Stay Awake started out with a bang for me and sucked me in!! I loved the beginning and thought it was intriguing!! Then, I felt bummed because it slowed down for a bit and I thought it was going to be a dud, but luckily It picked back up at the end. Overall, I enjoyed it! I definitely felt a lot of suspense while reading and I liked how the story unfolded. I thought the storyline was unique and interesting!! 3.5 stars rounded to 4!

Thank you Net Galley and St Martins Press for an ARC in return for my honest opinion.

😴 Interestingly, I started reading this book while I was experiencing a bout of insomnia. I was having trouble sleeping all last week and reading this book while I was exceptionally tired added a unique dimension to it I wasn’t expecting.

😴 I love stories with an unreliable narrator and this one is great!

😴 The book grabbed my attention from the very start! Although it was a bit repetitive at times (which is the curse of a narrative like this where the MC has to relive/remember things over and over), this book is the definition of a page-turner!

😴 The story felt interactive to me, like I was experiencing everything along with Liv. I was tense and fearful right along with her. Maybe this was my own insomnia playing a part, but I really did feel involved in the story.

😴 I was pleasantly surprised that I did not predict the ending!

😴 This is the third book I’ve read by this author and I’ve loved them all. Each are thrillers but are quite unique from each other. Goldin is definitely an auto-read author for me.

Thank you @NetGalley and @StMartinsPress for an eARC of this book, which I have read and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin is a fast-paced thriller that maintains the suspense throughout the mystery. Liv Reese is in a taxi in New York City and she has no idea where she is coming from or what her destination is. She has forgotten everything from the last two years and she has no clue what could have caused this and she has resorted to writing important information on her hands and arms to remind herself of what is going on. When she notices a tv item about a murder that occurred the previous night, she is shocked to recognize herself leaving the scene of the crime. This was recorded on a street camera. And someone is hunting for her and he is stalking her. The police are looking for her as well and Liz does not know who she can trust to help her. The characters are detailed and interesting and this plot is superbly tense. Stay Awake is a great choice for readers of thrillers. I hope to read more novels written by Megan Goldin. Highly recommended. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Liv has a rare form of amnesia that causes her to forget the last 2 years of her life every time she wakes up. One day she wakes up with a bloody knife in her hand, which leads her to be in the middle of a murder investigation, but she has no recollection of anything that happened.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s told in multiple timelines, which I found confusing at the start, but actually added so much dimension to the story and ended up being one of my favourite parts. You read the investigator’s perspective, Liv’s present perspective and you read parts of her past which give you little hints about what’s going on.

I did find the story a little unbelievable but I thought it was really well done and the ending was fantastic.

I thought this was really unique - gave me a 50 first dates feel but with a thriller spin.

My only big con is that I wish there was better labelling for the chapters. They added dates and times as subheadings for the chapters but I found it difficult to use those to keep track of the timeline and sometimes didn’t realize if I was reading Liv’s chapter or the investigator’s chapter until I read a page.

I would definitely recommend!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was gifted this in exchange for an honest review. I recently read this and really enjoyed it - it has shot up to the top of my favorites list of 2022.

The premise of this book is interesting and although the amnesia plot twist has been done I found Goldin wrote it really well from the POV of main character Liv throughout; past & present.

Not going to lie, the repetitiveness annoyed me a little but I guess that’s the point when you’ve lost your memory. Gave me 50 first dates vibes with a thriller murderous twist. LOL!

Regardless, I couldn’t put it down. Quick short chapters & Fast paced POV of Liv made it really interesting.
Also enjoyed detective Darcy Gallagher’s strong female powerhouse vibes & the banter/relationship build between her & Detective Jack Lavelle.

I enjoyed this one :)
Truth; enjoyed the Night Swim more :)

In short - I like this author!

I enjoyed this one - Thank you to St Martin's Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I found the premise of amnesia thriller to be exciting but found the story too repetitive and predictable towards the end.

Liv wakes up and sees her hands are covered in messages of : stay awake. She's in the back of a taxi and she doesn't know why. And in her bag is a blood stained knife. She sees the local news and sees a murder has taken place and is horrified that perhaps she is the murderer.

I didn't love this book. It was more suspenseful vs a thriller so maybe mismarketed? I thought it was a bit predicatable.

Wow!! When I first started this book, I really didn't think it was my kind of book. I couldn't have been more wrong! After the first few chapters, I was hooked and could not put it down. The main character was so interesting, I couldn't imagine living life with her memory issues. Bravo! Great book!
Thank you to netgalley, the publisher and most of the amazing author for the chance to read this advanced copy.

This was such a creative thriller. Liv loses her recent memory every time she falls asleep, so she has written "stay awake" across her knuckles along with several other memos in ink on her body to try and prevent herself from resetting. That is all the information that is given in the beginning few chapters other than that Liv finds herself waking with a bloody knife in her pocket and no idea of where it came from.

The way this plot is written is a dual timeline with one of them working forward from the point of her waking and the other working its way from her past to this point of waking. It was really well done and though the approach could be a little disorienting it wasn't done in a way that left me lost in the story in any way. Instead, it just added to the tension in a way that had me super gripped.

As things slowly unfold, it can get a little repetitious to have Liv fall asleep, wake, and basically start over again and again. It was a little bit grating, but didn't drone on too badly and put the reader in that state of frustration that Liv would undoubtedly find herself as well. It was totally understandable and fit with the way the story needed to go. However, I will say that it was a little bit off-putting regardless of the admittedly well-handled literary structure and character consistency.

The tension was really well-handled throughout the read and I had a good time. I will admit that the plot was just a tiny bit predictable, but the red herrings she threw in were quite clever. The psychological abuse that occurs in the earlier timeline is crazy and seriously had me evaluating how I would have handled a similar situation. However, this is also where things felt a little bit unrealistic because it felt like there were some obvious things that Liv failed to do that an otherwise rational person would've likely considered.

Regardless of the minor flaws I felt existed, this was still a really fun and well-moving read.

Imagine waking up in a cab, with no recollection of how you got there and where you are going. This is how the book opens, Liv Reese wakes up in the back seat of cab with messages written on her hands and arms "STAY AWAKE" is just one of them. She has blood on her clothes and hands, along with a bloodies knife. She is dropped off at her brownstone that she shares with her best friend but she discovers someone else is living there. Where is her best friend? Why isn't her boyfriend Marco answering his phone? As she begins to realize, she has lost 2 years of her life. She begins to try to piece together the missing pieces of her life. Scared and disoriented, watching the news of a murder, is she to blame? She doesn't know who she can trust.

This reminded me of Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson and I thoroughly enjoyed that book, so yes I really loved Megan's spin on amnesia. This is the first book I have read by Megan Goldin and now I want to go back and read her other books.

3.5 stars but would round up! Fast pace thriller that had me guessing the whole time. I very much enjoy Megan Goldin's book and will pick up anything else she writes.

I wanted to love this one so badly. But honestly I just didn't care that much about any of the characters. It felt very chaotic, and if it wasn't chaotic then it began to become repetitive. I understand our MC has amnesia and can't remember anything if she falls asleep, but with that it had her jumping timelines, and having to repeat everything that has almost already happened. 🤷🏻‍♀️

This book kept me hooked and I really liked the format with the flashbacks and rotating POV. I was a little puzzled at the end - what was the motive of the killer?

Megan Goldin is a creative and innovative writer. She writes stories that are unlike anything else you'll read!

Ever since I read <a href="https://chillandreadblog.com/2019/08/04/the-escape-room-by-megan-goldin-bookreview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"The Escape Room"</a>, I knew I would enjoy Megan Goldin's books. When I read <a href="https://chillandreadblog.com/2020/08/20/the-night-swim-by-megan-goldin-bookreview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"The Night Swim"</a> I was convinced I was right the first time. So, as soon as I saw a new book was out, I jumped right into that train! It took me a little to start, because of lack of time and know I have finished reading for more than a week and still haven't found the time to write about it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This was one of the most intense reads I had this year. The story is about Liv Reese, as woman that wakes up in the back of a taxi while returning home. As she's there, she realises that she doesn't have her purse or her phone, but thankfully, she has a lot of cash and can pay the taxi driver. When she arrives home, she decides to wake up her roommate, since she doesn't have her keys - as said before, her purse is no ware to be seen- only to find out that a pair, unknown to her, is living in their apartment. Her cat is missing, her things are missing, her clothes, furniture, photo frames are gone. This does not look like her home anymore. As soon as the strange woman living in her house threatens to call the police, Liv realises she needs to go. As she stops on the front door steps to catch her breath and decide what to do next, she finds a bloodstained knife in her pocket. The knife is wrapped in a shirt Liv does not recognizes. But that's not the only thing she doesn't recognize. Her hands are full of scribbled messages and one of them says STAY AWAKE.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Two years ago, Liv was working at Cultura magazine, living with her best friend, dating a man she liked and generally having a good time and a good life. Now, she finds herself disoriented in New York, she has no idea how it is two years after the last thing she remembers. She cannot understand why she cannot find her boyfriend Marco anywhere, or why her friend Amy is not at the hospital she works. Also it seems that things at Cultura Magazine have changed. She doesn't recognize anyone there and she's being told she works in the London offices. Liv tries not to let people understand she has no clue what's going on, until the police starts looking for her in relation to a murder that's taken place. As she happens to walk outside the crime seen, she sees the same message that's written on her skin, written across a window. It's red, as if it's written with blood and it says STAY AWAKE.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Now that you've read the story you can understand why I was instantly hooked in this book! It's one of the best psychological thrillers I've read lately! It starts with Liv at present time and as the story unfolds, we go back and forth between present time and two years ago, in order to see what Liv's life was back then and how messed up it is now. Liv suffers from a condition where she forgets everything every time she sleeps. Well not everything, but her memories stop two years ago, when she was at the magazine, answering a phone call. She has no recollection of what has happened after that time, but there are a few people that know bits and pieces and even lesser than few, that know exactly what happened. Liv has this feeling that she's in danger, and she is, but she cannot understand why. She's not sure if she is the offender or the victim of a crime, and that can make someone crazy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Megan Golding, once more, delivers a riveting thriller, with loads of suspense and a bit of drama! She gives us two timelines and two points of view. I've already talked about the two timelines. On the two point of views, one is of course that of Liv's, which can be a little too stressful, as she kind of passes all her emotions to the reader. She's an unrealistic narrator and that is something one either loves or hates. The other point of view is that of detective Halliday, the first detective on the crime scene and the one that is trying to find the truth. Halliday tries to keep her mind open and not form a theory, as she goes on with the research on those involved in the crime. She is not ready to accuse the missing woman as the perpetrator, as she's trying to see all the facts, even those that she's missing. I would like to see Halliday in another book!</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I can't say I didn't understand what was going on with her boyfriend. What I hadn't guessed though was the murderer and that's the best I can have in a thriller!</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I received a complimentary ecopy from the publisher via NetGalley. The views expressed are my personal and honest opinion.</p>

The idea behind this one was partly unique and partly played out. I liked that the amnesia made her forget everything only if she fell asleep. However the main character made me want to shake her and knock some sense into her. She never did the simple, most common sense thing by looking up information on herself or even just ask those that she knew. Drove me nuts what she focused on but wouldn't do what would make things easier on her. The villain was not who I was expecting but once it was revealed, it was pretty played out what he did. This author is very talented, but this one just didn't pull me in like the others I've read.

I was really sad to DNF this one. I really was hoping this would better than Night Swim because I loved Escape Room. But the book was boring. I never thought a book about amnesia could be boring, but here you go. I also disliked the main character. Better luck next time, I guess

An absolutely addictive, fast paced thriller that will keep you up reading all night. Just read it!!!!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of Stay Awake!

I was so excited to get approved for this book because I had heard such good things about this author’s previous books.

…but then I dived into this and wondered if I was reading the same thing as everyone else?

I had to seriously push myself through this one because the MC annoyed me so badly that I genuinely did not care what happened to her or why she’s losing her memory when she sleeps.

Everything was so repetitive that I just became further annoyed and kept wishing it would magically get better, but it definitely did not.

I was so disappointed in this one, but am glad there are others who enjoyed it. This book was just not it for me.