3.5/5 rounded up.

Liv Reese wakes up in the backseat of a cab in New York with no recollection of how she got there. On returning home she sees two strangers living in her home, no signs of her belongings, her cat or any sign of her having lived there. She is unable to reach her best friend Amy, with whom she had shared the apartment or her boyfriend Marco. She seems to have lost her purse, phone and wallet. All she is carrying is a wad of cash and a bloodied knife wrapped in a t-shirt. She has little messages “Stay Awake”,”Don’t Sleep”,“Don’t Trust Anyone” scrawled across her hands and arms with a ballpoint pen. The last thing Liv remembers is answering her desk phone at work on a summer day a little over two years ago. She remembers nothing of her life between then and the moment she woke up in the cab.

On the same night Detectives Darcy Halliday and Jack Lavalle are called in to investigate the homicide of an unidentified man in an apartment building in New York. The victim was stabbed and the murder weapon is missing. The words "Wake Up" have been written in blood on the window of the apartment. Upon further investigation, video surveillance reveals a woman exiting the apartment on the night of the murder but given the angle, facial recognition is almost impossible. Liv realizes that she may be connected to the murder but has a hard time figuring out how, as she forgets all preceding events of the day once she falls asleep and her memories reset at the same point over two years ago (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?). She is distrustful of the police and does her best to avoid and evade while trying to piece together her missing memories. What happened two years ago? Who is the dead guy in the apartment? Is Liv a suspect, a victim or both?

The narrative is split between two timelines- one in the present day and the other depicting events from Liv’s life two years ago. Liv’s past is shared in her own voice and the current timeline is shared by Liv in the first person with Darcy Halliday’s perspective shared in the third person. True to its name, this book did keep me awake till the last page. I enjoyed how the timelines merge and that the pace does not falter throughout the narrative. Though the dissociative memory loss angle and the constant resetting of Liv’s memory do lead to repetition of content, the author manages to keep the narrative taut and the suspense palpable till the very end. The final reveal is not entirely unpredictable, but I did enjoy the build-up towards the climax with its twists and turns and multiple red herrings. At times the writing did feel a bit choppy but I felt that it added to the atmosphere of the novel rather than detract from it. Having said that, the finale felt a bit rushed and I wasn’t completely satisfied with how the story is wrapped up after the big reveal and though the motivation behind the crime is not unclear a little more analysis and explanation would have been great. I don’t know whether this was deliberate so as to leave readers pondering over the story trying to fill in the gaps on their own or if parts were edited out of the narrative to keep it compact. Overall, this was an engaging read and I did like how both Liv’s and Darcy’s characters were portrayed. This is my first Megan Goldin novel and I’m surely going to read more of her work in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

This read was an exciting thriller that had a few surprises in it. It had a lot of timeline jumps, so if that isn’t your thing this book might not be for you. Overall, I enjoyed it!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy to honestly review.

I’ve always been fascinated by the amnesia trope in books & the puzzle it creates. So the fact that this book starts with the main character waking up in the back of a cab with no recollection had me hooked immediately.
Stay Awake by Megan Goldin has short chapters, which I love! The book goes back & forth on the timeline & POV. It alternates from the main character Liv, who has amnesia, from her tumultuous present to the 2 years prior when she last remembers clearly as well as the point of view of the detectives on a current murder case in present time.
If the reader can fully commit & believe in the amnesia faced by the main character, I think it an excellent thriller. The way it unfolds with the back & forth timelines lets the reader discover the history whilst also appreciating Liv’s amnesia & the chaotic, vulnerable position she is placed in because of it. When each day resets your brain to two years prior, it is bound to cause paranoia, fear, mistrust & a certain messiness to one’s life, which made me feel for her.
This book made me feel anxious, frustrated & even a little scared, which for me means that it’s a well-written story because I become invested in it & empathized with the main character.
I could absolutely see this becoming a series with these detectives. I enjoyed their chemistry & would love to know more about their individual backgrounds.
Also, the ending surprised me, but once I thought about it, it did make sense to me. I love a thriller that can surprise but also make sense to the story, which signals an excellent ending for me.
Bonus, I learned of the mysterious disappearance of Agatha Christie, which I found fascinating!
If you’re looking for an intriguing, fast-paced psychological thriller, I would check out Stay Awake by Megan Goldin & add it to your TBR list. It comes out in August of 2022!

Massive thanks to NetGalley & St. Martin’s Press for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book!

I've loved Goldin's other books and this one is a little hard to follow so I took some notes as it goes back and forth in time. Liz Reese wakes in the back of a taxi and has no idea how she got there or why she's there. She does have writing on the backs of her hands and arms that make no sense to her. "Stay awake" is one--huh? Why should she need to stay awake? This is only one of the mysteries she encounters as she is determined to figure out how and why she can't remember where she is or how she got there. It's complicated and messy but a great mystery as we unravel the story as she attempts to determine what's going on. Murder, mayhem...you get the idea? It's a train wreck from beginning to end (and I mean that in the very best way)! I'll continue to read Goldin's books as they are bold and exciting!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

I’m a huge fan of Megan Goldin, but Stay Awake was incredibly hard to follow. Centered around a main character, Liv, who suffers from reoccurring amnesia, the book takes place over a 2 year period. During that time, Live’s story is told backwards, forwards, and days apart. And, each time Liv falls asleep, she forgets everything for the past two years, I had to put this down a few times and when I picked it up again I had a hard time remember where I was. It’s almost like you’re suffering from your own case of amnesia trying to read this book. There were also pieces in the story that made no sense and many questions I was left wondering about. Overall, it was a unique story but a bit painful to read. The twist at the end just wasn’t really worth it to me.

Imagine waking up every day and not remember the last two years of your life! Liv Reece wakes up in a taxi and is dropped off at her brownstone. She lives with her friend. She has misplaced her keys, phone and purse so she knocks on the door.
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The person who answers is not her roommate and clearly the apartment does not look how she remembered. She notices her hands are filled with messages saying “STAY AWAKE”.
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She realizes that she has no memory and shows up at her place of work. It becomes apparent she has not worked there in years and everyone is shocked to see her since they thought she lived in London.
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Years earlier she was living in NYC as a successful writer. We learn she witnessed the murder of her boyfriend and best friend. She survived the brutal attack. Amnesia and the quest to find out what happened in her past takes the reader on a cat and mouse game. She starts noticing things, but sadly forgets every time she falls asleep asleep. Did she commit the murder and harm herself to cover her crime? #megangoldin, #stayawake, #netgalley, #stmartinspress, #bookreview, #bookstagram, #stamperlady50, #booksconnectus Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this advanced copy. I have read three of her books and they have all been FABULOUS 💛❤️💛

Stay Awake is a well-plotted mystery in which Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi without a phone or her keys. She tries to wake her roommate up, but the man and woman who come to her door, angry at being woken up so late, say they have no idea who this Amy person she claims her roommate is and have lived here for quite some time. Liv has been carrying around a bloody knife wrapped in a t-shirt. She also discovers scribbled notes on her hands saying things like STAY AWAKE. Nothing makes sense.

Thus begins a harrowing day of trying to figure out how her last memory could be of her answering the phone at her office on a sunny day when she had short hair, and now she has long dark hair and winter’s approaching.

In contrast to the day Liv spends learning that she’s the chief suspect in a murder, we have detectives Darcy Halliday and Jack Lavell attempting to find the murderer of a businessman with no identity, who was killed with a single knife wound to the heart in a rented apartment.

The author was extremely clear about when was the present day and the last days Liv remembers, which were two years earlier. That Liv could be abducted by a bad guy or misunderstood by the police makes for a compelling page turner and a lot of fun.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES AUGUST 29, 2022.

The premise of Stay Awake definitely caught my attention. A woman wakes up in a cab with no memory of how she got there and has a number of messages written on her hands including "stay awake". The woman has a rare form of amnesia that causes her memory to reset back to two years prior every time she goes to sleep. But not only does she discover that she's lost the memory of the past two years, she's also on the run from a crime she doesn't remember committing and has no idea of who she can trust.

The book is a very entertaining psychological thriller. There are a few plot holes and a few unrealistic parts to it, which is why I dropped it down to 4 stars rather than 5. Plus I got tired of the constantly changing timelines. But it kept me turning the pages so overall it was enjoyable and I'd recommend it to fans of psychological thrillers.

Thanks to NetGalley for this advanced reading copy
#stayawake #netgalley

Thank you to NetGalley and Megan Goldin for this E-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback and review.

Liv's memory resets every time she sleeps. She can't remember the last 2 years of her life. Her best friend and boyfriend were murdered and Liv can't remember the attack that left her almost dead also. Two years later she wakes up beside a dead man with no memory of how she got there or the murder. Detective Halliday is a rookie detective determined to find out who killed this mystery man. Liv's condition seems to be unbelievable is she a murderer?

I stayed hooked on this book. I'm not usually a fan of an unreliable narrator but Liv is a very likeable narrator. Her memory problems seem legit from the beginning. I liked following her story with the different time jumps. It was easy to follow along I was never confused at what timeframe I was in. I really liked detective Halliday. I wish we could get more books with her and her backstory I would love to read about that. This is a can't miss by Megan Goldin!!

I can still remember this author's first book, The Escape Room. I could not read that book fast enough. I was instantly hooked and wanted to read more books by this author. The next book from this author was in the vein of a podcast and this newest book has the main character with amnesia.

I was so excited when I got approved to read this book. I downloaded it quickly so I could start reading. The beginning of the story did start out strong. It got my attention and made me very intrigued to see where this story would go. Sadly, my excitement did not last very long.

This is because the story really moved as a slow pace. Too slow for me. Additionally, I found none of the characters that engaging, and the repetitiveness was too much. I get that Liv was living a kind of memory loop as she tried to piece together what had happened, but a couple of times was fine but over and over again got to be too much.

When Liv wakes up in the back of a cab, she knows she is on the run but doesn’t know what she’s running from because every time she falls asleep her memory of the previous day and previous two years is erased! This made for a very interesting thriller, different from other thrillers. The author was able to capture how disorienting it would be to lose your memory every time you wake up and made it extremely believable.

This was a solid 4 star psychological thriller for me. I loved the premise where our man character Liv's memories start 2 years ago every time she wakes from sleeping. It was a page turner of a whodunnit, and very entertaining. I ending felt a bit more rushed, but otherwise, I really enjoyed this one. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved The Escape Room by Megan Goldin, so I was very excited when I was approved for Stay Awake on NetGalley. I think I hyped myself up too much for this one because it was just okay to me. I didn’t really connect with the main character at all, which made it tough for me to become invested in her story. Although some parts of this book were predictable, I didn’t have the ending figured out which made me race to the end to see how it turned out. Overall, it’s definitely worth a read if you enjoyed this author’s last two thrillers.

Waking up in the back seat of a taxi with writing all over her he hands, the apartment she is dropped off at is suddenly not hers anymore, and nothing but a knife wrapped in a bloody shirt in her pocket. Liv Reese quickly finds herself running from a crime she does not remember committing after seeing herself all over the news. Flash forward two years, Liv has the perfect roommate/ best friend, the perfect boyfriend, and thriving at a successful magazine. What more could she ask for? Why is this the last thing she remembers?

Ugh, I wanted to like this book so much more! It had three of my favorite things; multiple POVs, dual timelines and short chapters. This read SO fast, and that was great. The concept and plot of the book was good. But the mundane repetitiveness was just … pull my hair out please. The character development lacked heavily. We didn’t see any type of development from Liv until we were at 93%! And that is NOT an exaggeration.

One of the best thrillers I have read in some time!

4.5 stars

Stay Awake is a riveting thriller about a woman with a rare form of amnesia that puts her in the crosshairs of a murder investigation.

When Liv falls asleep, she wakes up not remembering. She is stuck in a time loop from two years ago. When she wakes up one night in the back of a cab in NYC with a bloody knife, she finds herself on the run, but she doesn't know who or what she is running from.

The narrative is split between multiple timelines. Liv and Halliday, one of the detectives investigating the murder, are the main narrators. This is my one qualm with this book--at times, I got confused about which timeline I was in, and while I liked Halliday’s character and would love to see her in another book, I would have preferred the entirety of the novel to be told from Liv’s perspective.

Stay Awake is packed with tension, suspense, and drama. The mystery behind Liv’s amnesia is intriguing, and the way the novel unfolds makes it unputdownable. I was so wrapped up in Liv’s mental state that I missed some obvious clues about the identity of the murderer. There are some red herrings, and I fell for all of them.

One might need to suspend disbelief in terms of Liv’s form of amnesia, but it works in this novel. Liv forgetting everything from the day before when she wakes up could have gotten repetitive, but thankfully Goldin limits the number of times the reader experiences Liv’s forgetfulness, and it was just the right amount. Liv is a hot mess, but she is likable. There are some creepers mixed in, and they add an extra layer of tension. The ending is action-packed and surprising.

I highly recommend Stay Awake. Thank you to Megan Golding for restoring my faith in my favorite genre!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Well, that was convenient. That was my thought throughout Megan Goldin's novel Stay Awake, a book about a woman suffering from amnesia. Two years ago, Liv was living with her best friend Amy, dating Marco and working successfully as a writer. Life couldn't get any better. Fast forward two years and Liv has no idea what has happened. All she knows is that she has writing all over her hands and arms telling her to stay awake. And by staying awake, Liv is hoping to find out what happened during the missing years of her life.

This book started out fantastic. A slow revealing, alternating from past to present, gives the reader a glimpse into Liv's life pre-amnesia. But about halfway into the book, events start to occur that are just a little too convenient. The speed by which they are able to identify the victim, a possible suspect and motive to the broadcast on TV that has a random hairdresser and a doctor calling the police hotline were a little too much for me to believe. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

Really enjoyed reading this! The book skips back and forth in years and current time and sometimes it was confusing, but I’d just keep reading and figure it out!

What if I loved this book it was amazing great writer. I'd like the title to stay awake and tighten with the book and it's pretty fascinating how fascinating how she wrote this book based on a mysteries but you wouldn't realize it was a mystery book until you started to read it. Main character L TheMy problem staying awake. And this was parrot as he read the book along the way.. She would go a one chapter and describe her life with Amy her roommate and then weird things started to happen. And Marcus was the boyfriend of LIVE. Amy's boyfriend loves Bert Graham. And how Amy Moore was very positive in life and she was amazing person. Lambert was working as a fashion magazine and her boyfriend was like consultant. And then you realized she was being stalked locked by this person you don't realize until you've finished the book who it is.. And every time she would go to sleep her memory would go away from this trying to accident which will find out about it.. Though she had annesia so immediately she had a right name journal to remember who she was. She mo detectivDeteTwareallyamazing as wellved to London to escape this problem and met this man in Todd but Todd broke up with her because he just couldn't deal with her past. You read one chapter and you're fighting about her life and then the next chapter you start finding out what this problem was and to me that's a very good writer because it kept me on my edge I never knew what was gonna happen. I hope she writes more like this because it was very well constructive the characters came to life in their own way Detective who helped her was great because the other detectives never really helped HER. She had an interesting story as well. I think this really was a really great book

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐!!!
I am a big psychological thriller fan: this is my third novel by Megan Goldin.. Both “The Night Swim" as well as ["The Escape Room” were great!!!

Story starts when Liv Reese wakes up in a taxi; it is 2:42 a..m. She has no idea why she is in a taxi nor where she is going. When she ends up at her apartment, she realizes that she doesn’t have her keys so presses the intercom buzzer for her roommate Amy to let her in. Only it isn’t Amy who comes to the door but two strangers. After threatening to call the police, Liv leaves and finds another Taxi. Now searching for her phone she finds cash and a knife wrapped in a T-shirt. She also notices that there is writing on the back of her hands.

Liv has a rare form of memory loss; when she wakes up she travels back two years and has no idea what is current. This condition started two years ago when she was almost killer and was so traumatized she now has intermittent blackouts and therefore memory loss.

In addition to Liv, we are introduced to Detective Darcy Halliday who is a new homicide detective: she is not new to the police force additionally served in the military for six years. She is an avid runner and while out for her morning run she is called to investigate a murder. She is the first on the scene and when viewing the body she finds he has been stabbed and there is message written in blood, in large letters
‘PU EKAW’ it is spelled backward so can be seen outside ~ “WAKE UP”.
Detective Jack Lavell is also called in. Jack has fifteen years’ experience and doesn’t like having a partner. . . . .Well guess what?

Story is told from the POV of both Liv Reese and Detective Darcy Halliday.

There is a connection with these two. The words on the back of Liv’s hands are the same ‘Wake Up’ message as in the murder scene!
This was a GREAT read! Megan Goldin does not disappoint!
Personal Note: One fun thing in reading hardback books was always moving one of my favorite bookmarkers ahead. However since I converted to e-books, I now note percentage.
So a SURE Sign of an awesome read is when I don’t check the percentage rate as I am Sooo totally engrossed in the story!!!

This was an early uncorrected eGalley so there wasn’t an Authors Note or Acknowledgements something I always love to read. I am curious of Ms. Golden inspiration in writing this as well as her research. It appears Dissociative fugue is a real thing. I will check when the final copy is out but just may do some research in the meantime.

I am sure this is going to be one of the MOST talked about thriller in 2022!
Certainly is one of my favorites!
Certainly am looking forward to the next author, Megan Goldin novel!.😀

Want to thank NetGalley and Saint Martin’s Press for this eGalley. This file has been made available to me before publication in an early form for an honest professional review.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for August 9, 2022

I received a complimentary copy of this book "Stay Awake" and all opinions expressed are my own. This book was okay or maybe not. The story drags on, jumps around and it quite repetitive. The way it is written I had a hard time focusing on what was really happening. The timeline was confusing and jumping. I didn't connect with the characters at all. I was expecting more, especially from the ending. Come on, you can guess it easily. I wanted to be on the edge of my seat anticipating, guessing, hoping.