to Sleep, it is revealed that Ben is not who he says he is. Christine talks with Claire on the phone, who says Ben had a scar on his face, unlike the man who says he is Ben. After confronting him, Christine learns that he is, in fact, the man she had an affair with before she lost her memory. His name is Mike, and they met in a coffee shop and fell in love, though Mike more than Christine. When Christine tried to break it off, Mike became enraged and lured her to a hotel in Brighton under the premise of a romantic night with the real Ben. He then severely assaulted her, leaving her on the side of the road with a damaged memory. As Christine recovered, he stayed close by and when her real husband divorced her an handed her over to a mental asylum, Mike stepped in. He claimed he was her husband and brought her home, lying about the existence of her son and her husband. Throughout telling Christine this, he asserts that he loves her and that she doesn’t need Ben or Adam, who are both actually alive and well. He then proceeds to burn Christine’s journal, in order to keep her imprisoned and ignorant forever, but ends up starting a large fire in the hotel they are staying at. The last scene involves Christine waking up in a hospital injured, with Ben and Claire by her side, to be told that Mike is dead from the fire. The readers are left to believe that she gains back all of her memory and returns to her real husband, Ben.  
I think the twist was shocking. I was definitely not suspecting that Ben was lying about his identity, but was right that he was guilty. However, I found it frustrating that the author introduced an entirely new character (Mike) who we had seen no hint of before and used him as a scapegoat for the crime. He also shoved the characters of Ben and Adam in at the last moment. It is definitely not a sophisticated literary technique, but then again the whole novel is not aiming for sophistication (this is exemplified in first the dubious medical viability of Christine’s condition and then her miraculous recovery).
There was no resolution with Christine’s relationship with Dr. Nash. Though she kissed him and spoke of love, there was no mention of their entanglement at the end of the book. That concept just disappeared, which I found to be an uncomfortably large plot hole.
I was pleased that Christine found strength and truth in Claire and really liked Claire’s matter-of-fact and strong character. However, though she finds this strength in a female friend, Christine cannot find it in herself. She still has to be rescued from the situation and cannot manage to fight away, which shows a lesson that girls need to wait to be saved. Christine also returns to the real Ben immediately, on the basis that she remembers their marriage, demonstrating the view that girls can’t be independent.
My impression of the book improved by the exciting end, but I spent too long a time of being bored and frustrated to have an overall positive experience with Before I Go to Sleep.

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