I wanted to love this one so badly. But honestly I just didn't care that much about any of the characters. It felt very chaotic, and if it wasn't chaotic then it began to become repetitive. I understand our MC has amnesia and can't remember anything if she falls asleep, but with that it had her jumping timelines, and having to repeat everything that has almost already happened. 🤷🏻‍♀️

This book kept me hooked and I really liked the format with the flashbacks and rotating POV. I was a little puzzled at the end - what was the motive of the killer?

Megan Goldin is a creative and innovative writer. She writes stories that are unlike anything else you'll read!

Ever since I read <a href="https://chillandreadblog.com/2019/08/04/the-escape-room-by-megan-goldin-bookreview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"The Escape Room"</a>, I knew I would enjoy Megan Goldin's books. When I read <a href="https://chillandreadblog.com/2020/08/20/the-night-swim-by-megan-goldin-bookreview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"The Night Swim"</a> I was convinced I was right the first time. So, as soon as I saw a new book was out, I jumped right into that train! It took me a little to start, because of lack of time and know I have finished reading for more than a week and still haven't found the time to write about it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This was one of the most intense reads I had this year. The story is about Liv Reese, as woman that wakes up in the back of a taxi while returning home. As she's there, she realises that she doesn't have her purse or her phone, but thankfully, she has a lot of cash and can pay the taxi driver. When she arrives home, she decides to wake up her roommate, since she doesn't have her keys - as said before, her purse is no ware to be seen- only to find out that a pair, unknown to her, is living in their apartment. Her cat is missing, her things are missing, her clothes, furniture, photo frames are gone. This does not look like her home anymore. As soon as the strange woman living in her house threatens to call the police, Liv realises she needs to go. As she stops on the front door steps to catch her breath and decide what to do next, she finds a bloodstained knife in her pocket. The knife is wrapped in a shirt Liv does not recognizes. But that's not the only thing she doesn't recognize. Her hands are full of scribbled messages and one of them says STAY AWAKE.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Two years ago, Liv was working at Cultura magazine, living with her best friend, dating a man she liked and generally having a good time and a good life. Now, she finds herself disoriented in New York, she has no idea how it is two years after the last thing she remembers. She cannot understand why she cannot find her boyfriend Marco anywhere, or why her friend Amy is not at the hospital she works. Also it seems that things at Cultura Magazine have changed. She doesn't recognize anyone there and she's being told she works in the London offices. Liv tries not to let people understand she has no clue what's going on, until the police starts looking for her in relation to a murder that's taken place. As she happens to walk outside the crime seen, she sees the same message that's written on her skin, written across a window. It's red, as if it's written with blood and it says STAY AWAKE.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Now that you've read the story you can understand why I was instantly hooked in this book! It's one of the best psychological thrillers I've read lately! It starts with Liv at present time and as the story unfolds, we go back and forth between present time and two years ago, in order to see what Liv's life was back then and how messed up it is now. Liv suffers from a condition where she forgets everything every time she sleeps. Well not everything, but her memories stop two years ago, when she was at the magazine, answering a phone call. She has no recollection of what has happened after that time, but there are a few people that know bits and pieces and even lesser than few, that know exactly what happened. Liv has this feeling that she's in danger, and she is, but she cannot understand why. She's not sure if she is the offender or the victim of a crime, and that can make someone crazy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Megan Golding, once more, delivers a riveting thriller, with loads of suspense and a bit of drama! She gives us two timelines and two points of view. I've already talked about the two timelines. On the two point of views, one is of course that of Liv's, which can be a little too stressful, as she kind of passes all her emotions to the reader. She's an unrealistic narrator and that is something one either loves or hates. The other point of view is that of detective Halliday, the first detective on the crime scene and the one that is trying to find the truth. Halliday tries to keep her mind open and not form a theory, as she goes on with the research on those involved in the crime. She is not ready to accuse the missing woman as the perpetrator, as she's trying to see all the facts, even those that she's missing. I would like to see Halliday in another book!</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I can't say I didn't understand what was going on with her boyfriend. What I hadn't guessed though was the murderer and that's the best I can have in a thriller!</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I received a complimentary ecopy from the publisher via NetGalley. The views expressed are my personal and honest opinion.</p>

The idea behind this one was partly unique and partly played out. I liked that the amnesia made her forget everything only if she fell asleep. However the main character made me want to shake her and knock some sense into her. She never did the simple, most common sense thing by looking up information on herself or even just ask those that she knew. Drove me nuts what she focused on but wouldn't do what would make things easier on her. The villain was not who I was expecting but once it was revealed, it was pretty played out what he did. This author is very talented, but this one just didn't pull me in like the others I've read.

I was really sad to DNF this one. I really was hoping this would better than Night Swim because I loved Escape Room. But the book was boring. I never thought a book about amnesia could be boring, but here you go. I also disliked the main character. Better luck next time, I guess

An absolutely addictive, fast paced thriller that will keep you up reading all night. Just read it!!!!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of Stay Awake!

I was so excited to get approved for this book because I had heard such good things about this author’s previous books.

…but then I dived into this and wondered if I was reading the same thing as everyone else?

I had to seriously push myself through this one because the MC annoyed me so badly that I genuinely did not care what happened to her or why she’s losing her memory when she sleeps.

Everything was so repetitive that I just became further annoyed and kept wishing it would magically get better, but it definitely did not.

I was so disappointed in this one, but am glad there are others who enjoyed it. This book was just not it for me.

Well, this was a long/short reading marathon! With tinges of a more malicious villain from Doctor Who, and legit goosebumps, this is the perfect book to read on a dark and story night.

Wow, okay there is so much to unpack with this book.


First, I want to thank the author, publishers and Netgalley for allowing me to review this ARC with honesty.

The premise alone of the book appealed to me. A person who wakes up with no memory, finds scribblings on her body that tell her to "Stay Awake" and "Trust No One" give it a very startling beginning. But it only becomes more twisted when you find out the poor woman keeps going through this every time she falls asleep only to wake with no memory of the past two years. Everything is strange and wrong, the people she expects to be around are not, she's absolutely lost and scared - and what could be any worse but a murder! And she's being looked at as the suspect!

Alright, so here we go. I liked the premise a lot. It was very page turny and it was very hard to put down. What threw me a bit was the motive (or lack there of the original issue *spoilerish so I'll tread lightly*) that stumped me. You kind of have to fill in the blanks because it's never truly explaining which left be baffled. The other issue I had, which I see I'm not alone in this, is the main character herself. Liv is so hard to feel sorry for with the flashbacks due to how airheaded she was about her life. You want to say, "Oh, she'll start to notice inconsistences and put two and two together. And she does but then throws it out the window! Like "Oh I'm just being silly!"

Overall, I liked the book. I wish it had a better ending but it wasn't awful. I do like the detectives in this one (Not Krause, yeck) but it would have been nice to get a little more backstory on them.

My Rating: 3.5 Stars 🌟🌟🌟💫 (rounded up)

My first Megan Goldin book and I can see that she is great at suspenseful stories. It took me awhile to warm up to Liv as the constant repeating of events was annoying but then with the introduction of the detectives the story took off. I figured out the killer about midway and the resolution of their capture was well done. Give this a read. 3.5 stars

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, the author, and NetGalley for the free gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book had me in an absolutely choke hold and had me lying awake at night shook on what was going on - the book's title really came to life. 
The different timelines added a good twist to the book because it was all so confusing already that MC had amnesia so this took us on even more turns.

I always like a book with short chapters, multiple timelines, and many twists and turns. This is a really intense psychological thriller that will have you genuinely question reality.

I love Megan Goldin as an author and love how her thrillers before this one were completely different from this. The Night Swim was also a 5-star thriller for me.

Liv Reese has a problem - she's woken up in the back of a cab and doesn't remember how she got there. Not only that it seems like she's been erased from the life she does remember. Someone else is living in her apartment. Her roommate and boyfriend aren't answering their phones. Her hands have scribbled messages written all over them of reminders to "STAY AWAKE". Liv is not sure what's going on but now she's afraid to sleep. So begins the thrill ride of finding out what happened to her memory and why.

Megan Goldin knows how to write a story that will grip you from the first page and take you on a suspenseful ride. Truly thought this book and its premise was brilliant. The way she artfully navigated two timelines and perspective made for a cohesive and entertaining read. The little moments where the reader is able to piece together the pieces that Liv herself cannot remember is perfection. For any suspense or thriller readers out there, make this one of your fall reads. You won't regret it.

Thank you to NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Liv wakes up in a taxi with no recollection of how she got there… and when she goes to “her apartment”, she finds other people living there. She reaches in her pocket for her phone, and finds a bloody knife – what on earth has happened?! This gripping thriller has so many twists and turns, while still being (mostly) believable, and I absolutely loved it, reading it all in one night. There were a few motives I didn’t understand, but they didn’t take away from my enjoyment; I just really want all my friends to read this book so we can discuss. Highly recommend this!!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.. Stay Awake was a pretty good book. It was a quick read with lots of twists and turns. The killer wasn’t a big surprise. It getting there was interesting. Would definitely recommend.

Addictive and immersive, “Stay Awake” is a well paced thriller that I didn’t want to put down. After barely surviving something extremely traumatic, Liv develops a rare condition where her memory resets every time she wakes up, taking her back to a particular moment in her lifetime. One of the strengths of this novel is how Goldin immerses the reader in Liv’s disorientation; we aren’t just watching her distress and disorientation, we feel it as well. The story flips between the past and the present and even though the heroine is confused, I never struggled to follow the plot line, a fine line Goldin had to balance - ensure the reader has feelings of confusion to empathize with the heroine but don’t actually confuse the readers - and she did it well. The resolution wasn’t quite as tight as her previous work, I struggled with some plot holes, and it sometimes felt like it was echoing “Memento” a little too much, but overall, it was a strong and fast paced read.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Imagine my excitement when I was approved by Net Galley to read this book before publication. The author has a ton of buzz in the bookstagram world, so I was really looking forward to checking out her latest book before it hit shelves. As an added bonus, I was approved for the audiobook as well as the print version so I was able to do a hybrid of reading and listening to the story.

The premise that our main character, Liz Reese, suffers from memory loss and finds herself accused of murder seemed intriguing, if not reminiscent of a book I recently read and disliked – Before I Go To Sleep by S.J.Watson. My hope was that this writer could give the amnesia angle a better run. Unfortunately, I found this frustratingly repetitious and full of plot holes. Of course, some repetition is expected when you’re reading about someone who has no memory of where they are or what they’re doing but this book used the exact same phrases within the same page, or even the same paragraph at times.

The audiobook was incredibly difficult to listen to. While the narration for the detective investigating the murder was very well done and I found myself the most engaged while listening to those portions. However, the majority of the book is about Liz and shown from her perspective. The person who narrated her parts alternated between sounding in absolute awe and complete stupidity. Every sentence said was expressed as a question. ‘I put my hand? In my pocket? And pulled out… a knife? My breath caught? A knife? Covered in blood?” I wanted to jam a fork in my ear every time this person spoke. Surely, there must be a way to convey confusion without this exasperating tone of voice.

This book was a big miss for me. I wouldn’t recommend it except maybe to someone very new to the thriller genre who hasn’t read many amazing books yet. This one is not in that category – not by a long shot.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this free eARC and audiobook in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was just okay! Wasn’t my favorite. Didn’t overly love the characters and wasn’t immediately sucked in. Will still read more from this author in the future

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Here's one that makes me happy I didn't listen to many of the reviews. The premise sounded fantastic, so I gave it a go--and I'm so glad I did because I loved it!

I spent most of the book thinking "what in the worldddd is happening?" Our main character loses her memory every time she falls asleep. I think if you like the unreliable narrator trope, you may like this one. But if you don't--stay away. I also think fans of the book The Wife Between Us may enjoy this one. The plot is nothing alike, but I found the writing style similar.

This one ended up being only an okay read for me. I thought the beginning would suck me in but it really didn't. I think I just didn't like the main character, or didn't feel like I could trust her. Either way I struggled. There were also some plot points that just didn't make sense to me. I did feel like the writing was good and the mystery and its conclusion were interesting. It just wasn't the best fit for me.