After reading and loving Night Swim, Stay Awake was one of my most anticipated books for 2022. I did really enjoy this story, but there were some cons along with the pros.
Stay Awake took a little longer to pull me into the story, which I think had a lot to do with the short chapters and the frequent switches between 2 timelines. It got confusing at times, making this a harder story to follow and feel invested in.
The characters fell flat for me. I never reached a point where I liked or felt I understood any of the characters, and it made it difficult to care about the plot. Halliday and Lavelle's thoughts, motivations, and interactions often felt stilted and unbelievable. I would have liked to see these characters be better fleshed out.
Once I got used to the alternating timelines, I couldn't set this book down! The story really intrigued me and had me flipping pages quickly to find out more of Liv's story.
Overall, an entertaining thriller that after a somewhat rocky start kept me captivated until the last page. I look forward to reading more from this author!

Loved this book. Very suspenseful! I can’t imagine getting amnesia every time I go to sleep. Couldn’t stop reading till I found out what caused this condition. Crazy plot but really good reading. Highly recommend!

This book was fantastic! I love how the plot was so different from many of other books coming out in the thriller genre. I really enjoy Megan Goldin's books because they are such unique story lines and very fast paced. Some books take a few chapters to get into but not this one, I was hooked from chapter one. Great characters and the short chapters make for a quick read. I've been really looking forward to this book and it did not disappoint!

Thank you to NetGalley and the St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4579327043

Gah!!! Stay Awake is a totally appropriate title for this book! I stayed awake into the early hours to finish this book as I could not put it down!!!

First off THANK YOU to the publisher St. Martin's Press and to NetGalley for the advanced read copy of this amazing book! This is the third book I have read from author Megan Goldin and all three were absolute page turners!!

For me, a five star book is one I cannot put down and when I do have to put it down, I’m thinking about it. It’s a book which holds my attention, gets my heart racing and has a fantastic ending. This book has ALL of these attributes! At one point, I was confident I knew what was happening. HOWEVER, with a great book, it does not matter because it all comes together.

Liv Reese one day wakes up in the back of a cab heading to where she thinks is home. Only, it’s not her home. She is confused, disoriented and has no idea what is happening. She has lost the memory of the last two years of her life and is trying to piece things together. There are some key things she can’t explain. Why did she have a bloody knife wrapped up in her jacket? Why does she have words written all over her arms? Why can’t she contact her boyfriend and her best friend? Why does she not remember her job and all the changes! What is happening!?

Things take an even worse turn when she’s a suspect in a crime. But…did she do it? She can’t remember anything. And why does she need to always stay awake?

I loved the fast paced writing. The short chapters had me flying through the book. There wasn’t a lot of downtime which makes the best type of psychological thriller.

5 stars!!! ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I am a Megan Goldin fan. I loved Night Swim and The Escape Room. So, I was excited to receive this ARC. overall I really enjoyed reading this book. This was a fast read for me and I found myself unable to put it down. The story jumps back and forth between present-day l, as Liv, who suffers from memory loss, starts her life fresh every time she wakes. When her image is captured on CCTV while leaving the scene of a murder it is up to Detective Darcy Halliday to piece it together and find Liv before it’s too late.

Perfect for fans of thrillers, mysteries, suspense.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange of my honest opinion.

Stay awake by @megangoldinauthor
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Ok! Ok... breathe.. So I recieved this book thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress yesterday... so I opened it up this morning . And you guys. I absolutely blew through it !!!
Oh man .. can you imagine , every single time you fall asleep your memory of the last two years is wiped . Your slate absolutely clean. Except there's one time you wake up in the back of a cab . Heading , home ? But when you get there, you find you no longer live there . And the couple who lives there sends you off into the cold ... worse yet. You have a bloodied knife in your pocket. What the hell did you do ?

This story is told from the perspective of Liv , 2 years ago , the trauma leading up to her unfortunate coma and subsequent amnesia. And Liv now . Navigating through a life she assumes is 2 years ago . Recognizing no one. And telling them so, even when they recognize her . And know shes going to ask the same questions time and time again .
The time line breaks off and give you an inside perspective of detectives doing there job to catch a murderer. .
Liv is shocked to see a fuzzy CTV surveillance image of herself on TV as the main suspect . But thats definitely her . Liv has to find a way to remember whether or not she murdered someone .. in a life where she suffers from severe insomnia, shes always tired , but if she sleeps, the words shes written on her own hands say "stay awake"
If she falls sleep , the game starts at square 1.

This novel was absolutely gripping. Its a must read for any thriller fans out there !

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this book! I loved Stay Awake. I thought the premise was super inventive and incorporated superrealism without feeling fake and just completely fictitious. No one was ever totally innocent throughout the novel, and that keeps you on your toes for the entire read. When the murderer and entire story were revealed, I wasn't really shocked, but I didn't mind. I think Goldin wanted the reader to be slightly aware of the resolution, and that seemed to work in this book's favor.

̗̀➛ 3.5 stars !

I was super excited to receive an arc of this book from NetGalley and I wasn't disappointed, thank God.

What I particularly liked about this novel was the use of creativity when it came to the unreliable narrator trope. Usually, in the thriller genre, it's a cut and dry alcoholic or mentally ill protagonist who drives you insane halfway through the novel. I actually empathized and liked Liv and I wanted her to get better. The use of something different to present our main character as unreliable was fantastic to me.

There was also the unique experience of being just as discombobulated and disoriented as the main character herself. You're quite literally thrown into the novel without knowing what's going on, why it's going on, who made it happen, etc. It makes for an entirely interactive read and also stresses the living hell out of you.

The pacing was slightly off for me. At times I felt like the novel was dragging on and on, and other times I was hanging on for dear life because I could've sworn we were doing thirty in a seventy-five two minutes ago. There were also bits and pieces of scenarios and characters that were introduced that were never quite followed up with ??? Like one of the detectives' past and another character that was introduced as a faux-antagonist. It left me confused and grasping for straws.

In all, it was a good read and I finished it in a day so clearly, you become extremely invested. I'm glad I was disappointed by one of my top thrillers of the year that I'd been looking forward to. Well done.

Imagine every time you fall asleep you wake up not knowing what happened to you? That’s what happened to Liv. She’s lost the last two years and can’t remember what happened. She has pen marks with words written all over her hands and arms such as STAY AWAKE. Who can she trust as she’s running from a crime she doesn’t remember committing. This was a good fast paced thriller that keeps you guessing right to the end. It is told in dual timelines, now and two years ago which I can see could be confusing at times. I enjoyed this one and didn’t guess the ending.

Thanks to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for my free advance reader copy in exchange for my review.

Publish date: August 9, 2022

I read and reviewed Megan Goldin’s previous thrillers Night Swim and The Escape Room and liked them both (4 Stars) but Stay Awake is by far her best book yet and I LOVED it! 5 Stars! The story is not only well-written it’s expertly plotted and executed. Brilliant! I couldn’t stop reading.

Throughout the tale I rooted for Liv Reese, the protagonist, and her counterpart, Detective Halliday, who both have a lot to prove. They solve a murder mystery in alternating chapters in their unique POV as the story unfolds. Goldin weaves clues throughout the book and ties up the big reveal with a very satisfying conclusion. I hope we see more of Detective Halliday in future books. Stay Awake has joined the short list of my favorite books of 2022. Highly recommended! Don’t miss this one!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press, who consistently publish many of my favorite books, for providing an ARC to read and review. *NetGalley Top Reviewer*. This review will be posted to https://BaysideBookReviews.com on release day.

Another amazing hit by Goldin!!

Liv wakes up in a cab, having no recollection of anything that’s happened in the past 2 years of her life. All she knows is that she has STAY AWAKE written in black sharpie on her hand. And every time she falls asleep, she wakes up again, in different places around New York City, in dangerous situations.

Liv only knows two things for certain each time she wakes up. She needs to stay awake and that her life is in danger - though she doesn’t know why or how to stop it.

In one of Goldin’s most gripping psychological thrillers to date, <i>Stay Awake</i> was a novel I read in one sitting. It was intriguing, terrifying to think about (could you imagine yourself in that situation?!), and most importantly, it kept me captivated until the very end.

I love the different perspectives and timelines. This was a very twisty and thrilling read!

I enjoy the shorter chapters, it makes the book a little easier to consume.
The ending surprised me and I genuinely felt like I couldn't predict what was going to happen. A rare occurrence for me!
Definitely recommend this for a fast paced thriller!

4.5/5 - Really loved this one. I was hooked from the beginning and loved the pacing. The ending fell a bit flat, with a reveal that didn't make a ton of sense (and motive that wasn't explained) + some corny "of course I did it and here's how!" dialogue. There were a few plot holes left at the end (and some things I never understood throughout - why was she in that awful apartment? What was she doing for the weeks she was in NY before the start of the book?), but all that is mostly forgiven given how fun of a read it was. Memory loss/unreliable narrator tropes are so easy to get wrong but it was never irritating or repetitive here. Liv's tendency to run away did get a bit old, but was mostly understandable given the circumstances. Overall just the type of book I love, would definitely recommend.

#StayAwake #NetGalley
ENGROSSING.
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 now lives in her apartment and forces her out in the cold. 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 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, the same message that’s inked on her hands. What did she do last night? And why does she remember nothing from the past two years?
I didn't read such good book from a very long time. I was thinking I knew what was coming but it's twists were very twisty.
It's a fun read and you should definitely read it.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for giving me an advanced copy.

One of the best thrillers I read so far!!! I couldn’t stop reading. When I thought I had all figure it out the twists of the story keep second guessing myself until the very end. This book was so good I didn’t want the story to stop there !

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for an ARC of Stay Awake for my opinion. This is the first book by author Megan Goldin I have read. It was a very interesting premise. Liv Reese wakes up and has no memory of where she is or when it is . We learn that she has lost 2 years of time and every time she goes to sleep, she wakes up with no memory again. The story moves between present time and Liv’s past two years ago. There are three dead bodies that all have one thing in common - Liz. But she doesn’t remember if she is the killer or possibly the next victim.. There was a lot of repetition of Liz’s point of view but we have to expect that considering her condition. This was a quick, enjoyable read. I will definitely check out the author’s previous books.

This suspenseful book grabbed me from the start, but as the pages went on, I felt like there were too many added unknowns that made it hard to follow the story and hold my interest. It Would’ve been nice to have a few concrete bread crumbs dropped every now and then to keep the reader engaged, but I did finish the book. I found the ending a little disappointing.

Thank you netgalley and publisher for this arc and ability to provide honest feedback.

This is the second book I’ve ready by this author and both are so well done. This one pulls you in immediately and makes it hard to put down to go about daily life. I liked the characters, no repetition, and the storyline was well done. The ending was well done, only felt slightly rushed in that I feel it didn’t explain motive and I wish it did. I need to know whyyyyy the person did/does what they do! But that’s my problem. Nonetheless this author is becoming a definite favorite and I’d recommend this book to everyone!

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

The story opens with Liv in the back of a cab without a clue of how she got there and where her purse/phone are. She has the driver drop her at her apartment and because she does not have her keys, she knocks on the door for her roommate to open the door. However, a stranger to Liv opens the door and has no idea who Liv is or why she is waking them up in the middle of the night. Liv flees the apartment and wants to call for help. Upon searching her person for her phone, she finds a knife, wrapped it a shirt. Bloody knife. In a panic, she throws it away and realizes that there is writing all over her hands/arms. The main thing - STAY AWAKE!!!

Liv realizes that it is not a warm sunny day, the last day she remembers. It is actually more than 2 years later. Liv has no clue what is going on and tries to piece together the last two years. As she starts to zero in on what is going on, she realizes that she is in great danger.

This book was definitely an interesting read. Some parts I thought took long; however, as the pace intensifies at the end, you realize it was all worth it.

Wow!!! I couldn’t put this book down. Stay Awake is a fast-paced thriller that had me flipping the pages like a mad woman late into the night. I kept thinking about the movie Memento as I read - such a clever story, dropping hints along the way that I’m sure I missed. So back it goes on my list to read again! Highly recommended!!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.