After a surfeit of dystopian/fantasy/sci fi I was ready to read something realistic. I found that the three characters in Before My Eyes were all believable and compelling. In particular the character of Barkley, the disturbed 21 year old loner, was very well drawn. The book starts with Barkley going in to a Labour Day political gathering with a Glock in his pocket and the momentum continues to build. After the initial chapter Bock takes us back a few days and we find out how all three got to that day. I managed to keep myself from flipping to the end of the book to see how it ended and I was glad as it was so well told that I read it in one sitting.