STAY AWAKE

I absolutely loved “The Night Swim” and now after reading “Stay Awake” this is officially a Megan Goldin stan account!!

I found this to be such an addicting read. Each chapter gave you just enough to keep you so invested but also wanting more

I love stories where the main character has amnesia or can’t remember and as the reader, you get to try to put the pieces together along side them. I’ve read many amnesia themed books, but none like this one, it is such a unique story and I just loved it!

The story is told in present day when a murder had taken place and the main character, Liv, can’t remember any aspects of her life from the past two years. It also flashes back two years ago and slowly starts to build the pieces of the puzzle.

I highly recommend this book for any thrillers lovers! It will keep you guessing and on your toes all the way through! I will say the ending felt a bit rushed, and I wished there was more to it!

Thank you so much @stmartinspress for my gifted finished copy! ♥️💛

TLDR:

Stay Awake is the newest Thriller by Megan Goldin. She is best known for writing The Night Swim.

Notable elements:

- Murder Mystery
- Dual-Timeline
- Amnesia

What I liked:

- Logical Reasoning — I love how realistically Liv retraces her steps, trying to logically and methodically piece together where she is and how she got there. It shows how practiced she is in working through these types of situations.
- Fast-Paced — Flipping between dual timelines then watching them converge propels the story forward at a ridiculously fast pace. As the gap between the past and present dwindles, the desire to know how it all ends intensifies.
- Reinforced Imagery — Repeating “Stay Awake” images, replaying news updates, and revisiting the past reinforces the cyclical, inescapable nature of Liv’s condition.

Reminds me of:

- Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
- The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian
- A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Content warnings:

Blood, Death, Stalking

Final thoughts:

Stay Awake kept me on the edge of my seat; I easily read it in one sitting! Dramatic plot twists and lightning-fast pacing make this a top-notch Thriller.

This was definitely unlike any thriller I’ve ever read.
And being set in NYC, I did feel like I was in the middle of an actual Law & Order SVU episode, lol

The story of Liv Reese and how every time she wakes up she has no idea where the past two years have gone, sucks you right in. Follow along as Liv tries to piece together and understand why she has no memories, with her only clues being her handwriting all over her hands and wrists, saying things like “wake up!” and “trust no one!”.

The ending was completely unexpected and shocking. The only reason I knocked off one star is because I did feel like at the end of the story we never find out the answer to one big question.

Liv wakes up and doesn't know where she is or how she got there - and quickly realizes that her last memory was from over two years ago. She slowly starts to piece together the missing time only to discover she's the chief suspect in a gruesome murder. As the story races towards an exciting climax, Liv must work to put together the missing pieces of the last two years while trying to prove her innocence and

I'm not generally a fan of the unreliable narrator but in this particular book I did enjoy this book, mostly due to other main character, Detective Darcy Halliday, who is investigating the murder and fills in the gaps of Liv's memory for the reader.

Thank you to NetGalley, Megan Goldin, and St. Martin's Press for providing me an advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest review.

Two years ago, Liv Reese’s life was on track and improving quickly. Her job writing for a trendy magazine was going great with her editor trusting her with bigger stories, even ones outside of her specialty. Her private life was also going great, despite some strangeness. Two years ago. Now she has woken up in the back of a cab with no idea how she has gotten there. The phone on her desk was just ringing. Strangers are at her brownstone, claiming to live there. Her phone is missing, a bloodied knife in its place. Her only clues are the scribbles on her hands offering fragmented advice. Demanding she stay awake.

By its very nature Megan Goldin's Stay Awake is and has to be fairly slow. Given Liv’s memory loss on falling asleep, her lack of awareness regarding that, and that the notes she has scribbled on her hands are both the only clues she has regarding anything but also are only quick scribbles with no context, much of the early book can feel like retreading the same path over and over. This is mitigated somewhat by the segments dedicated to the police investigation of the murder that Liv is maybe involved in. But much of that investigation can feel fairly standard at the start with the young cop who recently retired from the military serving as a voice for Liv’s innocence and the gruff older detective who does not want a new partner being much more willing to just put a lid on the case until evidence starts coming in.

For the most part though, the investigation segments work. Though it does feel like Goldin was very aware that police in real life are increasingly unpopular with the public and so went to at times comical effort to ensure the reader knows that her main cops are good ones, including contrasting them with the most uncaring heel of a bad cop she could have introduced without revealing that he was actually the killer this whole time. Plus an event during the climax that I had to put my phone down and have a laugh over.

On Liv’s side of things, her memory loss gets old fairly quickly. There is legitimate tragedy and pathos to be found early on in seeing this woman reach out to her friends only to find silence in their place. To see her try to go home only to find new people living there and to have them be, from her perspective, pointlessly cruel towards her. But, for readers who are me, that has a short shelf life and very quickly diminishing returns. I feel like fewer instances of her falling asleep and being set back to two years ago, with all the horror and confusion that entails, and more seeing her try to put things back together would have worked more smoothly. Watching this character try to bluff her way around the gap in her memory was solid. Seeing people wave off the bits of oddness where she did not know what was going on with minor explanation felt reasonable here. And I think I wanted more of that. More of allowing her to be clever and figure out bits of what had happened as she goes without the back to zero happening as much. Because here is a thing that Goldin did really well that could have been played with more, the red herrings.

We get bits from two years ago, leading up to the event that wiped Liv's memories, and in those bits there are notable characters who could have done it. Red herrings that it would have been fascinating to see her latch onto as still being a threat as she tries to figure this all out. In addition to that, baking the actual antagonist in a little better would have done wonders for the ending. Do more with them leading up to the reveal, let it be something that both seemingly helps but also tugs at the frayed remains of Liv’s memory, the bits at the end there that she can almost, almost reach.

Stay Awake is a solid enough book, but it could have been more solid. At least for opinionated readers who are me. But, I am definitely left feeling like I want to see where Goldin goes from here and I did enjoy the book for the most part, so it gets a four out of five.

Love love. Love this! It reminds me of the movie with Nicole Kidman where she's not allowed to sleep or she is fighting sleep. Something like that. It's very unique storyline and it will hook you from beginning to end

The description of this book did catch my eye, but the book itself did not keep me interested. It was repetitive and I kept putting the book down to pick something else up. It ended up taking me forever to read it.

I felt the same when I read The Escape Room.

Unfortunately this will probably be my last book by this author. There are too many books out there to force myself through ones I’m not enjoying.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

This was the first Megan Goldin I've read but had heard good things about her work. At first I didn't know what to think having another thriller with the unreliable narrator troupe. I stood corrected once I was able to get into the plot and appreciated a different spin that was well-executed. Having a mystery that has to be "backed into" is always fun and Goldin did a great job keeping readers guessing. 4.5 stars

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

I love that this book started out with our main character, Liz, waking up in the back of a cab and not remembering a thing that has happened in the past two years.. as fun as that is, it's even more fun when she finds a bloody knife in her pocket, and her arms have 'STAY AWAKE' messages written on them.

Now add in a murder victim with those same words written at the scene, and I'm invested!

Cool plot, that even though mirrored others, was unique enough that it kept me interested and engaged throughout most of the book. Liz was one of those frustratingly obnoxious, 'WHY ARE YOU MAKING THESE DECISIONS' main characters, but the writing makes up for it, and it turned out to be a super fun read! I have enjoyed Megan Goldin's books before, and after this one will continue to read them.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's and Megan Goldin for this eARC!

I really enjoyed reading Stay Awake by Megan Goldin. It kept me interested through all of the twists and turns and I was not expecting the ending at all. I felt like the character development was sufficient though there were some parts that dragged on. It was all worth it though!

4 stars! Stay Awake was a "keep you on the edge of your seat" page-turner. I recommend this wild ride of a thriller.
Thank you to Megan Goldin, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the Arc in exchange for an honest review.

Easily my favorite Megan Goldin book so far! Every time Liv falls asleep she loses her memory of the last two years. Two years prior she was almost murdered and that person might still be out to finish the job. The only problem is Liv doesn’t know this and doesn’t realize she is still in danger. To make matters worse, she is also being hunted by the police as the number one suspect for a recent murder. She can’t trust anyone and has only notes on her arms and hands to try to piece her life together.

This book was pieced together so perfectly. I wanted to devour it in one sitting. The elements of suspense and surprise twist will keep you on the edge of your seat. If you are a fan of Christopher Nolan’s Memento (I also highly recommend this movie), then you will love this book! It’s a smart and suspenseful thriller that will keep you guessing until the end. I love when I can’t guess the villain or twist in thrillers.

Add this one to your list, find a copy and enjoy.

I tried to read this one but I couldn’t get into it. I stopped after a few chapters because I felt it was predictable. I usually love this author’s work so I disappointed that it was a miss for me. I didn’t post anywhere since I didn’t finish and I didn’t want the book’s rating to go down.

Thank you to @stmartinspress @macmillan.audio I absolutely LOVED this one. This was so close to being a 5, but there was one thing I was hoping for at the end that didn’t come through. Other than that this was awesome! I love @megangoldinauthor books and this was no exception.

I did this one on audio and for the most part I enjoyed. But one audio narrator spoke a lot slower then the other one. So I had to constantly adjust my audio speed as the narrators flipped back and forth throughout the book. But other then that no issues. Very easy to follow the story and they both kept me in the story.

If you are a fan of @megangoldinauthor which I think you should be if you aren’t already, def pick this one!

"Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she’s dropped off at the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers―a stranger who now lives in her apartment and forces her out in the cold. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it’s missing, and in its place is a bloodstained knife. That’s when she sees that her hands are covered in black pen, scribbled messages like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE." -Goodreads ☕☕☕

This book is basically high stakes 50 First Dates. Fun concept, but the execution was long-winded and repetitive. ⭐⭐

I thought this was a well done amnesia thriller. I sometimes get bored with the redundancy of a main characters lack of memory and confusion regarding what is occurring in the story. I didn't feel that way with this book. I appreciated the flash backs to the past drawing us a picture of how things came to be. It helped keep the pace of the book moving. I had a hard time putting it down and couldn't wait to see how it would end. I also really liked the two detectives and would like to see them in future books.

Stay Awake was full of non-stop twists from the first page to the very last. Featuring an unreliable narrator, it was gripping and imaginative. If you’re looking for a breakneck thriller that will have you holding your breath, I highly recommend this one.

This was a great thriller that kept me guessing the entire time. The concept was unique and I couldn’t put it down. The police and detective backstories were a little unnecessary but I otherwise loved this!

Stay Awake
by Megan Goldin
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Imagine you wake up in the back of taxi and don’t remember how you got there. Imagine arriving at your apartment and someone else claims to live there. Imagine looking for your phone and finding a bloodstained knife in your purse instead and having no idea what happened. And to make it even more complicated on her arms there’s a graffiti message saying: STAY AWAKE. That’s what happened to Liv Reese.

Liv Reese two years before, Liv was a successeful writer for a trendy magazine. She had a boyfriend, a cat, a roommate. Today, Liv is in NYC completely lost. Looking for answers, she goes to her work building. There are new people there that she doesn’t recognize. The people that remembers her are treating her differently, like she could break at any moment. She checks the date and finds out that she’s missing two years of her life.

Liv has a memory disorder and she forgets everything that happened during the day when she sleeps but she can remember her life until two years ago. Now she sees someone in the news that looks like her, and they’re saying that she is a killer. Now Liv had to try to find someone that she knows to see what’s going on. She can’t trust anyone. She forgets everything when she sleeps. Even though some things repeat, the author handle it very well and it did feel repetitive.

I enjoyed this book very much! Hope to see more about the detective. I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

What a wild ride. I love the premise of this book. Imagine waking up and not remembering the last two years of your life. Then add on finding a bloody knife in your pocket and the same words written on your arm that were written on the window at a murder scene. And everytime you fall asleep, you forget everything that happened once again. That’s what’s happening to Liv and we follow along as she struggles to figure out what happened in those last two years.

There are so many twists and turns and the multiple timelines work really well in this story. Goldin shows she is a versatile writer with many tricks up her sleeve. I wasn’t expecting the ending, but it didn’t really shock or surprise me. But either way, it was an entertaining read.

I still am looking forward to checking out future works by Megan Goldin. Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Megan Goldin for an e-arc of Stay Awake in exchange for an honest review.