Wow, wow, wow! This was a great way to start a new year of reading! From the very beginning right to the end the author kept me wanting to figure everything out. Nope. Just hold on and keep reading! The tension created in the first page does not let up until the end. Goldin does a great job of developing her characters. The detectives are just deep enough, with details and background that are just enough, but not too much that it detracts from the storyline. The main character, Liv, who loses her memory of the last two years every time she falls asleep, is frantically trying to put the puzzle pieces of the last few days together, and the reader is right there with her. Is she a murderer or a victim?


Thank you to St. Martin's Publishing Group and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin

9781250280664

352 Pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: August 9, 2022

Fiction, General Fiction (Adult), Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Short-Term Memory

In the early hours of the morning, Liv Reese wakes up in a taxi and gives the driver the address of her apartment. She bangs on the door but a strange couple answers. She wonders what they are doing in her apartment and thinks maybe they are guests of her roommate. She looks around and realizes that all her stuff is gone. She runs out before they can call the police. She then notices the writing on her hands and arms with the word Nocturnal in larger letters. It must be someplace she knows but she cannot remember. While walking there, she puts her hands in her pocket and finds a bloody knife in a t-shirt. What is happening to her and whose blood is on the knife?

The story is fast paced, the characters are well developed, and it is written in first person point of view with flashbacks. This book reminded me of the movie Memento with Guy Pearce. Liv is suffering short term memory issues. Every time she goes to sleep, she forgets what happened and her mind is reset back two years ago when she is answering the phone at her desk at Cultura magazine. I enjoyed the twists and turns in the story and was guessing the end but never got it right. If you like mystery stories with twists and turns, you will enjoy this book.

A twisty-turny thriller that will keep you up all night! Megan Goldin weaves a spider web of a story, that follows protagonist Liv Reese as she tries to fill in a missing 2 year memory gap while being suspected of murder.

Readers note: Lots of timeline hopping due to the nature of Liv’s condition, but overall not too hard to follow.

I sure do love a good amnesia trope thriller!! I became a fan of Megan Goldin's when I read the Night Swim (still my fave!) and have loved everything I read of hers since.

The suspense was so great in this one I didn't want to put it down! And a couple of the twists here really got me! I didn't see them coming.

I just wanted a little more from the ending, hence the 4 instead of 5 stars. Other than that, this was a fantastic read that kept me engaged from cover to cover!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-arc of Stay Awake!

This book is fast-paced! It starts off immediately with the main character having lost her memory and she's in a taxi cab. Such an action-packed thriller that had my heart racing for most of the story. I read this in one sitting because I needed to know what happened next!

📖: Stay Awake
✍🏼: Megan Goldin
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️//5
Release Date 🗓: August 9, 2022

🤔💭: First off, I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martins Press for providing me this eARC and I am voluntarily leaving my review! Wow, this one took me on quite the ride and I was hooked from beginning to end. The premise of this story was quite terrifying actually as Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a cab and has no idea how she got there or where she is. When she gets dropped off at her apartment, strangers answer the door and force her out. She tries to call for help but discovers her phone is missing, finds a blood stained knife on her, and sees the words Stay Awake written on her hand. When she watches the news, she sees a murder took place where the victims blood was used to write a message on the window, which happens to be what’s etched on Liv’s skin. She has absolutely no recollection of anything that happened and is trying to piece together the fragments of her life. There’s someone out there who knows exactly what happened and who may be trying to make her forget—permanently. Like I said, this was quite the nail biter and the story shifts from two years ago to the present to help us piece everything together and find out answers on what happened those two years ago and how it relates to what’s happening now.

Recommend: ✅ I would definitely recommend this thriller! Make sure to add to your TBR for when this is released on August 9th! 👍🏼

Stay Awake is THE definition of unputdownable. Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi and has absolutely no idea where she is or where she was. She's dropped off at her apartment except when she gets there, a stranger answers the door and forces her out into the cold. Lost and disoriented, she looks down and sees that her hands are covered in messages: STAY AWAKE.

The next morning, Liv catches the news and is horrified to see reports of a crime scene where the victim's blood was used to scrawl a message across a window -- the same message that's scrawled on her hands. What did Liv do last night? And why does she not remember anything? Liv finds herself on the run for a crime she doesn’t remember committing as she tries to piece together the fragments of her life.

Told from Liv's perspective and alternating timelines, Stay Awake blew me away. Probably my favorite read of 2022 so far -- I wish I had amnesia and could read this again!

This thriller blew me away. Because of the nature of the plot it took a little bit to get going, but once it did the story had me riveted. Had it not gotten late at night, I would have finished this in one sitting. The novel is described a being of the same ilk as Before I Go to Sleep and Memento.. While I have seen both movies, I really only recall Memento. And this book really does manage to play out in a similar fashion. The main character Liv's memory loss when she goes to sleep and confusion when she awakens is combined with flashbacks that help explain how she got to where she is in the story. Meanwhile, the two detectives who are searching for her give an exterior perspective and help fill in the gaps left behind by a forgetful narrator. The story was absolutely compelling and made want to rush to the end to see how it all turned out. While the true culprit wasn't that difficult to figure out, the book did keep you guessing until near the end. My only minor gripes are that the motive seemed obvious, but was never outright explained, and there was a mysterious subplot that was forgotten about by the end. But the writing and the story line were so excellent I will definitely be seeking out other books by Megan Goldin.

Liv, just stay where you are supposed to and don't move for a day ..darn it! I was too frustrated with the main character, Liv, to fully enjoy this story. It was fast paced and pretty unique so I think that is why others enjoyed it so much. For me, it was too long and Liv just got on my nerves so badly. For an adult who has seen miserable relationships in her mother's past, she is quite clueless when it comes to her own. She irritates me throughout the book. And she is somehow left alive by the supposed genius killer? That is not the only time we are asked to suspend belief. Her trip from London and NYC also mystified me.. Anyway, there are a few red herrings sprinkled through but most people will be able to see through them I think. /this was a solid 3 star read to me. I will still look for Megan Goldin books to read because she is a great at painting the scene and she definitely does not disappoint when it comes to the main story line of her books.

Thank you to Net Galley and the Publisher for a chance to read and review.

This one got me goooooood! I was spooked! I almost had to sleep with the lights on haha. I absolutely loved it.

Stay Awake. Stay Awake. Stay Awake Stay Awake.

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin
Expected Pub Date: 8/9/22

Get ready to hunker down and toss all adulting straight out the window! What a unique spin on an amnesia mystery. Think 50 first Dates (movie) but add a wholesome murder mystery. I read this within 24 hours and it is damn good.

3 things that blew me away:

1) amnesia storylines are my least favorite, but this book was phenomenal!

2) when reading a thriller I typically *always* have a perpetrator in mind. With this one, I was 100% consumed by the story that I read straight through without the wheels turning like mad in my head. Not many thriller books can do that to me!!

3) I crave that draw-dropping moment in the end when the perp is revealed. The killer did not surprise or shock me. I thought it didn't make the most sense, maybe a bit underdeveloped in a way...however, based on the story as a whole I didn't mind that, which is extremely rare.

^ Goldin's writing is complex, never stale, and won me over. This is one to watch! No doubt it will be a huge hit when it hits shelves. 4.5 stars rounded up!

Many thanks to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for this eARC

<i>Stay awake</i> is a sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat murder mystery and psychological thriller with many twists as you go along. The protagonist, Liv Reese, is an ambitious hardworking woman who keeps going back to what she thinks is current day when in fact she has lost two years of her memory and lives in the state of confusion. <i>Stay awake</i> as written by the bestselling author and ward winner Megan Goldin.

Live Reese lives in a state of constant confusion because every time she goes to sleep her internal clock resets and she forgets everything she has done in the past two years. She really has no idea what is going on and all she can remember is the last time she hung up the phone in her office two years before. Eventually, she realizes that she’s been involved in some murders but she doesn’t remember at all that these include some of her best friends, as well as, her fiancé. There is no one she can trust. There are two police detectives who are looking for her. One of them believes she didn’t do it, while the other one is convinced that she did. All of these factors lead to quite a suspenseful and exciting story with many twists throughout.

The author has a style that keeps you hanging on by your finger nails. You go back-and-forth between current events and those that took place two years before. It emulates what Liv is dealing in her confused state. The people who are after her are unknown to us because we take the ride with her. It leaves the reader wondering what’s going on and therefore you can’t put the book down until you sort out some of these mysteries. It’s extremely exciting in parts.

There are several characters in the story who are in an interesting. Liv’s roommate Amy is quite a good friend but quite flighty. Liv also has a boyfriend is quite handsome and treats her well. But she can’t find them. As more is revealed in current time we find out Liv also has another fiancé but she can’t remember him. When did that happen? All these characters are what makes the story stimulating and keeps the reader engaged right to the end.

The one thing that maybe is a bit disappointing is that the murder’s motive is never fully explained. One can suppose why it was done, but it seems to be highly planned murder for such as emotional crime.

I highly recommend this story to people who like a great murder mystery, as well as, a psychological thriller. Trying to understand what is happening is like solving a complex puzzle. I give this book at five on five. I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a digital copy of this book. I give this review voluntarily.

So good! This is a classic twisty psychological thriller and I couldn’t put it down!

* Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

First, let me start out by saying I am a huge fan of Megan Goldin. However, this is not my favorite book of hers. I started out reading Megan Goldin, when I chose Night Swim, as my book of the month and I absolutely loved it. I loved it so much I ordered Escape Room, before I even finished Night Swim. Escape Room, turned out to be a 5 star rating as well.

When I saw Stay Awake, was being released I knew hell or high water, I HAD to get my hands on this book.

The first half of the book I had a constant ache and feeling of anxiety, I could not figure out for the life of me why Liv could not remember anything. What had happened to her??? I knew there was something suspicious surrounding the fact that she could not get in touch with Amy, her room mate, and Marco, her boyfriend but it did not come together for me early on.

In the end I felt the book was rushed and there were much better people that could have been the murderers than who it turned out to be. Although, I understood the motive for why Amy and Marco were killed, the motive was lacking as to why he/she was going after Liv, who was innocent in the large scheme of things. She didnt remember what had happened anyway?

I did not HATE this book, it just did not live up to my expectations. I am a huge fan of thrillers and trust me when I say I have read it all. This book had a lot of potential and just fell flat for me. That doesnt mean that it will for everyone! I am still a HUGE Megan Goldin, fan and I will continue to auto buy her books.

Had this had a different ending it would have had a higher rating. It was well written and did not lack in the suspense department.

Imagine if Drew Barrymore’s character from Fifty First Dates woke up in Memento. The author did. Kinda sorta. That’s much of the premise of Stay Awake anyway, albeit it in tone it’s pure Memento and there’s no Adam Sandler in the vicinity.
And so, our protagonist, Liv, wakes up at a crime scene, somewhere in NYC, terrified, with no recent memories to guide her, but whatever she’s written all over her arms. She must figure out what’s going on, but her mental clock resets every time she goes to sleep, erasing the last two years of her life.
Now, that’s a good thriller premise. Difficult to come by these days – the genre’s too popular for quality control, so there’s a lot of crap out there. And in that sea of crap Stay Awake stood out tall and proud for doing all the familiar genre things but well and excitingly.
Liv is a fun protagonist, unreliable by design, but consistent in her inconsistency, constant in her disorientation but determined. Liv’s past reveals a comfortable life until a tragedy ripped it apart. Liv’s present is red flashing lights of danger at every corner.
Sounds fun, doesn’t it? it is fun. And moreover, maybe the best thing about it, is that the author made the prerequisite ending twist a doozy. Genuinely unpredictable or at least not an easy one to predict. This is awesome, I’ve been solving thriller after thriller with frustrating ease and much too early in the game. I’d like to attribute it to my innate detecting genius, but to be fair, a lot of it has to do with how predictable the authors make it, like they just can’t help showing off their cards early on. Goldin, to her credit, maintains her cards close to the vest at all times. She throws plenty of small red fishes in to muddy the waters but stays mum on the killer until the appropriate reveal time. Very nicely done.
All in all, a very enjoyable read. Good writing, good plotting, all that. One of the most impressive thrillers I’ve read recently. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

I’m honestly not sure what to say about this one now that I’ve reached the end of it. So, here are the notes I made while reading, with some elaboration…

* The timeline was really confusing
* The jolt from first to third person narration didn’t help either, as I seem to have an aversion to third person POVs at the moment.
* Dialogue was unnatural at times
* The repetition was a bit much…I get that this is an amnesia/memory-driven plot, but it was skim-worthy on several occasions
* I was ready to DNF around 20% but stuck with it because of the strong reviews

That said, I do think this was a clever storyline, and while I admittedly didn’t love it, it’s clear that others do, so…

2.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 3

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press For the #gifted eARC.

Ahhh this was so unique and a great suspense novel. While Liv works through two years of forgotten memories, she needs to answer many unsolved questions and quickly before she’s found! Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

This was an awesome mystery that kept me guessing until the end. The way that it flipped back and forth from the present to the main character’s shattered memories was very original and suspenseful.

Megan Goldin, renowned author of books such as "The Escape Room" and "The Night Swim" has written another spellbinding thriller. In "Stay Awake", Live Reese is a murder suspect who has a frustrating mental health issue: she can't remember anything that has happened over the past two months. All she knows is that she has written on her hands "stay awake" and "don't go to sleep." When a murder scene finds those same words written on the window, Liv has to figure out if she was the culprit after all. Can she trust the female detective to help her out?

This was an intriguing concept! It caught my attention quickly and I kept reading until I had finished it in one sitting. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves mysteries and thrillers. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Liv Reese wakes up and slowly realizes she’s forgotten the last two years of her life. She soon comes to find out that every time she falls asleep, she loses her latest memories once again, always reverting back to her last known recollection two years ago. When she finds out she’s the suspect in a murder and her own life might be in a danger, it’s a race to figure out what happened to her and who’s after her before it’s too late.

I really enjoyed this fast-paced thriller. I read “Night Swim” by Goldin a few months ago, and this book had the same tense and slowly revelatory narrative that leads you to the resolution piece by piece, keeping you on the edge of your seat with each new chapter.

The POVs alternate between Liv in the present, Liv two years ago, and the detectives in the present working to solve a murder and find Liv, all culminating with the final climax.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for granting me a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review.