Liv wakes up in the back of a NYC cab with no memory of how she got there or where the cab is taking her. When she arrives at her apartment, strangers are living there and quickly kick her back outside. Liv has no purse, so she looks through her pockets. The good news is she has a wad of cash. The bad news is she has no cell phone. Instead, there is only a bloody knife in her pocket. What could be happening to her? And why is Stay Awake written on her arms?

Stay Awake is a fun romp combining Memento with a traditional woman-in-danger-who-doesn’t-know-where-to-turn thriller. The pace is relentless. I couldn’t stop turning the pages! I had a bit of a problem with the conclusion, but I can’t tell you why without giving spoilers. Still, it is definitely a 4 star read!

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

Another hit by Goldin! Like the movie "Memento" but better. The protagonist was very relatable, and the settings terrific. Loved it!!!

Rare amnesia mixed with psychological thrillers is almost always a win. I was intrigued and it kept me guessing. Great book.

I love this author. Her stories just grab you and pull you in. I love the characters and the storyline. Always enjoy her books

This book is a perfect thriller which will keep you guessing till the end. Liv Reese is missing a chunk of her life. She's confused, she's running and she does not remember a huge part of her life. What exactly happened to her?
As soon as I started reading the book, I remembered a hindi movie which had pretty much a similar plot and this book delivered on all counts. I can't reveal the name since it would be a spoiler but people who watch Indian movies can immediately understand within the first chapter which movie I am referring too.
What I liked: The plot and the characters except for a few. The characters were believable. The plot was well developed and moves with a good pace.
What I didn't like: It's not exactly not liking but I would have liked one more chapter on how did the perpetrator find out? I will leave it at that again everything would be a spoiler.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book.

Does anyone else feel like this is the billionth memory loss/psychological thriller with a female protagonist storyline they’ve read this year???!

Luckily, this story was exciting and better than some of the others one I’ve read. Unfortunately, I am a busy and irritable woman, and so, this book came to me at the wrong time!

A multiple timeline narrative wherein the story begins with our main character Liv waking up after 2 years with no memories, a bloody knife and writing on her hand urging her to Stay Awake, because, guess what? Every time Liv falls asleep, she forgets again.… Yes we’ve heard this before!!! Overall this is a fun mysterious and suspenseful novel that amalgamates the complexities of recall with a whodunit police investigation. There were ups and downs but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who isn’t suffering from memory loss fatigue!

This is a fantastic psychological suspense thriller. I did not put this book down until I finished it. This was spooky. I loved that I could not figure out what was happening to Liv for such a long time. I love Liv. I loved Detective Halliday and Detective Lavelle. This story kept me on the edge of my seat. This was one of my favorite stories this year. I received a copy of this book from St. Martins Press for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

OH MY GOSH! I absolutely LOVED this book. I hated having to put it down when my eyes got too heavy at night. It was written so well. Definitely a lot of back and forth with points of view and time frames, but if I was able to keep track, then I'm sure most would. AH, I literally cannot believe how hooked I was to this story. It reminded me of the show Blindspot in a way. But now that I have finished and I know everything....I'm still left wondering, what the motive was by that person and the original act? IYKYK. Still trying to figure that one out. Here is me about to go find some others who have read this to pick their brain! Okay, you must read this!

Imagine waking up one day not being able to remember the last two years of your life, and to make it worse every time you fall asleep you wake up with no memory of the last two years.

Two years ago Liv survived a tragic event which caused her to move to London in an attempt to start her life over. When she wakes up in a cab not knowing where she is or how she got there her life starts to take a turn for the worse.

A murder in NYC then becomes headlines while the detectives not only try to figure out who the person found murdered is but who killed him and why.

A slow start to the book quickly picked up speed and kept you guessing until the end. While Liv kept running into people from her past the reader, along with Liv started to wonder who you could really trust and who might be taking advantage of her memory loss.

Liv Reese wakes up in a taxi with no recollection of how she got there. She goes to the apartment that she’s been living in with her best friend, Amy. New people live there and they have no idea who she is. She has lost two years of her life and memories. Even worse, every time she falls asleep, she forgets it all again. So she tries to stay awake to figure out why she has a bloodied knife, why are there words written on her hands, and what happened in the two years time.

This is a tense thriller that kept me guessing most of the way through. Having to read the panic and anxiety that Liv has to deal with while also realizing that Liv could be an unreliable narrator makes it a page turner.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this eARC. It’s out now and makes for a great early autumn thriller.

I love Megan Goldin and this book didn’t disappoint. I couldn’t set it down!

Liv wakes up in the back of a taxi with no recollection of how she got there. When she heads home a stranger answers and claims they live there now and her roommate Amy is nowhere. How long has time passed and why does Liv have a bloody knife on her.

The intense build in Megan’s stories always get me. So full of twists, and ones I don’t see coming, which are refreshing. This book is what psychological thrillers are about. It’s fucked up but well done. Definitely a book worth the read, especially for all the build up.

Apparently this reader took the title of this book as directions on how to read it. I might have stayed up till 3am reading because there was no way I was going to fall asleep without finishing this story first. And let me tell you - it was most definitely worth it. Megan Goldin's Stay Awake is already on my "must recommend reads" list.

Liv Reese wakes up in a cab not remembering how she got there or anything much after receiving a phone call while she was at work. Except most things in her life are no longer the way she remembers them - strangers are living in her home, she can't seem to get a hold of important people in her life and all she has to go by are the words on her hands - STAY AWAKE. As local police begin investigating a brutal murder, Liv starts suspecting that she might be connected to it somehow. But how can she possibly make sense of her current circumstances when she forgets everything as soon as she falls asleep.

This story was everything and a bag of chips. It definitely gave me Memento vibes (in the best possible way). I love Megan Goldin's writing style and I loved how vividly she p0rtrayed the terrifying reality of not being able to hang on to your memories. The parallel story-lines of Liv's journey and the police investigation helped with the pace of storytelling and introduced another strong female character. This was such a page turner that will definitely appeal to most fans of the genre and even to those who are simply looking for a well-written and engaging read based on an interesting premise.

Grateful to NetGalley and St. Martin's press for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review!

Fast-paced page turner. Liv Reese wakes up in the back of an NYC cab with no memory of the past two years. As she tries to piece together her life, she winds up in the middle of a murder investigation. Without her memories, how can Liv figure out who to trust and who to fear?

This was a fun read with a unique premise. I've seen a few thrillers in recent years where the protagonist suffers from facial blindness (Survive the Night by Riley Sager; The Resting Place by Camilla Sten) and this recurring amnesia felt like a similar trope. It ups the ante when the protagonist cannot recognize the killer when standing face-to-face. The chapters are SUPER short which made this story fly by. The detectives who are investigating the murder and looking for Liv were slightly less interesting to me than the sections about Liv, but I liked how it all tied together. This book is not similar to The Night Swim by Megan Goldin, which was more of a mystery. However, this did remind me of Goldin's earlier book, The Escape Room, for it's fast pace and multiple POV styles. I think this would make an excellent beach or pool-side read.

At the start of this novel, main character Liv wakes up in a cab with no memory of her life for the last two plus years, with phrases written all over her hands - and holding a bloody knife wrapped in a T-shirt. She - and we as readers - soon discover that she loses all her memories of the last few years every time she falls asleep. The book takes place mostly over the next day, from her perspective and the perspectives of the detectives investigating a murder connected to the knife - plus flashbacks to Liv’s life before the amnesia.

It is really hard to rate this one - the writing is not great, and the various revelations towards the end of the book seriously make no sense. And it was a disappointment compared to Goldin’s previous book, the excellent The Night Swim, and her preposterous yet more believable than this The Escape Room. But yet - it was so suspenseful and entertaining and kept me reading non-stop!

I definitely have less tolerance for crazy thrillers than a lot of people, so if you don’t require believability or logic in your thrillers you may love it. For me, it probably only deserves 3 stars, but I’m giving it 3.5 stars anyway for being captivating enough to get me to finish it in less than 2 days.

3.75 rounded up. Perfect summer thriller. Cat and mouse story between a con artist and a reporter Kat who after 10 years has found the woman who upended her life. Determined to be the one who takes her down Kat works on finally exposing her only to learn that everything is not as it seems. Twisty, turvy, this one was such a fun ride. I'm a sucker for con artist story's if done correctly and this one is well done. Loved it.

What if you went to sleep and instead of waking up the next day, you wake up and its two years later? Liv Reese has no idea what happened to those two years of her life. She only knows that she is running from danger, or from someone that she cannot remember. A tension filled thriller with a taunt ending. I received an ARC from Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press. The comments of this review are my honest opinion.

"Starbursts blink from streetlights like they're sharing a secret as I wake to find myself slumped in a cab, without any recollection of how I got there, or where I'm going."

Being a fan of Goldin's The Night Swim, I was offered the opportunity to review this book. I have to say it did not disappoint.

Liv Reese wakes up in a taxi with no recollection of how she got there or where she was going. Her last memory is of her, sitting in her office and taking a call. Unbeknownst to Reese, this memory is from more than two years before. But when a man is found murdered in his sleep, Liv becomes the prime suspect.

This is a story with a lot of intrigue and emotional panache in which the protagonist loses her memory every time she falls asleep and is consequently sent into a spiral of fear and terror every time she wakes up. I have to say that not many thrillers manage to be intriguing. Mostly they are peppered with red herrings and loose ends. But here I felt myself being just as distrustful as amnesiac Liv. I feared for her because what she was going through felt real. Some might say that the plot was a bit repetitive regarding Liv's habits and discoveries, but to me it made it real that this person actually loses her memory and comes to the same ideas and conclusions again as if for the first time. It was engrossing.

I even liked the detectives, which is a rarity for me. They felt uncharacteristically realistic and sincere. For me, in other books, they were almost always the overbearing element in the story.

My few scruples with the book were that, firstly, it wrapped up a bit too neatly for my taste. I kind of believe more in looser ends and, not exactly messy, but just not as neat. But hey, that's on me. Secondly, the perpetrator was kind of easy to guess despite the attempt of throwing us off with a red herring or two.

Looking forward to whatever Goldin has next in store!



Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Nightmarish Amnesia and a Murder

Liv Reese has a complete loss of memory each time she wakes up. When she wakes in a taxi she has no idea how she got there. When she arrives at her apartment, she’s met at the door by a curt woman who tells her that she and her husband have lived there for two years. Two years, Liz can’t believe that she’s lost two years of her life.

Things get complicated when the knife she found in her purse is linked to a murdered man. Imagine trying to get clues to what happened when your memory is so faulty.

Jack Lavelle and Darcy Halliday are the team of detectives assigned to the murder investigation. Jack is a veteran cop, but Darcy is new. Being recently partnered, they are getting to know each other. There is a bit of friction because Jack believes Liv is guilty, but Darcy isn’t so sure.

This is a fast paced thriller. The short chapters keep you moving rapidly through the book. The story is told from two viewpoints, Darcy and Liv. I found Liv’s sections unsatisfactory. She can’t remember and she keeps talking about it. Plus the first person can be annoying. I found Darcy much more likable. She’s tough and smart. I hope she’s featured in another book.

The multiple timelines are necessary to fill you in on the backstory since Liv has no memory. I found them easy to follow. This mystery has many good points. The ending is a surprise, but it also suffers from the problems with the main character: her inability to remember, and her distracted way of looking for clues.

I received this book from St. Martin’s Press for this review.

Huge amount of thanks to NetGalley and st martins press for an advance copy of this book.
Y’all! This is a good one! What if you had a rare form of amnesia that caused you to lose the last two years of your life every time you slept? Liz has it and she’s recently woke up with the words ‘stay awake’ written all over her, spring turned into fall, and a bloody knife in her pocket.
Megan Goldin perfectly conveyed those feelings of confusion and fear, easily pulling me into the story and keeping my attention during all the twists and turns.
Fantastic read! One of my 5 stars for this year.

WHAT'S IT ABOUT (IN A NUTSHELL):
Stay Awake by Megan Goldin is a spine-tingling thriller about a woman who loses her memory every time she goes asleep. She's in danger from a killer, and to figure out who the killer is, she must stay awake.

INITIAL EXPECTATIONS (BEFORE BEGINNING THE BOOK):
The cover is a dark building with two lit windows – one of which has a woman in it in the shadows. Clearly, she's awake long after everyone else has gone to bed. The blurb is even more intriguing and holds a great deal of information that are small bits of what sounds like a potentially excellent thriller. Between the two aspects, my initial expectations for this thriller are very high in terms of pacing and story.

ACTUAL READING EXPERIENCE:
I loved the cleverly plotted mystery most of all. I was totally stumped until the reveal. Of course, I had some thoughts, but they were all wrong. I had mixed feelings about the motive. I'm not sure it was really on par with murder, but people who murder other people are not thinking logical thoughts, so I was more than willing to just go with it. I was absolutely riveted by the idea of someone losing their memory whenever they fall asleep. It's sort of like a crazy twist on movies, such as Groundhog Day, where a person must relive the same day repeatedly.
I loved all the action. Psychological thrillers do not always have much action, but this one did, and I enjoyed it very much. Between the action and the amnesia, the pages flipped quickly from start to finish. It got a bit repetitive in the middle, which slowed me down a little, but that didn't last long, and my reading soon sped back up.
The conclusion is satisfying though it does again require some suspended disbelief. I loved that the major threads were brought to a definite conclusion.

CHARACTERS:
Liv Reese is the main character, and we learn a little about her through the flashback chapters. Still, I wouldn't consider her or any of the support characters, particularly well-developed. I didn't mind this, though, considering the plot. There are also many things to let slide concerning her character, such as why anyone didn't take her to the hospital. But again, this is fiction, so I was willing to buy into the inconsistencies with the natural world to enjoy a thrilling ride.

NARRATION & PACING:
The story is told in two timelines and uses two narration styles for the current timeline. The main character Liv Reese tells events from two years ago in first-person narration. She is telling us the story of what happened to ultimately cause the amnesia she is dealing with in the current timeline. And the current timeline is told from Liv's perspective in first-person. Then third-person narration is used for the chapters that tell of the police investigation into a murder that Liv is wanted for. This all worked together seamlessly and caused no confusion for me. I loved hearing Liv's story in her own words. The stress of not remembering anything is told in a way that I could feel her confusion and constant feelings of being in danger as she felt them. All of this works together to create a pace that is mostly fast throughout the story.

SETTING:
The story is set in New York City, which is ideal for increasing the thrills. Who would want to develop amnesia while walking around NYC – not me, that's for sure. I think the city's inherent danger could have been utilized more. Somehow this poor amnesiac woman is walking around the city at night, never getting mugged or even running into dangerous situations.

TO READ OR NOT TO READ:
If you love psychological thrillers and can easily suspend disbelief, if it means taking a thrill ride, you won't soon forget that Stay Awake is just the book to keep you awake all night reading it.