After reading the synopsis of this book I was really excited to read it. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. I felt it a little hard to follow and when the truth was revealed I had lost interest. Please feel free to give it a try, maybe it was just me and you will enjoy it much more.

How would you react if every time you woke up you didn’t know where or when you were? That alone is terrifying, but add on a murder and it’ll make things a bit more complicated.

This book has fast and slower moments. Adding in multiple timelines definitely helped to break things up so as to not be overly repetitive and add more depth to the story.

I liked the premise of this story and it gave me hints of the movies Memento and Before I Go To Sleep (based on a novel). With that said, I would’ve liked to have seen a bit more character building/background to shine even more light. There were tidbits about each character’s history sprinkled in, but sometimes just a crack of the door opening on their backstory and not enough for me to fully understand their mindsets.

I ended the book with a few questions and also wondering what will come next for each character.

Overall, this was an interesting read; it ramps up the last third of the book. I feel like this would open up many conversations about amnesia/memory loss and other diseases that are debilitating in relation to memories. It definitely will make you want to do some research.

Thank you so much to the author, Megan Goldin, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the eARC of Stay Awake!

Liv wakes up in the back of a cab with no idea how she got there or where she's going, the only clues she has are a bloody knife in her pocket and messages scribbled on her body many of which are urging her to "STAY AWAKE" (*snap snap*) Meanwhile, detectives are investigating the murder of a man who was stabbed in his bed, the same "Stay Awake" message left at the crime scene. Is Liv a victim or a murderer? Not even she knows the answer.

<i>Stay Awake</i> is a well plotted and paced, twisty thriller. It held my interest and had me anxious to find out how all the pieces fit together.

INCREDIBLE!!! This book had such a unique plot line and WOW, was it done well. This unreliable narrator kept me so intrigued by this book. Amazing!!

To be honest, this book was moving so slowly for me at the beginning that I contemplated DNFing it . It does pick up at about 50% . I enjoyed the chapters where the two detectives were searching for clues and following leads to solve the murder committed and the flashback chapters much better than the “amnesia” chapters, which just seemed very repetitive in the beginning .

Thank you so much for this ARC!

Wow, I thought The Escape Room was amazing but Stay Awake actually exceeds it for me! I could not put this down. What an intense ride as Liv struggles to remember everything about a missing two year period of her life.

This does jump back and forth between two present characters and then 2 years prior. Not the book for someone who doesn’t enjoy that. I love it!

Fast paced thriller with an interesting amnesia storyline!

I’ve been a Megan Goldin fan since The Escape Room. Stay Awake is a taut thriller about a woman whose memory resets back two years every time she wakes up, only this time she wakes to discover she’s carrying a bloody knife wrapped in a t-shirt. Most of the book takes place over 1 day as the police investigate a murder & Liv tries to figure out what is happening to her, with flashbacks to the events of two years ago, right up until Liv loses her memory. It’s a brilliant, terrifying, edge-of-your-seat novel that gave me nightmares.

Liv Reese has no idea what is going on, and she has no idea why she doesn't know what is going on. She has strange messages written on her hands, such as Stay Awake, Trust No One and other similar messages. Liv does not remember anything from the last two years. She woke up today and found a bloody knife in her possession and realized she is wanted for murder. The story is told in flashbacks from two years ago as well as present time as Liv is navigating through the day. I received an ARC of Stay Awake in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this eARC.

Overall a really great thriller! It took some time for me to get into the book but after getting about 25% of the way through I was invested. I genuinely did not see mosts of the twists coming and had no idea who the killer was until the very last minute which was very refreshing. It was interesting to get the contrast between the two POVs and piece together the story along with Liv and the detectives never knowing for sure what to believe. The psychological element was really well done and Liv was well written as an unreliable narrator. Not knowing whether we could trust one of the narrators made the whole story more thrilling and mysterious. Towards the end of the book I did find the timeline a bit hard to follow but overall it was well done. A solid 4 star read!!

Liv Reese finds herself in a taxicab heading to her apartment in Brooklyn. When she arrives, hoping to find her roommate Amy, there are strangers living there. She has no phone, handbag or wallet - only a wad of cash. And Liv is in possession of a bloody knife which she disposes of. She falls asleep in a park and then heads to her office where she is a writer for a trendy magazine. Things are not the same as when Liv left the office the day before. And on her knuckles reads in pen: "STAY AWAKE". Below it reads: "WAKE UP". When a man is found stabbed the night before, his murder is all over the news and Liv wonders if perhaps she is to blame. Even though she has no memory of anything that happened before she woke up.

Told in the present and two years in the past, Stay Awake is a highly enjoyable and satisfying thriller. Author Megan Goldin has skillfully created a harrowing reality for Liv, who loses her short-term memory every time she falls asleep. Liv can't trust anyone and soon the police are looking for her including detective Darcy Holliday, a very appealing character who I hope pops up in a future book. This is such a clever and creative story - fast-paced and filled with suspense. And I loved that it took place throughout New York City. A strong follow-up to The Night Swim, which was another solid read.

Rated 4.25 stars.

I really enjoyed this one! I don’t read a lot of thrillers and honestly, before this read, I was almost ready to tap out on the genre. But, I’m so glad I didn’t. The plot of this one is unique and bizarre (in a great way). I haven’t read Night Swim yet but I’ll definitely check it out.

Oh boy. This was not it. This was not what I was expecting from this author and not in a good way. The layout of this one was not the easiest to follow. And I found the root premise of this book to be entirely unbelievable. And the “twists” were easily predicted pretty early on in the book. This just really missed the mark for me.

🏙Thrilling, riveting: memory can be fatal!😲

I found this tense murder mystery riveting and the pages sped by as I could not look away until I came to the last paragraph! The oblivious panic of living with no memory of what went on the day before is not a totally new concept, but here it's put to an ominous test as Liv, the exhausted female lead, must try to survive while totally disoriented by a world that's changed, with strangers surrounding her and left her fearful of sleep.

The story is told alternating between her present day confusion, the lead up over two years before to a life-threatening tragedy that first damages her memory, and a return to the few days before in the present when every sleep has her waking with no recall of recent events. The point of view also switches between Liv and the police pursuing the murder investigation.

Great pace, plenty of twists and an unreliable lead character, backed up by a savvy and strong ex-military female cop who avoids believing that the most obvious answer is necessarily the right one.

Definitely recommended. Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

I will be sharing my review on publication day on Amazon, kobo and Nook sales sites, and pre-publication on Goodreads and Bookbub.

<i> Thank you to St. Martin Press and Netgalley for an ARC </i>

Yes! Though the Night Swim was good, I did not find it as twisty or page turning as The Escape Room. But Goldin delivers here. There have been many references to the movie Memento, and I have no clue if those are founded. But I guess if you like that movie, you have the idea! ;)

I personally found Goldin's writing to be fantastic and the pace of this book was really well done. It definitely has a police procedural feel, so if those aren't your favorite know that going in. I however enjoyed both Liv's story, as well as, watching the police solve the crime.

Definitely happy I picked this one up sooner rather than later as I read it in two sittings!

What would you do if you woke up in a cab and didn’t know where you were, how you could’ve gotten there, where you’re going or why you have writing written all over your hands saying things like STAY AWAKE 🫣

Liv Reece decides to go to what she remembers is her address and when she gets there, there are people living in her house but nothing looks the same and they’re insistent she doesn’t live there and she’s back out to the street. She reaches to her pocket to call someone and there’s a bloody knife where her phone should be.

She knows she is (or was?) a successful writer for a trendy magazine in NYC and now she’s disoriented and nothing is quite like what she remembers it to be.

She sees the local news and realizes in horror it’s two years later than she thought it was and there was a murder last night. Was she involved? What did she do? Someone knows and wants to make sure she doesn’t remember any of it.

This was a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me. Thank you to @netgalley, Macmillan audio, stmartins press and the author for the advanced copies in exchange for an honest review.

This new thriller hits shelves August 9th!

I was hooked from the first to last page with this one! Such an interesting story idea, with her having amnesia every time she falls asleep. Like the movie 50 First Dates, but make it scary. This was like a puzzle, with half the story being told by someone who had no idea what happened. It's also told in part from the perspective of the detectives trying to solve a crime. Seriously, I enjoyed the heck out of all of this book, to the point I kept talking to my husband about it. The end surprised me, but it seemed like every chapter was a new surprise, so it was a new layer being peeled back throughout. Very engaging, fast paced, and I'm really loving this author.

Liv Reese wakes up in a taxi, on a park bench and in a subway car, but can’t remember how she got any of these places. The last memory she has is sitting at her desk on a beautiful summer day and receiving an urgent phone call. She realizes it’s almost winter in NYC and doesn’t know how she lost months of her life. Her hands are covered with black writing telling her to stay awake and trust no one. Liv catches the news of a murder on TV with the words Stay Awake in the victim’s blood on the window and it dawns on her that she might be involved.

Stay Awake is a suspenseful ride that kept me wanting and anticipating, but I could not figure out where is was going, I just knew I didn’t want to exit. Imagine how terrifying it would be to have no memories while you try to piece together your last 24 hours to discover if you are or aren’t a murderer. And add to that a complete shocker of an ending. Must read in my opinion!

This book starts off strong: the last thing Liv Reese remembers before waking up in a taxi is answering her office phone more than 2 years earlier. Her hands and arms are covered in paranoid scribbles like "STAY AWAKE", she has a bloody knife and at least $1000 in her pockets, and neither her best friend nor her boyfriend answer her calls. Liv's story jumps between the present, where she forgets the last 2 years of her life every time she falls asleep, and her life 2 years ago leading up to the phone call that is the last thing she remembers before suffering the trauma that has led to her current memory problems (dissociative amnesia). An alternate POV in the current timeline is provided by NYPD Detective Darcy Halliday, who is assigned to the case related to the knife in Liv's pocket. Halliday and her partner try to unravel what happened, disagreeing on whether Liv is victim or suspect. This is a well-written, fast-moving story. I liked the characters (I would read another story starring Darcy Halliday!) and even though Liv's medical condition seems crazy, the author sold it.
I couldn't put this book down and had to stay up late to finish it, so you'd think it would be an obvious 5 star read, right? But since I finished it, I have been bothered by one thing in particular that was central to the plot that I think was incongruous. I avoid spoilers in my reviews, so I won't say what it was, but since I felt like it "threw me off the scent" of identifying the perp, it almost feels like the author cheated and I pondered whether that should bring my rating down to 4 stars. In the end, I decided that I liked this book so much that I am going to stick with 5.

When Liv wakes up in the back of a cab unsure about how she got there, it only gets more confusing from there. She makes her way up to her apartment, only to find out that she can't find her keys and that a couple who now lives there answers the door. She starts searching for her phone in an attempt to find answers, but instead finds a bloody knife in its place and the message "STAY AWAKE" written on her hands in black ink. The rest of the book follows Liv as she flashes back to two years prior and present day as she attempts to piece together how and why her life has completely changed and most importantly, why there was a bloody knife in her pocket.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and rated it 5 stars. I loved the plot and characters and loved trying to piece together what information from two years prior were going to be clues that unveiled how Liv ended up where she did. It was a great thriller and kept me so interested the whole time that I tore through it in a day.

4.5 stars. An excellent psychological thriller that had me completely engaged from page one. Liv wakes up in a taxi, her last memory that of answering her phone at work. When she gets to her apartment, strangers answer the door and insist that they've lived there for two years. Liv's hands are covered in her own writing with messages like, "STAY AWAKE". As the story unfolds, both in the present and through flashbacks to two years earlier, we start to uncover the truth at the same time Liv does. This is a complex thriller that was really well written, confusing in an intriguing way rather than a frustrating one. Goldin does a great job of heightening the tension as Liv uncovers the secrets of her past, while on the run from some crazy circumstances in her present as well. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a digital review copy.