Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

Stay Awake
by Megan Goldin
Pub Date: 09 Aug 2022

Can you imagine a world where every time you fall asleep, you forget...suddenly you only remember the life from two years ago.?

It has been a while since a book has disturbed me this much and kept me on the edge of my seat. It is very easy to internalize what our main character, Liv, is going through. I felt like I was walking in her shoes, the helplessness, the confusion, the wanting to trust, but not knowing who to trust. I was right there with her! And just when she starts to fill in the missing blanks, she falls asleep!

This book has mystery and suspense...and really makes you think. SHIVER!! Highly recommend!!

An interesting premise to this thriller: a woman who is being stalked by the killer of her best friend suffers from a unique form of memory loss. Each time she falls asleep, her memory resets to years ago, on the day of her friend's murder. An enjoyable thriller that kept me guessing although the ending felt a bit rushed.

Stay Awake is the story of a woman who cannot remember the last two years of her life. She is trying to situate herself when she becomes aware of an incident that may implicate her.

Megan Goldin takes the time to build a story that draws the reader in. I was kept guessing until the very end of the book. The lack of details the reader is given can be very frustrating, however gave me the feeling of urgency that Liv must have been feeling.

An excellent thriller that I will absolutely recommend.

I'll admit that unreliable narrators and time-loops are some of my least favorite devices. So it took me a while before I warmed to the story because every time the main character goes to sleep her memory resets. Having said that, it was compelling enough that I also couldn't put it down.

Liv wakes up in the back of a cab and has no idea how she got there, where she lives, or basically anything about her life. The last thing she remembers is answering the phone in her office, but that was in summer, and now it's winter...two years later.

As if that wasn't enough to deal with it appears she's also in danger. She has notes written to herself all over her hands, and she has to piece together the mystery...but starting from scratch each time she falls asleep.

Even though I didn't find any of the twists particularly surprising and I found the main character mildly irritating, I still enjoyed the story and the writing quite a lot. I absolutely loved this author's last book The Night Swim so I did have very high expectations going into this one.

Holy heck! What a ride! When I requested a copy of Stay Awake it reminded me a bit of ‘Have You Seen Me’ by Kate White. Woman wakes up with no memory of the last 2 years, that’s about where the similarities end though. Well. Besides them both being thrillers and both characters being gas lit. I’ll be honest this book kind of made me feel like I was being gaslit. You think one thing and hen, in the words of the great maury povich, “That was a lie.” Highly highly suggest this if you want to feel like you have we through the washing machine on the heavy duty cycle and then wrung out to dry.

Liv wakes up and has no idea where she is. Home isn't where she thought it was. There is a couple living in her home. What is happening? She has "Stay Awake" written on her hand. Time has stood still for her. She is missing two years of her life. She has no idea who she can trust. She just keeps running, trying to figure out what has happened the past two years and NOT fall asleep. Liv was a successful writer living with her best friend Amy, dating Marco, and enjoying her life checking out the newest attractions around the city. Now she can't figure out what has happened, until she finds a friend that says he is her new boyfriend. Why is Liv being accused of murder? She can't remember anything.......
Stay Awake by Megan Goldin is a suspenseful mystery. I can't say that I would classify this as a thriller but it is definitely suspenseful and keeps you guessing. I, myself, could not figure out who was doing all of this. I would be happy to read other works by Megan Goldin. I enjoyed her writing style and the suspenseful storyline. Overall, I would recommend this to other readers. Special thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Megan Goldin for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion. 4.5 stars for me

*Imagine waking up and not recognizing where you are. Your last memory is a sunny day, a phone ringing at work, you picking it up...and that's it. Now it's fall, over two years later, and you have no memory of what has happened in those two years. You've written things like "STAY AWAKE" all over your hands and arms. But you can only stay awake so long before your body gives out on you. *Imagine waking up and not recognizing where you are. Your last memory is a sunny day, a phone ringing at work, you picking it up...and that's it. Now it's fall, over two years later, and you have no memory of what has happened in those two years. You've written things like "STAY AWAKE" all over your hands and arms. But you can only stay awake so long before your body gives out on you. *Imagine waking up and not recognizing where you are. Your last memory is a sunny day, a phone ringing at work, you picking it up...and that's it. Now it's fall, over two years later, and you have no memory of what has happened in those two years. You've written things like "STAY AWAKE" all over your hands and arms. But you can only stay awake so long before your body gives out on you.

That's Liz's reality, She wakes up to confusion and has to start all over again, trying to figure out where the people she knew have gone, She has a bloody knife in her pocket and her short hair is now down to her waist. Her apartment belongs to a couple she doesn't know, her former co-workers think she's been in London. They reference something bad having happened. This story is told in multiple timelines, from several POVs. Something is wrong with Liz, wrong with her life. She has notes to herself to trust no one. Strangers seem to know her, people she knows are acting strangely around her. She's getting weird phone calls from someone who says sinister things.

Liz's situation can definitely fit in the "one's worst nightmare" category. Other than Liz's POV, we see the present day investigation of a murder by two detectives. One is pretty sure Liz committed the murder, the other thinks something is off and wants to give Liz the benefit of the doubt. Red herrings fly, smacking the wall, distracting from a very obvious suspect for the evil that has transpired. The story is intriguing, the plight of Liz is horrifying, and I felt as exhausted as she did as she goes through utter confusion every time she wakes up. We do go back in time to learn what led up to her last memory two years ago but then...nothing...after Liz picks up the phone at work. All she remembers of the last two years is what has happened since she last woke up. She's all alone, she can't trust anyone. And she knows someone has been watching, is watching. This was a fun buddy read with Susan, DeAnn, and Jayme, with lots to discuss.

This well-crafted, gripping thriller was impossible to put down. The author creates a strong sense of uncertainty and foreboding throughout the story that unsettles the reader and creates suspense surrounding even the most ordinary events. Because of the protagonist's amnesia, she is a uniquely unreliable narrator who keeps the reader guessing. The reveal at the end of the story fits perfectly, but it was difficult to guess, giving this book an even more satisfying resolution than this author's previous title, Night Swim.

Author Megan Goldin is one of my go-to authors and I was excited to pick up #StayAwake. And while it wasn't my favorite of hers (some of it felt a bit repetitive and it dragged a bit for me) her writing style is so great, and I highly recommend picking up one of her books. #TheNightSwim is my favorite!

This boo is still living in my mind rent free. One of the best thrillers. Great plot . Imagine waking up in a taxi . That alone is scary LOL Thank you to netgalley for this arc !

Now I’ve read many a thrilling book over the years but this one? Well, I can’t trust the narrator. At all… & yet, I find myself getting just as paranoid as her with every single chapter I read.

When Liv wakes up in the back of a taxi cab with no idea how she got there, she asks the cab driver to bring her home.. only to find strangers living there, neither her boyfriend nor her best friend answering their phones, her job completely changed & apparently it’s two years later. Her only clues as to something being wrong is the written words on her arms some of them being; “Stay Awake”, “Don’t Trust Anyone”, & “Don’t sleep, you forget everything when you sleep”. After finding a bloody knife in her coat pocket & the news talking about a murdered man.

So really.. who the heck can you trust??! Thank goodness we get some chapters in the lead detectives POV because.. I have no idea what to think. This book was for sure one of the best thrillers I’ve read and I was NOT expecting that ending!

If you're looking for a thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat and turning the pages, check out Stay Awake. While I'm not always a fan of having an unreliable narrator, Megan Goldin did a fabulous job with Liv's story and weaving the plot together.

I also really liked that while there was the fast-paced story about trying to figure out the murderer, there was still a slow burn about what really happened to Liv and why she can't remember anything. The end ties everything up wonderfully.

Definitely recommend! 4.5/5 stars
Thank you, St. Martins Press and NetGalley for the eARC!

A really fun thriller with twists and turns from the very beginning! A but predictable table but still a good time!

I think I enjoyed this? At first I was annoyed because it seems like thrillers nowadays either contained an unreliable FMC who was either a drunk/drugged herself or had memory issues. But I'll admit, this darker "50 First Dates" spin was different than all the other thrillers with similar protagonists. The multiple timelines coupled with dual protagonists got a little confusing at times but I made it through. I felt like there may have been a little too much background of the female detective...is Goldin trying to set this up into a series centered around her? Seemed unnecessary but it was fine. There were a couple of red herrings, which left the book with a couple of plot holes.

This book was terrifying, and truly hit all the right notes for me. So far, I have loved everything this author has written. Each title keeps getting better and I’m definitely an auto-buy of hers now.

Thank you so much @StMartinsPress & @NetGalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 09 August 2022)

SYNOPSIS | Each time Liv wakes up she is confused, disorientated & has no memories of what came before. The last thing she remembers is a phone call from 2 years ago. She leaves herself messages on her hands like "Wake Up", yet this message is also written in the victims blood at a local crime scene & Liv can't remember if she has something to do with it or not.

WHAT I LIKED:
- the beginning completely sucked me in as it started with a bang
- following along with the past (2 years ago) & present timeline as I tried to piece together what happened to make her lose her memories
- whilst I usually dislike the unreliable narrator trope, this one was executed wonderfully
- kind of like a thriller version of the classic romcom movie 50 First Dates

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- I figured out the who did it pretty early (but it was still fun finding out why)
- because of the nature of the story, some of the chapters felt a little choppy

This was my second Megan Goldin book and I can definitely say without a doubt that I enjoy her writing. She has a way of sucking the reader in to the plot from page 1. Stay Awake was no different.

In this story you are following a young woman named Liv who wakes up in the back of a cab and has no memory of where or who she is. Liv happens to notice the words Stay Awake written on her hands and from there is catapulted in to different clues about what happened to her since her roommate and boyfriend were murdered a few years back. This story is told from Liv's viewpoint and also from the viewpoint of one of the main detectives on the case in which Liv is accused of murdering a man in an AirBnB.

While I was hooked on this story from the beginning, I did notice that I lost focus the more the story went on. I was able to figure out the "who done it" aspect pretty early on so the ending didn't up being much of a surprise to me. Regardless, I still have a good time.

A big thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read a copy of this book.

A woman who is being accused of murder but her memory is erased every time she falls asleep? I've never read anything like that and it is honestly the scariest thing I could think of happening to me. It sounds like a literal nightmare and to read it was a little bit anxiety inducing.

It also made for a very unreliable narrator in Liv and that made the book pretty confusing but in a good way. You were learning with her, you were truly inside her head and seeing things from her point of view which I think is something rare in novels... it's hard to be so inside someone's head when you can see things more clearly than they can.

I felt super bad for Liv throughout the entirety of the book because like I said, it has to be scary and anxiety inducing to not remember anything from the past two years of your life.

How did Liv get like this? What is her mind protecting her from? Did she commit the murder she is being accused of? How will she ever get out of this? All those questions are constantly running through your mind with every word of this novel. It was thrilling on every level, from start to finish.

The writing of the book was incredible but also fell flat at times - it was more storytelling and setting up scenes than true character development and finding out the reason for things. I was able to figure out half the story, a little less than halfway through the book.

There were multiple layers of the plot, from the detectives to Liv's life before and after she lost her memory. I wasn't able to figure out exactly what happened but that was the thrilling part... everything was very unexpected.

If you are in a reading slump, like psychological thrillers and need something new to sink your teeth into, I think you will really enjoy Stay Awake.

The mere thought of being lost in NYC gives me anxiety. Being disoriented and lost in NYC? Yeah, bring on the panic attack! This book gave me chills right from the beginning. I just felt pure dread for the main character - Liv. Her world was vulnerable and frightening and lonely. I think this book is an episode of Criminal Minds waiting to happen... and I'll be right there watching!

Overall I really enjoyed this book and it was an easy read for me. It kept me interested all the way through even though some of it was a bit predictable.
Took one star off because it reminded me of one of my favorite movies ever, Momento, so it initially felt like a familiar story. But the author changed enough of the main storyline to keep me interested. Plus I find the issue of memory loss and what this main character had to go through as fascinating. A really nice read, I recommend you read this if you like a fast paced thriller.
Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sharing a digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest opinion. (Posted review on Goodreads too but I use the app so still trying to get the link)