An addictive, twisty suspense thriller that will keep you guessing until the end! The writing pulls you along, never slowing down, and while I still had questions at the end I enjoyed every minute of it.

I would say this was a solid 3.5. The story dragged on a bit for me and I kind of figured it out half way through, however, the story was interesting. This was a leisurely and cozy read for me. Thank you for the arc!

From the opening pages, this book exudes tension! Heart pounding terror and confusion on every single page.

This is the story of Liv Reese. Liv has just woken up in a taxi with absolutely no memory of how she got there. Confused and scared she is dropped off at her apartment building. Only she has lost her purse and her phone. Ringing the bell in hopes her roommate, Amy, will be there to let her in. Only it’s not Amy who answers. The couple who does now live in their apartment and are tired of her showing up. What?

Stumbling outside confused she looks at her hands to see ink everywhere with messages. STAY AWAKE! Trust No one. And the name of a bar.

Going back two years, the last thing she remembers is answering the phone at her desk at the trendy magazine she writes for. And then nothing. She knows she was living with Amy and dating Marco.

Digging in her pockets she finds a bloody knife wrapped in a t-shirt. When she catches the news, it is all about a murder that just took place. The weirdest thing is what is left in blood on the window. STAY AWAKE! What has she done?

Changing her look and going into the magazine gives her some clues, but she needs to find out what happened and why she can’t remember. But someone out there remembers. And that someone is going to make sure she forgets permanently.

The tension never lets up. It was like a puzzle you just can’t figure out. I read this all at once because you couldn’t just stop! So yes, I did stay awake long past my bedtime.

Goldin has such a complex and twisty writing style that I love.

NetGalley/August 9th, 2022 by St. Martin’s Press

This book kept me awake all night as I raced to finish it. This book was easy to read and the multiple timelines were handled well. While there were some twists and turns, they were not too difficult to figure out.

Stay Awake pulled me in with immediate action and suspense. Liv Reese's lost memory and involvement in a murder make for an intriguing story from the get-go. I loved the introduction to Detective Halliday, who has been tasked with the murder case. The separation of her point of view as third person and Liv's first person point of view was extremely satisfying and clear. My only criticisms of this book would be that the twist at the end fell a little flat for me, it didn't feel like an immense climax, and that at times the switches in Liv's timeline were not entirely clear. However, these two things were not enough to put me off from finishing this book and enjoying the overall experience of reading it. Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really did not like the basic foundation of this book. However, it was an enjoyable book to read. The murderer was easy to identify early on in the book which took away a lot of the mystery. Not allowing these personal aspects of my review, to determine my rating, I do give this book a four-star rating since it was a well written mystery and suspense writing.

Wow! Megan Goldin did the thing again! Fans of The Night Swim and The Escape Room, add Stay Awake to your to be read immediately! The story of Liv Reese, a young women who after experiencing a slew of traumatic events, begins to loose her memory in chunks of time. She’s suddenly being tailed for a murder that we knew happened with her in close proximity, but we aren’t sure she committed. We follow her when she story opens, in a cab not having a clue where she is or why she’s there. All Liv sees is her forearm penned with the terms “Stay Awake” “Do not fall asleep” and “Trust no one”
This had me super intrigued from the first page as to what was happening! I loved all the kinds of questions I immediately had!
This book is written in short digestible chapters which is pretty important to me! As well as multiple view points and multiple time periods. I will add, it’s easy to get a bit confused if you’re not fully vested in your reading time being just that- reading time! Take your time and focus on it.
This was a great story, maybe more of a mystery than thriller. As readers, we’re on a journey with Liv so she can piece her life back together. Two thumbs up for Stay Awake!

Megan Goldin follows up her 2020 thriller “The Night Swim” with another carefully plotted, fast-paced story that reminded me a lot of my favorite film, “Memento”. In this case, the person with the questionable memory is Liv Reese, who seems to forget everything in the past two years once she falls asleep. The book has multiple timelines: current day Liv, two years ago Liv, and the current police investigation conducted by detectives Darcy Halliday and Jack LaVelle. Liv has awakened with the message “Stay Awake!” written on her hand (and a bloody knife in her pocket) and the detectives are investigating the murder of unknown stabbing victim with the message “Wake Up!” written in his blood on the window of the crime scene. The mystery revolves around how Liv lost her memory, what happened in the past 2 years, what happened before she last fell asleep, and how are she and the dead man connected.

I was hooked midway and I so wanted two things: “Liv! Just Google yourself!” and “Liv! I like you, don’t become an unreliable narrator!” And I also found myself rooting for the two detectives to solve the mystery. Halliday and LaVelle were also so well developed that they deserve a sequel. What happened? Read it for yourself — you’ll be on the edge of your seat thinking the same things. The multiple times lines are expertly written as they converge in order to reveal the big picture. 5 stars! Congrats to Megan Goldin on another great thriller. Kudos also to the author for understanding the creepiness of performance art.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the preview copy of a terrific thriller.

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Liv, our main character, has a special haircut to bring out the green in her hazel eyes. Otherwise, her cat has pale green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO In fact, the autumn seasonal changes are what keep reminding Liv that it’s no longer summer.

I couldn’t put this book down!! If you love thrillers, this one will not disappoint with lots of twists and turns that you don’t see coming!! Megan Goldin is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me!

Holy Crap!! This is an intense, suspense-filled book that truly had me all over the place trying to solve the mystery!
This book alternates between two years in the past and now to the present when Liz Reese is trying to figure out what has happened to her!
She cannot remember how she ended up on a park bench asleep. When she looks for her cell phone to call for help, it is gone, but she sees her hands covered in ink messages and a blood stained knife stuck in her pants pocket. WHAT?
When she tries to find her friends and her roommate, she not only cannot find them, but realizes that there is an awful lot she is missing!
There are people murdered and they say they were friends of Liz's.

This novel takes us on a mystifying journey to learn who this knife belongs to and is Liz a murderer as the police seem to think?
Who did she kill and why can't she recall the crime she is accused of?
It's definitely a fast paced book that you will not want to miss!
Excellent!

Thank you to #StMartin'sPress and to #Netgalley for this ARC, This is my honest review.

This book was crazy! I absolutely loved it as I did Night Swim. I love thrillers and this did not disappoint. Highly recommend to anyone who wants a good book that will keep you up at night-both because you can't put it down and because you can't stop thinking about it! Thank you for opportunity to read this ARC.

Memento meets The Girl on the Train. A twisty roller coaster ride through an amnesiac's mind!

Megan Goldin is one of my favorite new thriller writers, and this killer read solidifies her as a superstar to watch. Our heroine, Liv Reese, wakes up in New York City with writing all over her hands warning her to "Stay Awake." She tries to return home and finds strangers living there. She soon realizes that everything she remembers about her life is gone....oh, and why does she have a bloody knife?

The narration from Liv's perspective then starts to alternate with a dogged female detective, Darcy Holliday, who is solving a crime in which "Stay Awake" was scrawled in blood above the body. Not looking too good for our friend Liv.

One thing I love about Megan Goldin is her ability to master dual timelines, jumping back and forth in time and between different characters, without missing a beat. Sometimes in this genre, there is only one of the two narrators who compels me, but here, I loved both Detective Holliday and Liv.

Disclosure: I was slightly annoyed at the beginning of the book that this seemed awfully similar to Memento, one of my favorite movies - but I need not have worried because the plot and action are totally different and like the central amnesiac, I was soon so caught up in Liv's crazy world that Memento was erased from my mind. I was very impressed with the accuracy and precision of the police work (I'm a former Assistant DA and these things matter to me!) as well as the internal scary monologue of the amnesiac, who, somehow, we know, despite her crazy circumstances, is a good person caught up in something terrible.

There are suspects aplenty here to amuse and trick you, from Liv's sketchy boyfriend to her best friend who seems to be hiding something, to her best friend's rich doctor boyfriend, to a creepy waiter Liv meets by chance.. There was never a moment I wasn't riveted and enthralled by this book. The plot is extremely impressive and the characters are interesting, fun, and sometimes menacing. It is a great combination of psychological thriller and traditional whodunit.

I, personally, will automatically read any and every thriller Megan Goldin writes. They are all fantastic and she just keeps getting better. I hope she writes, fast, because I am ready for another one. A 5 star thriller!

Thanks to St. Martin's, NetGalley, and the author for this book, which I loved!

Liv Reese wakes up in the back seat of a taxi cab with no memory of how she got there. She is dropped off at her apartment but there is a stranger living there and turns her away. She searches for her phone to get some help, but it is missing and instead finds a bloody knife. Then she notices an ominous message all over her hands…it says, “STAY AWAKE”.

What an interesting and suspense filled story! I loved it! It started with a bang and never let up. I literally had to “STAY AWAKE” to finish this one because I was so heavily invested. The writing is top notch and Megan Goldin has become an auto-buy author for me. Certainly a great book to start off the new year with, I can highly recommend STAY AWAKE and it deserves each and every star!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be posted to my Instagram Blog (@coffee.break.book.reviews) in the near future.

Couldn’t put this one down. I really liked her other work especially Night Swim. This book was probably my 2nd favorite. It was intriguing and kept me on the edge of my seat. I actually felt anxious when reading it for the the characters and their well being. I would recommend.

This story begins, as the synopsis mentions, with our protagonist, Liv, waking up in a cab. She gets home, and soon realizes it’s not her home. She doesn’t have her keys or phone, only a bloody knife, so she buzzes her roommate to let her in. Instead, a strange couple are living there, all of her furnishings and her roommate are gone - even her cat is gone. After the couple threaten to call the police, Liv leaves. Then, she notices her hands - they are covered in ink. There are many things written all the way up her arms, mostly warnings, with the largest one reading “STAY AWAKE”.

I debated for a long time about if telling any more than would be a spoiler. I’m going to keep the rest under wraps, except for one thing: this happens every time Liv wakes up (the bloody knife was a one-off). She is always confused as to where she is, what day it is, and why the only thing she can remember before falling asleep is answering her phone at work. It’s kind of like the movie Groundhog Day, except not. (You’ll get it once you read it - and trust me, you’ll want to read this one!) I debated on my rating for this, too, so I’m going with what I liked and didn’t.

Pros:
1. This book was a total page-turner that I would have finished in one sitting, had I not started it so late at night!
2. This book is super original, and a breath of fresh air from formulaic thrillers. It’s very suspenseful and the beginning draws you right in.
3. This book bounces back and forth a lot, but it never got convoluted or messy. The writing flowed really well.
4. I freaking loved it.

Cons:
1. The explanation for all of this happening is a bit far-fetched, and you may have to suspend reality a little bit. Just go with it though, because the ending is great.

Four pros and only one con equal a four-star rating, but that’s a really minor con. So maybe 4.5 stars? Nah .. I’m going to bump it up to five stars because I’m feeling generous and like I said, I loved it! I predict this will be huge when it’s published this summer, and it would make a great movie or miniseries, so that development wouldn’t surprise me either. This was just a fantastic, crazy, suspenseful story.

(Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Megan Goldin, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

Megan Goldin’s Stay Awake is a suspense-filled, well-written mystery with some structural challenges that unfortunately weaken the integrity of the entire novel.

Goldin introduces the reader to the main character, Liv: a woman with a debilitating ailment. When Liv falls asleep, with her consciousness goes her memory. As a result, her angst-filled waking hours are laden with confusion, frustration and fear. One moment she is a successful writer for a vogue magazine; the next she is alone, living a life that is almost recreated daily. To support Liv, Goldin has created friends, social workers, love-interests and colleagues, each of whom knows only a small portion of Liv’s full reality. The exception is Ted, an intimate partner whose drive to protect Liv is both noble and romantic. While the range of individual differentiation is admirable, each character is considerably underdeveloped with just not enough detail or background to make them come alive. For this reader, although the plot was brilliant, the characters remained flat on the page, never fully engaging me in their experiences.

The second point of contention here was Goldin’s choice of structure. The timeline is all over the place, moving from past to present in both years and hours. It’s disconcerting and confusing, which, while a reflection of Liv’s mindset, caused me to have to continually flip back and forth to reread chapter headings in order to ascertain date and time.

What I will give Goldin credit for is her incredible ability to build tension in her writing. In this, she is positively brilliant. One scene in the story takes Liv to an “art exhibition” that is so macabre in its presentation that it raised the hairs on the back of my neck. The level of detail and the choice of which details were chosen to share relative to the exhibit was nothing short of genius, and, in my opinion, the strength of the book as a whole. Add to this a psychological element that will definitely have a physical effect on the reader.

Overall, I did inhale the pages and revel in the mood and tone Goldin so skillfully wrote into being. For that reason alone, this rates a solid 3. I anxiously await her next story!

I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

As the biggest Megan Goldin fan, I can truly say that her thrillers never disappoint. Goldin writes perfectly paced, heart-racing novels that keep you turning the page until 2am. "Stay Awake" is no different. I spent a whole day straight entranced in these pages searching for answers side by side with Liv. Pre-order it TODAY.

I was excited to read an advanced copy of this! I have to admit that I was having a hard time suspending belief for the first part of the book as the idea seemed very far-fetched. However, the author did tie it back together in a way that made it more believable. It was a good story that kept me turning the pages as I needed to find out what happened! I thought there were a few loose ends that never got explained, but overall it was good!

Loved this creepy thriller! The plot slowly and flawlessly unwinds. With POVs of past and present the storyline literally just flows. Crazy talented Megan Goldin! What a delivery. This book grabbed me from the very beginning and never let go. Highly recommend!
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

Wow! Thanks NetGalley, thank you to the author and publisher for the chance to read this book early! Just when I thought I had it all figured out boom this book did a 180! I did not expect that all all!! Great book! Definitely kept me up late many nights because I could not put it down!