Liv wakes up and doesn’t know where she is, how she got there and the last thing she remembers is answering her office phone. She has messages written on her hands, including one that says “stay awake”. This is the Groundhog Day of novels, with Liv forgetting everything from the last two years as soon as she wakes up. I really enjoyed this read and Goldin is becoming a new favorite author.

Intriguing concept, but way too drawn out, especially when the main events are taking place over the course of a day. If Liv had just googled herself on that day she was back in the magazine office, half of the story would have been figured out. Did not like the past tense used when telling the story from the detectives' point of view, which was a different tense from Liv's present day point of view, even though the events were taking place at the same time - it was distracting and slowed down my reading.

I really wanted to love this book. It's got a great premise, albeit not an entirely original one but that isn't the real issue here.

I understand that our unreliable protagonist has memory problems and that her timeline resets every few days but mine does not The repetition in this is non-stop. That, when coupled with the insane timeline made it way too easy for me to lose focus while trying to read. Every chapter jumps around in such a wild way, it was difficult to keep up with what hour we were in. Liv's POV jumps from two years ago to weeks ago, and every day in between, and the NYPD timeline felt just as chaotic. I had to keep going back to remind myself if the scenes with the dets. were before or after Liv's timeline. The continuity issues I was having while reading made it tough to enjoy the story. I never say this, but Stay Awake would make a better movie than it did book. Just being able to visualize the time changes would've helped a ton. The issue with that, is that movie wise, it's been done to death.

I won't even get into the lackluster conclusion.

I'm in the minority here by the looks of other reviews but overall, interesting idea overly complicated by its storytelling with an unsatisfying conclusion.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Okay. I was ready to add this to my DNF list, but the many, many good reviews kept me reading this title - (I was coming up on 30% by the time I got into it, and it took me almost a month to read that far into the story).

Here’s the good.
* Most reviewers love this one.

Here’s the not so good.
* I found that this book required much more of a suspension of disbelief than I was capable of mustering.

Ultimately, this one didn’t work for me (I’m definitely in the minority with this).

Holy Cow! This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It has been a while since I've had a book that I couldn't put down, but this was that type of story. I talked about this book to anyone who would listen to me. I will be gifting this book to multiple people. Goldin did an amazing job with her characters; they were well-developed and likable. I will be purchasing all the books already written by Megan Goldin to read.

Stay Awake is a great mysterious thriller that keeps you wondering what exactly happened to the main character, Liv Reese. Told from alternating perspectives between Liv and the detectives that are on a murder case, the tension and confusion is palpable. The author does a great job of keeping the reader a bit confused as to how the missing puzzles pieces of the story fit together as they relate to Liv's personal issues and how they relate to her current mental state. What I loved about this book is you get to see the perspective of the main character which appears to be the guilty culprit, but you also feel a sense of empathy for her because of her mental condition. Her motivations for doing what she does make more sense as the book progresses further along. Books that keep me guessing are always fun for me to read. I liked trying to fit the reasoning behind the main question-- WHY? I thought the style of writing was very well done and I really enjoyed reading the book overall. I'd recommend this book to people that enjoyed The Appeal because it's similar in that it keeps you guessing and you have to keep track of all the elements to the story, albeit it's not as detailed as later, Stay Awake is still intriguing non the less.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me the chance to review this arc.

This was a first time read for me by this author and it won't be the last! What a great psychological thriller. Liv Reece has a strange case of amnesia and every time she goes to sleep she forgets everything. That can be a real problem! Where does she work, where does she live, where is her boyfriend and her best friend, why are people looking at her so strangely! I felt like Megan Goldin done an excellent job in the mystery part of this book. I seriously had no idea who the killer was, and it kept me guessing clear to the last chapter. Thanks for a great book Ms Goldin!

Stay Awake tells the story of Liv Reese. The story begins with our protagonist waking up in the back of a cab on the way to her apartment...only it's not her apartment anymore. When she goes to grab her cell phone from her pocket she finds a blood knife instead. The only clues she has to follow are words scribbled on her arm. The most prominent one says STAY AWAKE. Every time Liv falls asleep she wakes up with no memories of the past two years. Liv has no idea who to trust and isn't even sure if she can trust herself.

I really wanted to like this book, but it was too confusing. There were so many time jumps that I often felt like Liv...unable to remember things from one chapter to the next. All of the characters are flat and not fully developed. When everything came to a head at the end I was speed reading bc I honestly didn't care what happened. I'd give this one a a miss.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press Group for the ARC.

🌟🌟🌟🌟 4/5 stars

Stay Awake is an excellently plotted thriller about a woman who forgets the past two years of her life every time she goes to sleep. When Liv wakes up in the back of taxi one night with the words “stay awake” written on her arms and a bloody knife in her pocket, she must figure out what has happened to her and what she has done.

This was such a unique and fun thriller that was so different from Goldin’s previous books. It was confusing in the best way and featured many characters that I would love to revisit in future books. I absolutely loved this plot and how well Goldin tied it all together. I can see this one being a huge summer hit.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Full review to be posted closer to release date.

Stay Awake is a page-turning edge of your seat thriller! I was hooked from page one. Every time Liv Reese wakes up, she has forgotten the last two years of her life. She finds herself as the suspect in a murder with no recollection of events or who she can trust. There were so many twists and turns. I have never read any of Megan Goldin's books before. I will definitely be reading her other novels. I highly recommend this book! It is by far the best thriller I have read in a long time! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

Grab the popcorn! Stay Awake is a fast paced, intriguing, psychological thriller that’s aptly named because I stayed up way too late to finish.

Liv Reese has a form of amnesia that causes her to forget anything from the past two years whenever she goes to sleep. So when the book opens and she wakes up not knowing where she is, with notes all over her arms telling her to stay awake and don’t trust anyone, I was hooked and needed to know what was going on.

I continued to be curious about Liv’s past when she seemed to be connected to a murder being investigated by Detective Darcy Halliday and Detective Jack Lavelle.

This story is told through Liv in dual timelines, as well as through the Detective’s perspectives. At times the varying perspectives felt a little confusing to me, but overall I felt it made sense and contributed to helping the reader understand what was going on.

I haven’t read a book where a character has amnesia before and I haven’t watched Memento, so I enjoyed the concept and felt that even though there had to be repetition due to the amnesia, the book moved fast enough that it wasn’t over the top.

Overall, I read this book in a day and found it easy to envision the environment so it played like an exciting thriller in my head! Pure entertainment!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy!

This is a great thriller that kept me turning the pages late into the night! It tells the story of Liv, who has a disorder where she forgets everything that has happened when she falls asleep. It alters in timeline between past, present, and that of a detective tracking the case. It has lots of fun, unexpected twists and had a very satisfying ending.

Phew what a ride. I've been waiting for a solid thriller to kickoff 2022 and this book delivered in spades. Half murder mystery and half psychological drama, this book hits the gas from the first moment and doesn't let up until the very end. Well paced, full of suspense, and just the right level of intrigue. With a protagonist who forgets everything each time she falls asleep, we're never quite sure what to believe... Could she indeed be the killer?

ARC provided by NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Okay I'm with the small minority on this one, and have no idea how everyone else rated it so highly. I loved Night Swim. Escape Room was not as strong in my mind, but still very easy to read and fall into. But this one, eek...

I was drawn in both by the author and by the construct, as Memento is one of my favorite movies. But this is no Memento... It feels scattered and repetitive and I never connected to any of the characters enough to care what happened to them - most especially Liv. She's a ditz. It's utterly unbelievable that someone would keep waking up to blind confusion with nothing but $1,000 in their pocket and wander about Manhattan all day every day. I get that there's trauma. I get that it sparked amnesia. But still - it pushed the bounds of credulity to the snapping point early on, a point that was exacerbated by the incredibly slow burn.

Onscreen you might be able to get away with numerous days of waking up to the same thing, with visual tension and clues, but in a book it starts to get monotonous fast, especially when so much of the writing is so repetitive not only in form but format. I understand the shifts in time and perspective are meant to highlight the confusion in her brain, but without some structure or guideposts - or some sensible/self-preservative decisions or actually useful notes to herself - it makes the story meander in a way that is difficult to follow and feels formless rather than like an intentional build.

This one was not for me.

Need a book to keep you up at night? This'll do it! I couldn't put this book down until I finished it because I needed to know what happened next!! I definitely enjoyed this book!

3.5 stars rounded to 4. Stay Awake is about a woman named live who wakes up every day confused, with no memory of the last 2 years. Every time she falls asleep, she doesn’t remember anything that happened since the last time she woke up. Now accused of murder, the story goes back and forth between Liv and the detectives trying to piece together the gruesome murder.

A thriller that will make you feel as vulnerable as live and I stayed awake far to late since I couldn’t put it down. The ending fell a little flat for me and I feel like pieces of the story didn’t fully wrap up. Either way Megan Goldin will always be a must read author for me

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for a digital ARC of Stay Awake. All opinions in this review are my own.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book before publication.

THE PLOT

50 First Dates but make it horror. Every time Liv wakes up, she thinks it's a summer day in July before everything went to shit. She can't remember anything. She tries to Memento it and write notes on her hand, but it leads her to more confusion. Oh, and now she's being framed for murder. Liv does everything she can to stay awake and figure out what in the fresh hell is going on.

MY OPINION

Ok, guys, we need to have a talk. I was so excited to have my request accepted because 1) the premise sounded juicy (like one of my fave novels Before I Go To Sleep) and 2) the 5-star reviews were coming in hot and heavy.

So either all y'all are lying or I'm way too picky. It could be both tbh. Either way, this book was NOT IT and the only way I would rate this 5 stars if I were like Liv and lost my memory after reading this book. The math just ain't mathin.

Where do I start? Ok. I understand Liv lives in a time warp where she tells herself the same shit all the time, but did the author have to repeat herself every other paragraph too? Literally within 3 pages she writes:

I have the same message written on my skin. It must be more than a coincidence.

And:

The words WAKE UP! are written on my wrist. It’s more than a coincidence.

But this groundhog day situation beats the cake. Goldin writes:

"Why invite your fiancee's ex to your engagement party?" "I didn't expect her to actually turn up... I hoped the invitation would drive home the fact that [spoiler] wasn't hers anymore"

**JUST ONE PARAGRAPH LATER**

"Then why did you send her the invitation to your engagement party?" "...I sent it because I wanted her to know that our marriage was real."

I have to wonder if Goldin suffers the same diagnosis as Liv and fell asleep then woke back up and forgot what she had just wrote.

All this to say... The writing was relentlessly repetitive and just poor in general. For example: "I cook a cheese and asparagus omelet, which I eat while watching the TV in the living room." What in the YMCA creative writing class did I just read??? Oh and my personal favorite: "He also knew she was very fit because he often saw her running to work." Congratulations, Nancy Drew. Ok and lastly... why did she need to repeat the full government names of Halliday and Lavelle every chapter? Girl we been knowing.

Ok and now onto the plot. So this was clearly a rip off of 50 First Dates/Before I Go To Sleep/Memento. Nothing original about it. There was no suspense, nor mystery. Liv, if you don't know what in the cotton-eyed joe is going on, STOP RUNNING AWAY!!! Liv is always moaning how she needs answers, but whenever she's about to get them she's like jk, lemme slide out this fire escape real quick. Logic on zero.

The ending was very anti-climatic. Big ass plot holes. So you're telling me homegirl can't remember her own address but somehow booked flights and moved from London to New York on her own? Ok.

Liv seemed like a sad case before her memory loss. Halliday's backstory made zero sense and I'm not sure if the author was trying to make a comment on veteran's in America but it wasn't hittin. I couldn't get a sense of any of their personalities, and I didn't really want to. So, yeah.

I'm giving it 2 stars because... I think it had potential if the writing wasn't so distractingly bad.

PROS AND CONS

Pros: I was approved for this book
Cons: I read it and now I wish I could have a Liv moment and wake up tomorrow and forget it

One of the best thrillers that I’ve read in a long time! A thrilling and twisty roller coaster ride through an amnesiac's mind — it pulls you in with its unusual circumstances right from the get-go. Megan Goldin is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me! If you’re a fan of thrillers, add this one to your TBR list now! Thank you to St. Martins and NetGalley for my gifted e-copy!

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin follows Liv Reese after she 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 prior, 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? Liv finds herself on the run for a crime she doesn’t remember committing as she tries to piece together the fragments of her life. But there’s someone who does know exactly what she did, and they’ll do anything to make her forget―permanently.

Stay Awake made me stay awake all night in order to finish this book. Stay Awake has the ultimate unreliable narrator in Liv Reese who struggles with a rare kind of amnesia. This book is highly reminiscent of the Christopher Nolan movie memento and a super fast-paced read. Like most Megan Goldin's books, I couldn't put it down. Megan Goldin is quickly becoming one of my favorite thriller/mystery authors and I would highly recommend her books.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

While it’s only January, I wouldn’t be surprised if Stay Awake ends up as one of the top thrillers of 2022. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire book and Goldin has the unique ability of making me feel all the heart pounding terror you would imagine a character might feel in a thriller. It’s like going to a movie with special effects- the wow factor is 100% there!

There came a point maybe halfway through the book where it was obvious to me who did it. I don’t know if I just caught on too easily or if it was supposed to stand out. It didn’t stop me from wanting to stay awake and find out if I was right. My only other critique is that there were a few aspects that could have been tied up a little better. I think some pieces of the plot were meant to throw the reader off but ended up being loose ends.

The character development is fantastic. I felt like I knew the characters well enough that I could visualize the book in my head as I was reading. This was my first Megan Goldin and I will absolutely be picking up another soon!