Ooh time goes by and if i don't write the review right away...sigh. I'm trying to be better. The best i can do right now is give a star count...

Goldin's The Night Swim was a book that sucked me right in and helped to reignite my passion for reading, so I was super anxious to get my hands on Stay Awake. From the memory loss to the strange body writing, this one gave me Memento vibes from the start (a movie which I enjoyed)! The amnesiac elements gave made this a ground hog day kind of story which became repetitive at times. I had no clue how it was all going to come together and who the "bad person" was until the very end.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the Stay Awake ARC for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

I liked the idea but really couldn’t get into this. It made no sense. No one seemed like a real person.

This was a fast paced thriller that was very unique and entertaining. A woman has no memory of her life in the past 2 years and she forgets everything again if she falls asleep. Told from the perspective of a detective and the main character, it was an entertaining mystery.

Being back in school has drastically cut into my reading time. So, I try to find books that draw me in from the first page. THIS one did just that!!

“As I wake to find myself slumped in the back of a cab, without any recollection of how I got here, or where I’m going.”

Right away we’re looking at a woman who doesn’t remember something and genuinely leads to not remembering almost things. She has words scribbled over her hands telling her to “Stay Awake”. Liv doesn’t remember things, she remembers her roommate and her boyfriend and where she lives. Or does she?

This story was captivating. It never left me bored, I was constantly wanting to keep reading, wanting to find out why Liv couldn’t remember things. The flow was perfect, the characters well developed and the story was sooo good! Mystery and suspense were the top themes and they played perfectly. Creepy is a definite word I’d use to describe the story. Five stars all the way!

_Stay Awake_ by Megan Goldin

_Stay Awake_ by Megan Goldin is a thriller that is different from a lot of thrillers I’ve read, but it also has a lot of similar elements.

Liv Reese wakes up and can’t remember why she is where she is. She doesn’t know why she’s holding a bloody t-shirt with a bloody knife. She hides it in her clothes and goes to her apartment…only it isn’t her apartment anymore. What is going on? And how is it two years later than she remembered?

Liv’s memory resets two years every time she goes to sleep. This does make the chapters from her point of view kind of repetitive. However, while this is still a book that relies on some characters not believing the main female character, this does make a nice change from the female MC being an alcoholic trope.

The dialogue in the scenes with the police officers felt a little awkward, but for the most parti enjoyed switching between Liv and the officers’ points of view.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Sorry it took so long to review.

This was an interesting take on an amnesia themed thriller. Every time Liv falls asleep she forgets everything that happened to her in the last couple of years due to a traumatic near death experience. Live must stay awake and figure out who the killer is before she takes the fall or is killed herself. The story was face paced and intriguing. I liked the uniqueness of the story. I liked the ending of the book to. I do need to say the book does get a little repetitive with the amnesia and having to start over again when she falls asleep.

Overall I really enjoyed this one, its a solid thriller with an amnesia trope.

First, I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book. I am leaving this honest review of my own will.

The cover and title were what drew me to this one. I’m glad I read it! The characters, and the world building are great.

This thriller kept me entertained. I mostly listened to the audio and loved January LaVoy’s narration of course, but the other narrator was lacking. She emphasized weird words, and was slow and far too dramatic. It was almost as if she didn’t know where the story was headed herself, it made it confusing. In terms of the story, it was repetitive and I think Liz being able to wake up and finally remember things needed more explanation. The story ended when it should have and yet it still felt abrupt. Not my fave from this author, but a solid, entertaining, read. Rounded up.

This novel felt a bit like a reworking of the familiar theme of living a day over and over again. In this case, every day is new for Liv as she forgets the previous one and the two years prior. The back story as to what happened to her is revealed in a dual time manner as the current investigation progressed. I did feel that produced a choppy plot development. The narrative contains multiple points of view, something I found a bit distracting.

I also felt Liv's experiences where repetitive. I never understood why, when she was told or realized she lost her immediate memory every night, why she did not do an online search and write down what she learned about herself and the others she had known. She could have gone to a public library and done so. Because of that, Liv's repeated and frustrated experiences lost interest for me.

Then there was the ultimate villain. I felt the identity was not well foreshadowed in that we did not know information about this person that would have helped readers at least suspect the individual. There was a nice bit of suspense at the end but only because the villain did not kill Liv right off, something that did not make sense to me.

Goldin does well with unusual plots and I have liked her previous novels. This one just did not seem up to par with a choppy plot progression, lack of character development for Liv, and a less than realistic ending.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

This is the second Megan Goldin book I've read and the second one where I've been really engaged until the end. For whatever reason, I just find the endings of her books kind of lackluster, which is a shame because the rest of the book is very good and unique.

Stay Awake is about Liv, who has a unique form of amnesia where every time she falls asleep, she forgets everything. Think the Adam Sandler movie 50 First Dates, but with murder. She does have memories of her life from two years ago, so she keeps returning to that time every time she wakes up. Unfortunately it also seems that she was a witness to a murder she doesn't remember.

Like I said, the book was interesting and unique and everything, but the ending felt almost juvenile in the way everything wrapped up so neatly. If this was marketed to a YA reader I could completely understand, but since this is adult fiction I think it just didn't fit.

4 Oh, So Good Stars
* * * * Spoiler Free
Life has always had secrets. We go about our days and then we go to sleep expecting to wake and know what our life will continue to be.

But what if we feel like we just woke up, but instead of being in our bed, confused about a dream or nightmare...we seem to all of a sudden be in a taxi, never knowing how we got there, and then...having a life nothing like what it was before you "woke up".

This book took that and did it on steroids having me turning pages so fast it made my head spin.

I really like Megan Goldin- I think she is a fantastic writer and this story was no different.

Liv Reese has a very peculiar confdition. She has a form of amnesia where she loses the last two years of memory every time she falls asleep. She is also maybe wanted for murder.

Combining flashbacks to two years prior and a story line following the detectives- Stay Awake was difficult to put down. It was propulsive and exciting the whole way through.

I am honestly the ideal reader for thrillers since I do not care to identify the twists and rarely guess them so this was a really fun story as we tried to figure out what really happened to the murdered man and to Liv.

Really fun and I am glad I picked it up!

Thank you NetGalley and St.Martin’s for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this novel. I look forward to Goldin’s next release.

I was super excited to get this book as an ARC after reading The Night Swim a few summers ago, and unfortunately this one didn't quite do it for me.

It was interesting enough to keep me reading to the end, but I found it just a thriller version of 50 first dates. Liv forgets everything once she goes to sleep at night, and finds herself a prime suspect in a murder. If she falls asleep she wakes up thinking it's 2 years earlier and has to re-learn things about her life.

It became a bit redundant, and some parts of the story were very predictable.

I will still pick up future Goldin books but this one missed the mark a bit for me.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy.

Arriving in a taxi at her New York apartment Liv Reese has no idea how she got to New York. Liv doesn’t have her keys or cell phone. Hoping her roommate Amy is home she rings the bell only to have two strangers answer her call. Slowly but surely Liv comes to realize this is no longer her apartment. Her last vivid memory is from two years ago. Nothing about what is happening now is part of her memory. As she tries to figure out what she is going to do Liv notices all the writing on her hand. There are messages like “don’t fall asleep” and “trust no one”. Desperate to recall what happened to trigger her memory loss Liv starts looking for answer.
While this is happening a murder has taken place. While out jogging Detective Darcy Halliday hears the call for assistance at the crime scene. Eager to get a case of her own she quickly heads to the scene. The body of an unknown man is found in an apartment by the housekeeper. The apartment is a used as a B&B and the owner is out of town. Detective Jack Lavalle a seasoned police officer has been sent to assist Darcy with the investigation.
Liv Reese is linked to the crime so the search for her begins.
I liked STAY AWAKE. The characters were interesting and the story was suspenseful.
The particular memory loss that the memory character suffered was plausible. In a case like this I think it is best to accept that a condition like this is possible to enjoy the story.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced digital edition of this book.

I love Megan Golden. Both The Escape Room and the The Night Swim were favorites of mine, and Stay Awake continues the trend of twisty, suspenseful thrillers that are hard to put down! I have read some reviews that say that the amnesia trope is overused, but, in my opinion, Stay Awake takes what could be an overdone theme and makes it fresh. The concept of recurrent amnesia every time Liv falls asleep is so intriguing, and Liv is a compelling character that makes you want her to succeed, even if you're not quite sure what she's done.

Stay Awake is one of my most anticipated books of the year. I literally could not put this book down once I started it. The twists and turns gave me whiplash and throughout the whole book I kept saying to myself, "Who is the bad guy?".

We are following Liv who wakes up in a cab with no recollection of how she got there, she has a bloody knife in her pocket and writing all over her hands and arms to stay awake and don't trust anyone. When she goes home she finds out she hasn't lived there in two years. She can't find her boyfriend or her best friend and nothing is making sense. Meanwhile two detectives are trying to figure out who murdered a man while he slept with a knife and left a bloody message on the window that says Wake up.

This was WILD. The amount of twists was crazy and I swear I just kept having to stop to catch my breath. I thought it was unputdownable. I needed to figure out how Liv was connected to the murder and why she doesn't have any memory of the last two years. Reading everything line up was so satisfying. I was thoroughly shocked throughout this entire book.

My only issue was the big twist at the end. I felt it was a little bit of a let down and didn't really add up for me. I still love this book and really loved the multiple perspectives and past and present timelines. I just think I wanted more from the ending.

What would you do if every day you woke up and couldn’t remember anything from the last two years? If you woke up next to a dead man but couldn’t remember who he was or how you got there?

Two years ago, Liv had a great job, great boyfriend and was living with her best friend. Now, there’s someone living in their apartment, her boyfriend’s number isn’t his and there’s unfamiliar people at work. Liv has to figure out what happened before she falls asleep.

We have dual timelines from Liv and chapters present day from the detective. I will admit, I’m not a fan of detective books so I personally found these chapters a little dry. There were some repetitive parts and an overall slowness to a book that feels like it should be quick since time is running out for the MC. The amnesia trope made for an interesting read enough that I needed to see this one to the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

I literally cancelled Labor Day weekend plans so I could finish this book. I loved it THAT much. While I figured things out pretty early on, the story was so well done and the characters were so likable that I loved the book anyways. This is Goldin’s best!

This thriller kept me turning the pages late into the night. Luv has no idea how she fit into the back of this taxi and there’s someone else living in her home.
Her memories of the last 2 years wipe clean every time she wakes up. The book goes between her narration of living in the moment and a police officer who is hunting her for murder.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.