I devoured The Night Swim so I had high hopes for this one. This was a wildly interesting premise of a story, and it sucked me in right away. The author did an amazing job at taking what should have been a very confusing situation (all the times that Liv woke back up and didn’t know what was going on) and made it easy for the reader to understand. In fact, it felt like every time Liv woke up, she was confused, but the reader figured out a new detail. Another thing the author is really good at is introducing us to the antagonist early on, and then making us forget about them without making their motive seem weak when they’re brought back into the story. The ending had me staying up late and waking up early so I could finish it while my kids were sleeping, but the middle felt like it dragged on a bit.

A woman, whose memory is wiped clean of the last two years every time she wakes up, finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation, despite having zero recollection of the victim or crime.
This was pretty good, as far as thrillers/mysteries go, even though the “who-done-it” part was blazingly obvious the whole time.
The way the timeline jumped around made it a little hard to follow at times, but I suspect the back and forth helped cover up slight inconsistencies in the story, especially regarding what our protagonist was able to remember, and when.
It had a bit of a Scooby Doo ending, with the villain laying out the reasons for all of their evil-doings, just in case the audience is too dense to figure it out. Never a good thing in storytelling. Seriously. Just trust your reader.
Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for this #arc of #stayawake by Megan Goldin in exchange for an honest review.

I am a big fan of Megan Goldin and The Night Swim, so I was excited to receive a copy of Stay Awake. This one is a bit of a twisted take on Groundhog Day in which one of our MCs knows she needs to stay awake, and she should not trust anyone. Told in dual perspectives between the aforementioned Liv Reese and the detective on the case, Darcy Halliday, Golden takes readers on a wild ride.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

This was so crazy good. I can’t believe I haven’t heard more people talking about it! I really liked The Night Swim so I expected to enjoy it but I was literally obsessed. I love an unreliable narrator and this took it to the next level with a narrator who forgets everything every time they fall asleep. The different timelines and povs were perfectly done and equally interesting, which is a feat in itself. I was looking forward to every single sentence! I think Megan Goldin just earned herself a spot on my auto-buy list!

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely loved this fast past mystery thriller. Kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Following dual timeline with dual pov. Extremely fun read!!

A fun, twisty, suspense-thriller that will keep you guessing.

Liv survived a murder attempt two years ago and is trying to track down the would-be killer, only she can't loses her memory every time she falls asleep. And now she's the only suspect in the murder of a man she's never met.

A race to the end to see if the mystery can be solved before Liv gets in danger herself.

Well done. And kudos for no "diversity bingo".

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi and has a bloody knife in her pocket and her arms are full of writing telling her to stay awake. She is also suffering from a two year gap in her memory. Who can she trust? The police are after Liv. She gets phone calls from someone that threatens and frightens her. As she gathers information the details of her story are revealed.

This is a super fast paced read. I could not put this book down. As pieces of Liv's memory were revealed to her I just wanted to know how it fit into everything else and whether it was relevant or not to the overall story arc. I really enjoy Megan Goldin's writing style and look forward to reading future books by this author.

Megan Goldin's books are always auto-reads for me - I love the way she weaves just enough detail through each chapter to keep you guessing but also make you think you know what happened. Stay Awake reminded me of a book I read a few years ago where the protagonist kept forgetting what happened every morning when she woke, and I've heard others say it's kind of like the movie Momento. We follow Liv Reese as she tries to put together the pieces of the previous night when she wakes up in a taxi, unable to recall how she got there. Chapters flash between two years prior and "today", inching closer to the pivotal event (I don't want to spoil anything, so I'm being vague). I listened to the audiobook and thought both narrators were fantastic. It was easy to keep track of the characters and timelines based on the narrator and inflection, adding to the enjoyment of the story. Great twisty story!

Every time that I pick up a Megan Golden book, I am always intrigued with what I am going to get out of it. It always feels like some sort of domestic thriller, which typically isn’t my thing, but I love the way she writes them. I come back time and time again. This one was no exception. I love the mysterious start and unreliable narrator.

Liv Reese is a woman hunted, but she doesn't know that. In fact, she isn't sure of much at all; how did she get here, why there is there writing all over her hands and where the heck is her best friend and boyfriend?

This book kept me on edge the whole way through. Nothing says unreliable narrator like a character who has no memory of the last 2 years and can't remember a thing from one sleep to the next. I found myself back tracking and second guessing myself multiple times throughout this book. I did figure out the twist about 60% of the way through but then I questioned myself again. I had nightmares from the anxiety this book caused me-bravo to the author on her insane ability to write about paranoia, memory loss and provide stalker vibes so detailed that I literally had goosebumps on my skin. Definitely do not recommend to young women, alone, in the dark-especially not if you have anxiety, haha. No, no. But you must read this-so read it during the daylight hours!
I'm pretty sure I've read everything Megan Goldin has put out so far and I'm positive that will continue to be a trend I keep on point with!

4.5 stars! Stay Awake was such a fun book. I enjoyed the alternating chapters between the detective, Darcy Halliday and Liv Reese who keeps waking up with no memory of what happened and thinking it’s two years prior. I really enjoyed the development of the character Detective Halliday; I hope she is in future books. She was well crafted and multidimensional and there just so many unanswered questions related to her past. Please give us a series!!!!

Phenomenal! I can’t believe this book isn’t getting more hype. This is the type of thriller that I recommend going into without reading the synopsis. There’s a before and after timeline and an unreliable narrative who seems to have amnesia. This is such a wild ride, I did guess the final plot twist so this wasn’t 5 stars for me, but I’m a huge Megan Goldin fan. I’ve read all her books now and she’s fantastic. Interested to see what she writes next.

In this intriguing novel, the protagonist cannot go to sleep or she forgets the past. I cannot imaging trying to cope with not knowing who you are or what went on. Of course, she doesn't realize what she doesn't know and the author puts you into her day-to-day struggle. It was a difficult story to put down and for readers with better eyesight than mine, it lends to a continuous and captivating read.

I loved this creepy non stop suspenseful thriller. The main character had a rare form of insomnia where when she fell asleep she would forget everything for the past two years of her life.

Short synopsis: Every time Liv falls asleep, she wakes up with no recent memories. She wakes up with a bloody knife in her pocket and messages scrawled on her hands and arms urging her to Stay Awake.

My thoughts: After reading The Night Swim earlier this year I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Megan Goldin’s newest thriller. Stay awake exceeded every expectation I’d had!

A fast paced, page turning, atmospheric thriller that will keep you guessing until the last pages.

Loved the perspective from the detectives and the unreliable narrator was done so well in Liv.

I can’t wait to read more from Megan!

Read if you love:
- Fast paced thrillers
- Multiple perspectives
- Amnesia troupe
- Reverse order timeline

Thank you so much St Martins for a copy of this book!

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin is a psychological thriller following Liv Reese as she wakes up in a cab with no clue where she is or what has happened to her. From there, we find out that every time she doses off, she loses her memory, like a scary 50 First Dates. The novel also follows Detective Haliday as she tries to find a cold-blooded killer, one who stabbed their victim and even wrote "Wake Up" on the window in blood.

While this thriller is fast-paced with a lot of twists and turns, it ultimately has too many scenes reiterating that our narrator has memory problems. It can be a little repetitive, and my overall criticism of the genre itself is that our heroines have SO MUCH TRAUMA! I can't list all of her issues without spoiling, but it does take me out of the story when an innocent person has such a sad backstory.

If you have never read Megan Goldin, start with The Night Swim, as this is a far more compelling story with multiple narrators that actually contains social commentary.

Stay Awake was the first book I read since August and I'm so glad it pulled me tight in and kept me wanting more. At times it was a bit repetitive but I understand why that was needed since Liv suffers from amnesia. It was a medium paced suspense book that kept my attention and made me want to read one more chapter to find out what happens next. Highly recommend!

The premise of this story was very intriguing. A woman wakes up with a bloody knife in her pocket and words scribbled all up and down her hands and arms, telling her to "stay awake." What does it mean? And why can't she remember the past two years of her life?

I admit, this story did not keep me quite as captivated as The Night Swim. In fact, it felt to me like two different people wrote these stories. Stay Awake jumped around a lot from present day to two years ago to two days ago, and I found myself having to backtrack a lot to keep myself straight on where we were in the timeline.

Liv really is dealing with quite a lot, losing her memory every time she falls asleep. And now she has no clue what she's been doing for the past two years of her life. And someone appears to be after her. This was certainly a twisty tale that kept me guessing all the way through. I had one suspect in mind, but I was completely wrong, so kudos to Ms. Goldin for throwing me off the track.

My favorite chapters were the ones with Detectives Halliday and Lavelle. I tended to get a little aggravated with the decisions that Liv was making, but I've never been in her situation so I can't say what I would have done differently. All in all, I enjoyed this book, but it didn't hit all the marks for me the way The Night Swim did.

Suspenseful and engaging, Stay Awake kept me pulled in to the story from the first chapter. Unreliable narrator (amnesia), lots of potential suspects, and twists I didn’t see coming. Highly recommend this well-paced thriller!

Stay awake is written in the form of letters. This was such a unique writing style, I loved it. Liv wakes up in a tazi with no idea where she is headed, or how she even got in this taxi. When she arrives at the apartment that she shares with her friend Amy, she is shocked to find who strangers are living there. We follow Liv who has a rare type of amnesia.

Her life is exhausting because every time she wakes up she needs to piece together her life. She wakes up one morning with the words "stay awake" written on her palm. Later that day she sees a new report of a murder investigation. And at the scene of the write, written in blood is the same message... "stay awake".

This was such a page turner!!