Fast-paced psychological thriller about a woman who forgets everything from the past two years every time she falls asleep. Her amnesia is caused by a traumatic event and throughout the book she tries to understand what is happening to her and why she can't get in touch with the people who were closest to her before the traumatic event. A slightly far-fetched plot but an enjoyable read nonetheless.

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin is a superb read with an engrossing plot and vibrant characters. Well worth the read!

Remember that cute rom-com with Sandler and Barrymore called Fifty First Dates? Well take that scenario and switch the rom-com for a psychological thriller and you've got Megan Goldin's latest offering, Stay Awake.

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a NYC cab only to realize she has no idea how she got here or where she is. In fact, she can't remember the last two years. Her last memory was of answering a call at her work for Cultura magazine on a hot summer day. Her hands are covered in writing saying things like Stay Awake, Don't trust anyone, etc. She also has a bloody knife among her belongings which is terrifying because she would never hurt anyone and she can't figure out why she would have such a thing.

Then she sees the news and that the cops are looking for her in connection to a man murdered. The most frightening thing is that scrolled on the window in the room in which he was murdered are the words Stay Awake in the victims blood. Surely she didn't do this...did she?

This one started off with a bang and I was all in trying to figure out what in the heck was going on. Liv is an unreliable narrator but a likeable one so rooting for her was never a problem. I also enjoyed the homicide detectives on the case, Darcy Halliday and Jack Lavelle, and I would not be at all surprised if they are featured again in a future novel. My only issue is that I had this one figured out fairly early on and I'm not the best arm chair detective so when my suspicion proved correct I was a little disappointed that I wasn't thrown off the trail as other readers were. It appears my powers of deduction got the best of me here.

All in all this was plenty entertaining and it moved at a quick pace so fans of this genre are going to delight in the mystery that Goldin created. My verdict: Stay Awake and finish this book. You won't be disappointed. 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my complimentary copy.

Wow, “thrilling” is an understatement for this book! When Liv Reeves wakes up in a taxi with no idea how she got there, the reader is quickly drawn into her story. She suffers from a memory disorder in which she forgets the last two years of her life every time she falls asleep. Basically, she is walking around shocked at a life she no longer recognizes and she has no idea why. Though she tries desperately to stay awake, she inevitably falls asleep and the whole mystery starts over, for her at least. She is pulled into a murder investigation and has to defend herself when she has no idea what happened or if she was even involved. The dual timelines and points of view are a little confusing at times, but I feel like it was done intentionally to convey Liv’s state of mind. I awful for Liv throughout most of this book, how terrifying it must be to wake up everyday missing whole chunks of your life. If you love psychological thrillers, you will enjoy this story! Thank you to Netgalley, Megan Goldin and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. The book releases on August 9, 2022. This review will also be posted to my Instagram blog (books_by_the_bottle).

A unique and crazy story with so many twists and turns, it keeps you guessing till the last page. This book is so dark and twisted, the characters are fantastic. It’s a rollercoaster of fear and suspense. You think you’ve got it figured out and then turn the page and everything you knew is wrong. Well written, great read.

I absolutely ADORED this book. It kept me constantly turning pages. Perfectly paced, and perfectly planned. Although there was som repetition, it worked in this novel based off of the plot. The author really made you care for the main character. I felt so scared and sad for Liv knowing she couldn’t remember things every single day.

Liv wakes up and doesn’t know where she is, how she got there and the last thing she remembers is answering her office phone. She has messages written on her hands, including one that says “stay awake”. This is the Groundhog Day of novels, with Liv forgetting everything from the last two years as soon as she wakes up. I really enjoyed this read and Goldin is becoming a new favorite author.

Intriguing concept, but way too drawn out, especially when the main events are taking place over the course of a day. If Liv had just googled herself on that day she was back in the magazine office, half of the story would have been figured out. Did not like the past tense used when telling the story from the detectives' point of view, which was a different tense from Liv's present day point of view, even though the events were taking place at the same time - it was distracting and slowed down my reading.

I really wanted to love this book. It's got a great premise, albeit not an entirely original one but that isn't the real issue here.

I understand that our unreliable protagonist has memory problems and that her timeline resets every few days but mine does not The repetition in this is non-stop. That, when coupled with the insane timeline made it way too easy for me to lose focus while trying to read. Every chapter jumps around in such a wild way, it was difficult to keep up with what hour we were in. Liv's POV jumps from two years ago to weeks ago, and every day in between, and the NYPD timeline felt just as chaotic. I had to keep going back to remind myself if the scenes with the dets. were before or after Liv's timeline. The continuity issues I was having while reading made it tough to enjoy the story. I never say this, but Stay Awake would make a better movie than it did book. Just being able to visualize the time changes would've helped a ton. The issue with that, is that movie wise, it's been done to death.

I won't even get into the lackluster conclusion.

I'm in the minority here by the looks of other reviews but overall, interesting idea overly complicated by its storytelling with an unsatisfying conclusion.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Okay. I was ready to add this to my DNF list, but the many, many good reviews kept me reading this title - (I was coming up on 30% by the time I got into it, and it took me almost a month to read that far into the story).

Here’s the good.
* Most reviewers love this one.

Here’s the not so good.
* I found that this book required much more of a suspension of disbelief than I was capable of mustering.

Ultimately, this one didn’t work for me (I’m definitely in the minority with this).

Holy Cow! This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It has been a while since I've had a book that I couldn't put down, but this was that type of story. I talked about this book to anyone who would listen to me. I will be gifting this book to multiple people. Goldin did an amazing job with her characters; they were well-developed and likable. I will be purchasing all the books already written by Megan Goldin to read.

Stay Awake is a great mysterious thriller that keeps you wondering what exactly happened to the main character, Liv Reese. Told from alternating perspectives between Liv and the detectives that are on a murder case, the tension and confusion is palpable. The author does a great job of keeping the reader a bit confused as to how the missing puzzles pieces of the story fit together as they relate to Liv's personal issues and how they relate to her current mental state. What I loved about this book is you get to see the perspective of the main character which appears to be the guilty culprit, but you also feel a sense of empathy for her because of her mental condition. Her motivations for doing what she does make more sense as the book progresses further along. Books that keep me guessing are always fun for me to read. I liked trying to fit the reasoning behind the main question-- WHY? I thought the style of writing was very well done and I really enjoyed reading the book overall. I'd recommend this book to people that enjoyed The Appeal because it's similar in that it keeps you guessing and you have to keep track of all the elements to the story, albeit it's not as detailed as later, Stay Awake is still intriguing non the less.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This thriller is un-put-downable! It is one that hooks you in from the beginning and keeps you there. The prose is propulsive and smart. Definitely recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me the chance to review this arc.

This was a first time read for me by this author and it won't be the last! What a great psychological thriller. Liv Reece has a strange case of amnesia and every time she goes to sleep she forgets everything. That can be a real problem! Where does she work, where does she live, where is her boyfriend and her best friend, why are people looking at her so strangely! I felt like Megan Goldin done an excellent job in the mystery part of this book. I seriously had no idea who the killer was, and it kept me guessing clear to the last chapter. Thanks for a great book Ms Goldin!

Stay Awake tells the story of Liv Reese. The story begins with our protagonist waking up in the back of a cab on the way to her apartment...only it's not her apartment anymore. When she goes to grab her cell phone from her pocket she finds a blood knife instead. The only clues she has to follow are words scribbled on her arm. The most prominent one says STAY AWAKE. Every time Liv falls asleep she wakes up with no memories of the past two years. Liv has no idea who to trust and isn't even sure if she can trust herself.

I really wanted to like this book, but it was too confusing. There were so many time jumps that I often felt like Liv...unable to remember things from one chapter to the next. All of the characters are flat and not fully developed. When everything came to a head at the end I was speed reading bc I honestly didn't care what happened. I'd give this one a a miss.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press Group for the ARC.

🌟🌟🌟🌟 4/5 stars

Stay Awake is an excellently plotted thriller about a woman who forgets the past two years of her life every time she goes to sleep. When Liv wakes up in the back of taxi one night with the words “stay awake” written on her arms and a bloody knife in her pocket, she must figure out what has happened to her and what she has done.

This was such a unique and fun thriller that was so different from Goldin’s previous books. It was confusing in the best way and featured many characters that I would love to revisit in future books. I absolutely loved this plot and how well Goldin tied it all together. I can see this one being a huge summer hit.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Full review to be posted closer to release date.

Stay Awake is a page-turning edge of your seat thriller! I was hooked from page one. Every time Liv Reese wakes up, she has forgotten the last two years of her life. She finds herself as the suspect in a murder with no recollection of events or who she can trust. There were so many twists and turns. I have never read any of Megan Goldin's books before. I will definitely be reading her other novels. I highly recommend this book! It is by far the best thriller I have read in a long time! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

Grab the popcorn! Stay Awake is a fast paced, intriguing, psychological thriller that’s aptly named because I stayed up way too late to finish.

Liv Reese has a form of amnesia that causes her to forget anything from the past two years whenever she goes to sleep. So when the book opens and she wakes up not knowing where she is, with notes all over her arms telling her to stay awake and don’t trust anyone, I was hooked and needed to know what was going on.

I continued to be curious about Liv’s past when she seemed to be connected to a murder being investigated by Detective Darcy Halliday and Detective Jack Lavelle.

This story is told through Liv in dual timelines, as well as through the Detective’s perspectives. At times the varying perspectives felt a little confusing to me, but overall I felt it made sense and contributed to helping the reader understand what was going on.

I haven’t read a book where a character has amnesia before and I haven’t watched Memento, so I enjoyed the concept and felt that even though there had to be repetition due to the amnesia, the book moved fast enough that it wasn’t over the top.

Overall, I read this book in a day and found it easy to envision the environment so it played like an exciting thriller in my head! Pure entertainment!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy!

This is a great thriller that kept me turning the pages late into the night! It tells the story of Liv, who has a disorder where she forgets everything that has happened when she falls asleep. It alters in timeline between past, present, and that of a detective tracking the case. It has lots of fun, unexpected twists and had a very satisfying ending.

Phew what a ride. I've been waiting for a solid thriller to kickoff 2022 and this book delivered in spades. Half murder mystery and half psychological drama, this book hits the gas from the first moment and doesn't let up until the very end. Well paced, full of suspense, and just the right level of intrigue. With a protagonist who forgets everything each time she falls asleep, we're never quite sure what to believe... Could she indeed be the killer?

ARC provided by NetGalley. All opinions are my own.