This was hugely disappointing. The plot was full of holes, characters are flat, and the dialogue was atrocious. I loved The Night Swim and so wanted to love this too.

3.5 rounded up for the latest from Megan Goldin!

This was a solid thriller; fast-paced, easy-to-read, and a uniquely-exciting plot in the vein of the movie "Memento." Liv Reese must stay awake in order to piece together the details of her own life, because every time she falls asleep, her memory of the last two years is mysteriously gone the moment she wakes up. Liv's life--both past and present--is riddled with unreliable characters, and without her own memory to rely on, it's impossible for Liv to know who to trust.

Parts of this thriller really worked for me. I loved the chapters written from Liv's perspective and how the missing pieces of her story gradually came together. The plot felt fresh and kept me turning the pages late at night past when I should have been reading. The chapters centering on the police investigation side of the plot felt a bit dull and lacked the depth that Liv's chapters had; ultimately, I never got to the point where I cared about either of the detectives or the procedural side to the mystery.

Overall a well-written, exhilarating thriller, I have a feeling this will be a crowd-pleaser for anyone who loved "Girl on the Train" and "Woman in the Window."

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the gifted advanced reader's copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*

I couldn’t put it down another amazing novel from an incredible author. This is expertly plotted thriller. Definitely one of the best thrillers novels I’ve read in a while. I love how it starts a woman with amnesia and then finds herself in murder investigation. I finished in one day a brilliant 5 star.

Intensely readable, Stay Awake gives thriller fans a puzzle to solve along with Liv, a protagonist who suffers from insomnia and memory loss caused by sleep.

SPOILER ALERT

There is so much potential to this story. I know it's an ARC and expect there to be errors, but it felt more like it was still in draft form, with some major plot holes, confusing POV shifts, and conflicts that put it in need of some additional editing. For this reason, I'm not posting on Goodreads in hope that my feedback will reach the publisher and author in time to make some adjustments before final publication. I didn't want to give it a star rating but unfortunately Netgalley won't let me share this review without it.

First, the main character in this book is suffering from both retrograde (inability to recall past memories) and anterograde (inability to store new memories) amnesia. From what I can gather, the retrograde memory loss is psychogenic, caused by the trauma of witnessing her best friend's murder. This is reported in the literature and is understandable. However, those memories are not gone--the access to them has simply been blocked, and can be recovered at least in part through trauma-focused therapy. I'm not sure why Liv never tried to do this, or why the court never mandated it given she was a murder suspect. Whatever, we'll accept that she can't access the memory of what happened after she got the call from her best friend (which is drummed into the reader over and over ad nauseam). Liv then goes on with her life, and for nearly two years has no additional memory problems other than not remembering those few hours. Suddenly, five weeks ago, she develops anterograde amnesia: every time she goes to sleep, she forgets what happened that day. This is of course reminiscent of 50 First Dates. An extremely rare condition, it has really only been reported in association with head trauma.

Here is the problem: the assumption within the story is that Liv's anterograde amnesia is caused by "severe insomnia" related to taking megadoses of stimulants. But then the reason she's taking those stimulants is purportedly because she's afraid of losing her memories if she goes to sleep. This is a total conundrum. I kept waiting for some other explanation as to why she started trying to stay awake, or to why she suddenly developed anterograde amnesia (especially something caused by the killer). Unfortunately, that never happened, and to make matters worse, as soon as the killer is caught, Liv's anterograde memory suddenly resolves, as if one good night's sleep made everything all better.

Here's another problem. Even if she developed anterograde amnesia, there is no good reason why she suddenly developed total amnesia of the last two years. While insomnia can cause memory problems, even severe insomnia wouldn't cause both this rare type of anterograde amnesia AND specific total retrograde amnesia up to the time that the psychogenic amnesia set in. This simply isn't how memory works. It would be so much better if there was another explanation, such as Liv suffered a head injury five weeks ago. Similarly, memory consolidation occurs during REM sleep, which means going through a full sleep cycle. Liv loses everything after nodding off for a few minutes. Again, this is something you see in a soap opera, not real life.

I liked the alternating POV between Liv's 1st person and Halliday's 3rd person, but I don't understand why Lavelle's POV is included in a few chapters. It's not frequent enough to be valuable (Lavelle never has another chapter entirely from his POV), and most of his perspective is telling rather than showing. The head-hopping really confused and threw me in a book that was already complicated.

There's also too much repetition. Yes, Liv is reliving the same day, but by the 50th time of "The last thing I remember was a phone call in my office on a summer day" I nearly stopped reading. It felt heavy-handed and made it difficult to suspend disbelief.

Many of Liv's actions make little sense, also. She constantly runs off minutes after going to find someone. While in one case there is good reason, likely due to underlying emotional triggers that weren't blocked by amnesia, but that aspect needs to be played up more to explain her actions so it doesn't seem to random.

Again, this book has great potential, even if it feels like a variation on the movie Memento, and I hope that you have time to make some adjustments before it goes to press so readers can get the best version of it.

This novel zipped right along, keeping the pacing nice and fast as we alternate between Liv in her current state, Liv two years ago, and the police investigating the murder that Liv might be responsible for. There's an interesting cat and mouse element running through much of the plot. And despite Liv being vague about her situation and maybe even her capacity for murder, you get to see how other people react to her and through their interactions you get a sense of the person Liv is and why you want to root for her.

Last year I read Megan Goldin's The Night Swim, which was a great concept with strong characters. Her new book Stay Awake is a decent thriller, but not quite of the same caliber in terms of plotting and pacing. I wanted to like this more than I actually did for a number of reasons, but I do applaud her for putting a fresh spin on the "amnesiac who might have killed someone" trope. I had a hard time getting into this one initially and found some of the timeline confusing, especially all the repetition. I really started to wonder about halfway through if this was a book in search of an editor. But once the story picked up things fell into place and made sense, and it finished as a fast-paced thriller. Thanks to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

Imagine waking up every single morning and not remembering any events of your life for the past two years.

That's what keeps happening to Liv Reese, a successful culture writer for a NY magazine. When she wakes up in the back of a cab holding a bloody knife, she can't remember the events of the previous night --- or anything since picking up her office phone, two years earlier.

Told in alternate timelines between the past, the recent past, and the present, you'll be desperate to find up what the heck happened to Liv and who she is able to trust.

Fast paced and thrilling from the opening line! Big Megan Goldin fan and this does not disappoint.

WOW WOW WOW. I have been a huge fan of Megan Goldin since I picked up The Night Swim (one of my favorite reads of 2021), and Stay Awake did not let me down. I'll be singing this book's praises for months to come!

The book opens with Liv Reese waking up in the back of a taxi, with no memory of how she got there or where she's going. When she reaches her apartment, she finds another couple living there, who insist she's in the wrong place. Her hands and arms are full of penned notes like "Stay awake!" "Trust no one" and jumbled addresses and phone numbers. And the most unsettling part? When she reaches into the pocket for her phone, she instead pulls out a bloody knife. Every time Liv falls asleep she forgets her past, and every time she wakes up she's convinced she's living her life from two year's before, where she lived in apartment with her best friend, was dating a new guy, and thriving in her career. What happened? And, more importantly, will she stay awake long enough to figure it out?

I couldn't put this novel down. Jumping from past to present and alternating between POVs, the story was so compelling and thrilling. While the premise may seem far-fetched, Goldin did an excellent job making readers fall head-first into the story. It was creepy, it was well-paced, and each storyline was as interesting as the next. While I normally become frustrated with plots centered around women with amnesia, this one felt fresh and exciting. I think many people will love this one!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC. This was such a great thriller to kick off the year!

Love this book! Excellently written and leaves you wondering throughout the book as to what really happened. The characters health issue is not something I’ve seen really used in the books I’ve read. So major kudos to the creativity on that part! Great Book! Thank you for choosing me to read it!

Imagine waking up and thinking it’s summer only to discover it is Fall and 2 years later! A gap in Liv’s memory could either land her in prison or could end up getting her killed. She has to figure out what happened 2 years ago before she falls asleep again and the only clues to help her and to keep her safe are written on herself. This book could definitely be a movie. I couldn’t put this one down.

This book was so interesting! Loved the concept of having to stay awake and it really makes you want the MC to find answers before she falls asleep again! A nonstop thriller that will keep your attention from start to finish with a well thought out plot.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for this ARC! I found this book riveting and fast-paced. It kept me up all night reading about the protagonist's struggles with her memory while fearing for her life and kept me completely immersed. It struck the right balance of mystery and intrigue without the violence and gore. Excellent read! Highly recommend

Stay Awake was a fun book to read. It reminded me of Memento, a movie from years ago in which the main character has memory issues, so leaves clues for himself on his body. Liv wakes up in a cab, with no idea how she got there. She returns to her apartment to find other people living there. She finds ominous writing on her hands and arms, including the directive to STAY AWAKE, as well as a knife covered in blood in her pocket.

This exciting start just continues to have fun twists and turns as a murder happens, detectives get involved, and Liv tries to piece together her lost memory. It definitely kept me engaged. At times, I wanted to shake Liv. But, given her memory issues, it's realistic that she would be a flake in moments. If you like stories told with a bit of reverse order, you'll like this one.

Energy drinks, caffeine pills, and espresso martinis fuel a post-traumatic condition where every time Liv Reese falls asleep, she forgets the past two and a half years of her life. Her job is not the same as she remembers. She was working in NYC last she knew, and doesn’t remember moving to London. She doesn’t know the people she knew from there or the people living in her and her roommate Amy’s flat now.

All she knows is that there’s a jumble of confusing notes penned all over her hands and arms and a scar in her abdomen that she has no idea where it came from. She also doesn’t remember fleeing a murder scene, but there’s a bloody knife in her pocket and the words “wake up” written in the victim’s blood on the window; a similar message to those written on her hands warning her to stay awake.

How can you not want to read that book?

Does the story hold up? For me, it did. There are alternating viewpoints between Liv then, Liv now, and the detective working the homicide, and the three work together to form a cohesive and well-paced plotline written in the author’s signature engaging narrative style. Who can you trust when you can’t even trust yourself? A fast-paced read, for sure, and one I have no problem recommending. Thank you to the author and NetGalley for my Advance Reader’s Copy.

Since reading the Night Swim, Megan Goldin has quickly become one of my favorites and Stay Awake did not disappoint. What a ride trying to figure this one out! Loved the story told between the main characters point of view as well as the detectives point of view and the story was painted between then and now narratives.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of Stay Awake.
Liv Reese wakes up, over and over again, not knowing what's going on and realizing she doesn't remember anything that's happened for a little over the past two years. Her apartment isn't hers, she looks different, she can't find her friends, her boyfriend and more alarmingly, she has a bloody knife on her and she doesn't know where it has come from. Darcy Halliday is a detective trying to break into the homicide unit. One morning she gets a call to investigate a murder scene, a man has been murdered and oddly, there's a message in blood on the window, "Stay Awake". Darcy is committed to solving the case, and how it involves Liv Reese.

I love thrillers, and I was immediately interested in this plot! SO saying that I finished this book almost in a day!(maybe 2 but hey I have things to do lol) This book is very fast paced it will keep you turning the pages! which is a plus! I was a bit conflicted because I'm not much into a detective POV but the author did a great job in making them likable. Also I thought the plot twist was predictable (I thought I knew who was "stalking" Liv) but oh boy I was wrong I never saw the plot twist coming! The only thing I am missing is I needed to know more about Liv we are left hanging at the end.

This is a very inventive thriller. I was hooked on the premise right from the start and was compelled to keep reading. The idea of a short term memory complex is terrifying and added a layer of tension throughout the story. I did not guess the ending and appreciated the surprise. I could have used some more explanation on the motive behind the culprit but other than that this is a must read!

A solid psychological thriller that keeps readers engaged through the very end.

Stay Awake is the first novel I've read by author Megan Goldin. This story reminds me so much of the movie Before I Go To Sleep (2014) starring Nicole Kidman. Same premise that a vicious attack has led to the protagonist to suffer from amnesia and unable to form new memories.

A woman suffering from a repetitive dissociative fugue. Everytime she falls asleep and wakes up, she has forgotten everything except her life two years ago.

The story is told in the present within 24 hours through the main character Liv Reese's point of view and detectives Halliday and Lavelle. While alternating past and future fashion until you get to the climax similar to How To Get Away With Murder. I do like this way of story telling however in this book it takes more concentration on my part as I have to remember what happened before the current chapter I was reading. And because the next chapter doesn't flow from the previous chapter it gives the feeling of a cliffhanger each time you finish a chapter.

The author was able to put all the pieces together and make everything the clues, characters, and scenes make sense. Kudos to Megan Goldin. The part of the guerilla artist could be a story on its own. It was such a terrifying exhibit that there should be more to it but maybe it was used to throw the readers off and keep them guessing.

I liked and would recommend the book to friends.

*I wrote this review based on a digital advance reading copy that the publisher St. Martin's Press sent me via NetGalley.

To be honest, I had to stop reading this after only getting through 20 percent of the novel. The concept of not remembering anything after sleeping has been done before (see Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson), and this book was so reminiscent of that novel that I didn't feel invested in the plot. Additionally, the chapters with Halliday and Lavelle felt like I was reading a Wikipedia article on how a crime scene is investigated and processed. The dialogue in those chapters was not believable, and I couldn't get emotionally invested in any of the characters (Liv included).

I'm more of a domestic thriller lover than a detective mystery novel reader, so that could be one of the reasons I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I'm sure others will love it, but unfortunately it just wasn't my cup of tea.