This was one of the books I was looking forward to the most this year, but sadly it really really really missed the mark for me. Has Goldin fallen into the category of overhyped author? Possibly.

This book has a ton of short chapters, very similar to Goldin's typical writing style but nothing held my attention long enough to make me want to continue on, I often felt myself putting it down and finding something else to do. The narrator has memory-loss, so not only was she unreliable, but it felt super repetitive at times as well. It just felt like this author had too much going against her, it was hard to care about what she said.

The ending left much to be desired and was very predictable, but didn't give proper closure either. I don't know, I would love to see what other people think once more people get their hands on this! For now, I would say, this isn't worth the read. And i really did LOVE her other books so much.

A huge THANKS to St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my (overly) honest review!

I loved THE NIGHT SWIM by this author. STAY AWAKE had a lot of potential but unfortunately it just didn’t do it for me.

Likes
✨alternating timeline
✨memory loss storyline
✨short chapters

Dislikes
✨I understand the character lost her memory, but it was very repetitive
✨not enough twists
✨didn’t like the characters
✨ending was predictable

I really wanted to love this one, but it definitely fell flat for me.

DNF’d at 30%.

There is a story here. I was intrigued my the MC story at first. Waking up in a strange place and having zero memory of the past few months. Strange markings on your body saying “Stay Awake.”

As I progressed further in to the book I started to get annoyed. What is this person supposed to do, literally never go to sleep?!

I might be in the minority here, but this one quickly started to feel redundant. I also struggled with the timeline. Going back and forth between present day and the past, it took me a minute to find my footing at the beginning of each chapter.

This is most likely a “me” thing. I would still give this one a chance. I loved Megan Goldins The Night Swim. Who knows I may revisit this one again I the future.

Thank you to Netgalley for a chance to read this early in exchange for an honest review.

Megan Goldin serves up another winner with “Stay Awake,” a thriller that combines a detective novel with a thriller element. One might be reminded of the movie “50 first Dates,” where a woman wakes every morning with no memory of what had transpired the previous day. This book, however, shares nothing else with the romantic comedy and presents a darker side as it depicts a woman without a support system and operating primarily on her own.

New detective Darcy Halliday has been teamed up with veteran Jack Lavelle. While others prefer to see her recent case as one of the open/shut variety, Darcy insists there is something more. As more facts come to light, it appears that there is a murderer is desperately trying to find Liv, suspecting that she knows enough to identify him. The thriller element is now set, as we follow Darcy in her attempts to find Liv while Liv tries to work through the problem of not remembering. She is clever enough to write notes on her hands to help her waking self through the next day, but many times there is only enough information to lead to more confusion.

I had read Ms. Goldin’s previous novel, “The Escape Room,” and while I enjoyed that book, this one tops it. The author has a talent for weaving two related stories together and building the tension to a fever pitch until a nail-biting climax. Highly recommended. Five Stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a complimentary electronic copy of this book.

Read this if you like: short chapters, having no clue what's happening 🤣, past and present timelines, multiple POVs

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 her house she discovers a stranger lives in her apartment. 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.

Two years ago, Liv was living with her best friend, dating a new man, and thriving as a successful writer for a trendy magazine. Now, she’s lost and has no idea what happened. Catching a glimpse of the local news, she’s horrified to see reports of a crime scene where the victim’s blood has been used to scrawl a message across a window, the same message that’s inked on her hands. She wonders if she's a murderer.

This book had me hooked. I had no freaking clue what was happening. Every time Liv goes asleep we get flashback of what happened to her. This book reminds of a crime show. I loved it. It's a fast paced page turner and I could put it down. Pick this up on the 9th! Highly recommend this book!

Thank you for NetGalley, the author, and St. Martin's Press for the gifted book! ❤️

May contain spoilers!
This was a riveting, thrilling psychological mystery that I found difficult to put down. The protagonist, Liv, has a very rare form of amnesia and has completely forgotten the last two years of her life. What makes this condition most difficult medically is its rarity. Every time she falls asleep in the present, any new memories formed are completely obliterated from her consciousness. This is present fiction's most unreliable narrator, a literary device I usually dislike, but author Megan Goldin wove the plot so brilliantly that I was submerged in the story with the suspense escalating. One must suspend disbelief in the premise. On the downside, I started the book with a vague nagging suspicion that I had read or seen something similar, but at the same time, I was baffled by the developments. I worried about Liv's safety as more of her past was revealed.

(Spoiler)** We learn Liv's memory problems began when two people close to her were stabbed to death, and she was severely wounded and in hospital in a coma. She was a suspect in the murder, but there was no tangible proof. She moved to London, worked at a reliable job, and met a man she thought she would marry. She suddenly returned to New York with no memory of her past two years in London. The story begins with Liv waking up in a taxi with writing covering her hands and arms. These are messages warning herself to stay awake. Her last memory was being at work in a NY office, looking out the window to a bright, sunny summer day. She thinks she is returning to her apartment that she shares with her friend Amy on the same day.

To her shock and bafflement, she finds her apartment is now occupied by a couple who have lived there long enough to have remodelled it and angrily tell her to go away. Her cat is missing, and where has her best friend Amy gone? She can not contact her, and also her boyfriend, Marco, will not answer her calls. She gradually realizes that she is living in a new reality, and it is now autumn; almost two years have passed since she remembers being at work. People she encounters remember her and mention that they heard she had moved to London. This alarms Liv, and she doesn't recall or believe these people.

Liv has moved into a new apartment, living alone, and disturbed by weird phone calls and unsettling, unexplainable things happening in her apartment. Someone may be watching her. When she goes to the police, they decide Liv is being delusional.

We learn that Liv had been a suspect in a double murder in the past, but the case was unresolved due to a lack of tangible evidence. Now two police officers are searching for her as a strong suspect in a new bloody killing using the same method. One of the detectives feels she is guilty, but a female officer wants to give her the benefit of a doubt. Liv is terrified as she has learned she is being pursued by police and cannot remember either killing. Is she guilty, or is the killer someone else? Will the police find her and send her to prison, or will the actual, unknown killer find her first and silence her forever?

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the captivating ARC that had me engaged throughout with surprising twists and reveals and with a compelling, well-developed character whose fate concerned me. Recommended!!

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin wasn't what I expected... which is a good thing. I was expecting your classic unreliable narrator but this was a unique spin on it and was quite enjoyable. It tied up a bit too easily at the end but was definitely a twist upon a twist upon a twist that had me quite surprised at parts. I would definitely recommend this book and am thankful I had a chance to read this galley from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for my honest review.

I loved THE NIGHT SWIM, so I couldn’t wait to read @megangoldin’s new release, STAY AWAKE. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this advanced reader’s copy of STAY AWAKE, available on August 9.

This thriller really kept me stunned and surprised until the end! It was completely unpredictable and unlike any mystery I've read before. The book begins with Liv waking up in the back of a taxi with no recollection of how she got there. She finds a bloody knife in her pocket, but no memory of why. Needless to say, everything that unfolds kept me hooked after that!

This story weaves between three perspectives: Liv’s past, Liv’s present life, and the detective trying to get to the bottom of everything. I really liked the switch between these three scenarios throughout the book. There were a lot of intentional details (some of which I realize now totally hinted towards the killer) that at times were hard to keep track of, but they all played a significant part. This book was clearly very well thought out, making it so exciting to see everything come together in the end!

I had a good idea of who the killer would be, and I ended up being right, but I still had no clue how things would conclude. What I really loved about this book was that I had no idea what was going on and each chapter led us one step closer to the truth. This was a suspenseful read that any thriller-lover truly must read!!!

I am so happy I went into this book blind. I don’t think I even read the synopsis before requesting it. This is my type of thriller for sure. It was suspenseful, full of mystery and kept me on my toes with guessing what was going to happen. I loved this concept and it kept me turning pages into the night. Highly recommend this book to you all!

I was excited to read Stay Awake as unreliable narrators are becoming a favorite troupe of mine in mystery and thrillers. They are also very hard to write and keep track of. This book felt like a darker version of 50 First Dates as the main character, Liv, has no recollection of the past two years of her life after she wakes up from sleeping. We get to read about Liv's experience pre= and post-memory loss. Liv also is in a bit of trouble due to the memory loss, so we also get to read this story from the POV from two cops investigating a crime.

I didn't hate the book, but wish there were some more tied up loose ends. Many things I was hoping would get clarified if the book were maybe 10-20 pages longer. Seemed like an abrupt ending to me. A cool concept and worth reading.

Liv Reese is missing the past two years of her life. As in she has no idea what happened during that period of time. One minute she's sitting at her desk at a trendy magazine office and the next she's in the back of a taxi feeling disoriented and lost with two years having passed. Her hands and arms are covered with messages written in ink - Stay Awake, Wake up, Trust no one. When the cab stops at her old brownstone, she rings the bell to get her roommate up; however, the door is answered by an angry stranger yelling at her to go away while claiming to have lived there for some time. Megan's phone is missing as is her purse. If she allows herself to go to sleep, she repeatedly forgets the last twenty-four hours. Each time she wakes up, her mind is a blank slate. She's running on fumes. What's happening to her? Why does she have the feeling she may have done something terrible and her life is in danger?

Detectives Darcy Halliday and Jack Lavelle are working the murder case of a man whose apartment window has the words Wake Up written on them in his blood. A woman was seen entering his apartment with him hours earlier, but later left by the back alley alone. As their investigation progresses, the detectives have reason to suspect Liv is that woman. It's true that the same message is written on her hand, but does that make her a murderer? She hasn't a clue why she wrote it nor why she was carrying a bloody knife wrapped in her bloody shirt that she threw in a garbage can. The story that ensues is convoluted, twisted and tense.

Stay Awake unfolds through two points of view - Liv's and Det. Hallidays. Liv has an illness brought on by an extremely traumatic event that she doesn't remember. This story is told through dual timelines, slowly revealing what happened to Liv two years ago and the police investigation in the present. The action is fast-paced from beginning to end, and the tone is dire. Readers soon realize that someone has reason to silence Liv, and she's a sitting duck with the amnesia rendering her clueless as to who she can trust and who she can't. Goldin brilliantly weaves several viable red herrings into the story, and I'll admit to not suspecting the true murderer until the reveal. When I realized who the culprit was and why, I kicked myself for not figuring it out. But then, that's the magic of Goldin's stories.

While some may find Liv’s story a bit repetitive, it serves to drive home the dilemma she finds herself in each time she awakens with no memory. She's living in a nightmare, on the run from everyone including the police while doing everything possible to stay awake and figure out what's happening to her. I believe the repetitiveness of that part of the story drives home the magnitude of the state she finds herself in while driving the tempo at breakneck speed.

Stay Awake is a mesmerizing, expertly plotted psychological thriller intertwined with an excellent police procedural. The two go hand in hand steadily building the tension all the way to the shocking climax. My understanding is that readers may get to see Det. Halliday in future books, and I must say I'm intrigued. Goldin has penned another dark, ominous thriller with vibes of Memento. Highly recommended to fans of suspense thrillers, mysteries and police procedurals!

**Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Megan Goldin for an ARC of this book!**

Picture a golf course. Pristine, green, serene.

Now picture the same golf course...except the golf course in question is at Bushwood Country Club, and a wily gopher has caused a certain groundskeeper to essentially blow the entire thing up, making the entire course FULL of GIANT holes, thus rendering it unplayable.

In the case of Stay Awake, a THOUSAND plot holes not only tripped me up (on top of near CONSTANT repetition) but made this one nearly unreadable.

Liv has a rather unique and serious condition: she slips into a dissociative fugue state every time she falls asleep, and upon each wake up, she can't remember anything that has transpired (except things that happened prior to two years ago...I think. Confused yet?) This would be hard enough to manage on a regular basis...but for Liv, it becomes so much worse. When she finds herself in a taxicab, ending up at HER apartment and opens the door to two strangers who inform her she doesn't live at that address anymore...and it isn't the first time they've told her this information. She finds messages written all over her arms urging her to STAY AWAKE and has no idea what they mean.

From what Liv knows, she was working at a popular magazine Cultura, living near her bestie Amy, and was in love with hunky Marco, her European beau. However...she learns that these memories are from two years ago...and life has shifted dramatically since then. Now, everywhere she turns, things aren't the same, the people and places have changed, and she sort of drifts aimlessly around NYC looking for answers.

All of this comes to a head when she finds out a murder has occurred...and lo and behold, a message was written on the window at the crime scene...a familiar message. STAY AWAKE. Liv is horrified and assumes she must be involved...and THEN she finds a knife in her possession. As she reaches for her next dose of caffeine, can she outrun the police and figure out exactly WHY it is so important for her to stay awake before she forgets yet again? And where exactly WAS she last night?

After a bad experience with The Escape Room a few years ago, I was a bit leery about diving into another Megan Goldin book, but after hearing rave reviews of her last, I figured I'd give this a shot. I LOVE stories about amnesia and memory (a la Memento and 50 First Dates, both of which handle this subject matter brilliantly) so I figured I couldn't miss with this book. After finishing it, however, I wish I could close my eyes and clear MY memory when it comes to having actually READ the entire thing.

At first, I was intrigued and the story caught my attention. Chapters are short (always a plus for pacing in a thriller, unless they're TOO short) but I quickly realized Liv wasn't the only one who wouldn't be getting any answers: YOU, the reader, aren't going to get any either. As we bounced back and forth from timeline to timeline (this device was especially grating and messy in this book), I couldn't decide what story line was more irritating: Liv's journey (past and present) or the two detectives trying to figure out the case (mostly in the present). The narrative would deal with Liv, and then we'd have to wait for the detectives to 'catch up' to her in terms of timeline, so we had to keep going over and over the same information....which brings me to my next point.

This book is SO, SO, SO (yep, three times!) REPETITIVE. I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over...and not in a good way. It almost felt like Goldin was trying to make the book longer by reiterating the same information or going over the same events in slightly different ways and I just didn't get it. It's fine for Liv to be confused, sure, makes sense, but I was just so annoyed with her that after a while, I didn't care.

I won't get into many of the more specific plot holes as not to spoil anything, but here are a few:

*Liv constantly drinks caffeine to...you guessed it...STAY AWAKE. However, the amount of coffee she consumes is simply insane NOT TO MENTION if she was drinking this amount of coffee she wouldn't have had time to go to all of these locations because she never would have been able to be more than a few feet away from a bathroom.
*Liv keeps a journal to help her remember things...but then doesn't keep the journal with her. (WHY WOULDN'T SHE WRITE THIS ON HER ARM? Or about a thousand other more relevant messages...)
*Liv has people who know about her condition (and AREN'T the bad guys)...yet nobody ACTUALLY helps her or stays with her. She also randomly remembers things that according to her condition, she would have forgotten.
*We hear all sorts of red herring-ish information in the beginning of the book that is then never mentioned again.

While I didn't fully guess the ending, I'm not sure that it mattered to me whether Liv was guilty or innocent or to be honest, what even happened to her. I could go on and on...but at the risk of sounding repetitive, I think I'll do the safe thing...and go get some sleep.

2.5 stars

Once I started this book, I could not put it down! And crime novels tend to have that impact on me as I want to get to the bottom of the case at hand. With this novel, it felt like it would be difficult given Liv’s, the main character, amnesia. I could not imagine waking up each morning thinking I was two years in the past!

I really enjoyed how we get to see Liv’s story in the past and present (which are all separated by chapter with dates) while also seeing where the detectives were at with the case as they got their own chapters too. I appreciate a solid separation of events so that way information doesn’t get lost.

It's not often that a book keeps me up reading but this one sure did! I could not put it down. What would you do if every time you fell asleep you were missing the last two years of your life and couldn't remember anything or anyone when you woke up? You just knew you had to stay awake. This is what the main character faces in this fantastic psychological thriller. This one is not to be missed if you want to be immersed into a chilling ride.

One of my favorite books this year! Kept me on the edge of my seat with suspense.

I cannot even begin to imagine how it would be to be in Liv Reese’s shoes. For the past two years, her memories are erased every time she falls asleep. She does everything she can to stay awake, but a severe lack of sleep wreaks havoc on one physically and mentally.

The book opens with Liv waking up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. But on her hands are inked the words “STAY AWAKE.” The last thing she remembers is being at work and receiving a phone call at her office. When she arrives at her apartment, she discovers strangers living there now. When she checks the pocket of her cardigan, she finds a bloody knife wrapped up in a t-shirt. She has no idea where they came from, and why she has them. She senses she is in danger, but she doesn’t know why.

When she happens to see the local news on television, she’s horrified to see reports of a crime scene where a message is scrawled across a window – “STAY AWAKE.”

Liv is the prime suspect in a double homicide committed two years ago. And now someone else has died in the same manner those two were killed. Detectives Halliday and Lavelle are assigned to the most recent case.

The author did a great job of portraying Liv’s feelings. I could feel her fear, confusion, and frustration as her entire life spins out of control. The pacing was perfect. The tension never lets up.

This story is told from Liv’s perspective and that of Detectives Halliday and Lavelle. (I really liked these detectives.) It is also told in a dual timeline, present-day and two years prior. While this can sometimes be confusing, I had no problem keeping it all straight.

It was so hard for me to put this riveting book down. I kept looking for moments when I could get back to reading.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the advance digital galley. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!
Megan Goldin certainly did not disappoint with her new book! Stay Awake had many twists and turns that kept me guessing throughout. The plot was fast paced and kept me interested- I needed to keep reading to figure out the ending. Would definitely recommend reading!

Stay Awake…that’s all Liv sees when she wakes up with no recollection of where she is and how she got there.

every moment she returns to places of her past, only she doesn’t understand why she can no longer recognize anyone around her and why nothing is the way she remembers.

As she moves around New York she learns that the very place she woke up this morning was the scene of a heinous crime, one for which she contained the murder weapon safely tucked in her cardigan.

How could she possibly have forgotten what happened and why does seem as though everyone she knows seems to know something she doesn’t..

memory blackouts. stalkers. murder. revenge

This is the what this novel entails. The whole novel I found myself constantly questioning who could be targeting Liv, was she crazy or was someone really after her? I enjoyed the perspective of the detectives working the case as well, we are given a look into all the information they are discovering and it really drives the anxiety behind what Liv feels throughout the novel.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Megan Goldin for the opportunity to read this thrilling, amazing novel!

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 claims to live in her apartment. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it’s missing. In its place is a bloodstained knife. Her hands are covered in scribbled messages, like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE. Two years ago, Liv was thriving as a successful writer for a trendy magazine. Now, she’s lost and disoriented in a New York City that looks nothing like what she remembers. Catching a glimpse of the local news, she’s horrified to see reports of a crime scene where the victim’s blood has been used to scrawl a message across a window, similar to the message that’s inked on her hands. What did she do last night? And why does she remember nothing from the past two years? Liv finds herself on the run for a crime she doesn’t remember committing. But there’s someone who does know exactly what she did, and they’ll do anything to make her forget—permanently..

This book was amazing. This is definitely one of the best books I have read so far this year. Told in alternating chapters between past and present, and you are unsure if Liv is an unreliable narrator in either/both of the timelines. I loved the fresh aspect of a main character (and the narrator) being someone who has a memory disorder that erases their memories every time they fell asleep, thereby rendering anything they said or believed as questionable. There was non-stop action, and the book will keep you guessing as to the true identity of the killer until almost the very end. If you are a fan of thrillers then this needs to be at the top of your TBR pile. I guarantee you will love this.

While I was excited to start this and the way it reminds me of Groundhog day movie, I just feel the same things constantly being repeated was too much. Interesting psychological thriller and a very slow build.

Stay Awake is one of my favorite thrillers I’ve read in a long time. It was suspenseful and kept me guessing through the whole book.

Liv finds herself waking up on a train and has no idea what has happened for the last two years. She visits her home and work only to find out she moved to London two years ago and she has no recollection. Liv has notes written all up and down her hands warning her not to fall asleep and not to trust anyone. To make matters worse, she is a suspect in a murder that was comitted the night before.

Going back and forth from past to present, we learn about Liv’s life as she tries to unravel what’s happening to her now. Very suspenseful and kept me guessing. I actually stayed up late to finish the book because I just had to know how it ended. Excellent thriller!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for granting me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.