This one had the most amazing premise. and in the beginning I was hooked. Sadly the MC just kept making dumb and illogical decision after decisions and it made me so frustrated. The ending was very illogical, and I just didn't love this as much as I'd hoped

This is my second book by Megan Goldin as I had read her debut book which I thought was grippingly good. This one did not disappoint. Stay Awake follows Liv Reese who wakes up with no memory of how she got to where she was. She goes back to her apartment only to find strangers answering the door who claim to live there. She goes to her place of employment and they say that she had moved out of the country to work. Nothing is what she remembers it to be. She is also starting to fear that maybe, she could have killed someone because she finds a bloody knife on her.

Stay Awake is filled with a lot of present day and flashbacks to 2 years earlier. It takes a bit of time to get used to and being able to keep track of what is going on. I will say that I felt the two parts were written well and that it was a continuous transition between both present and flashbacks.

The idea of what is going on with Liv Reese is very interesting and made for a good plot. There is a lot of action and mystery in this story. How Liv Reese was able to evade the police for so long is also interesting and makes the game of cat and mouse fun.

This was an incredible read! There are so many twists and turns it gives you whiplash…but in a good way. You never know who to trust and the final twist is a jaw dropper. The MC having amnesia is so scary and you really feel her terror throughout the story. This is so different from her last book and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

This was an engrossing read! I felt like I was able to get inside of the protagonist's mind to understand the discombobulated feelings Liv Reese was experiencing.

Imagine waking up in the back of a cab having no clue as to how you ended up in the cab or even where you are? Now imagine pulling up to a building where your apartment is, having no key to get in, and having to wake your roommate to get inside, only to discover the couple who answer the door are strangers. After being kicked out, digging through pockets to find your phone only to discover a bloody knife! Welcome to Liv Reese's life!

Liv is missing two years of her life and every time she falls asleep she forgets everything. Her memory is what happened two years prior which only adds to her confusion of why her world is upside down and why when she goes to her place of employment she doesn't recognize anyone although they seem to know who she is. Coworkers talk in hushed tones.

After news breaks of a murdered man and a cryptic message written on the window, very similar to what Liv scrawls on her own hands and arms, and a photo that Liv recognizes as being herself. She is wanted and a suspect, but Liv knows she can't provide an alibi nor does she know what happened so she avoids the police. Little does Liv realize the police may be the only ones that can help her!

I loved this book. The story kept me guessing as to why Liv was the way she was and what happened to her. The only thing she trusted was words written in her handwriting on herself and a drive to at all costs to stay awake. Along with Liv, I wondered who was friend and who was foe.

I received an ARC from NetGalley via St. Martin's Press and I have voluntarily reviewed this book.

Ooh time goes by and if i don't write the review right away...sigh. I'm trying to be better. The best i can do right now is give a star count...

Goldin's The Night Swim was a book that sucked me right in and helped to reignite my passion for reading, so I was super anxious to get my hands on Stay Awake. From the memory loss to the strange body writing, this one gave me Memento vibes from the start (a movie which I enjoyed)! The amnesiac elements gave made this a ground hog day kind of story which became repetitive at times. I had no clue how it was all going to come together and who the "bad person" was until the very end.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the Stay Awake ARC for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

I liked the idea but really couldn’t get into this. It made no sense. No one seemed like a real person.

This was a fast paced thriller that was very unique and entertaining. A woman has no memory of her life in the past 2 years and she forgets everything again if she falls asleep. Told from the perspective of a detective and the main character, it was an entertaining mystery.

Being back in school has drastically cut into my reading time. So, I try to find books that draw me in from the first page. THIS one did just that!!

“As I wake to find myself slumped in the back of a cab, without any recollection of how I got here, or where I’m going.”

Right away we’re looking at a woman who doesn’t remember something and genuinely leads to not remembering almost things. She has words scribbled over her hands telling her to “Stay Awake”. Liv doesn’t remember things, she remembers her roommate and her boyfriend and where she lives. Or does she?

This story was captivating. It never left me bored, I was constantly wanting to keep reading, wanting to find out why Liv couldn’t remember things. The flow was perfect, the characters well developed and the story was sooo good! Mystery and suspense were the top themes and they played perfectly. Creepy is a definite word I’d use to describe the story. Five stars all the way!

_Stay Awake_ by Megan Goldin

_Stay Awake_ by Megan Goldin is a thriller that is different from a lot of thrillers I’ve read, but it also has a lot of similar elements.

Liv Reese wakes up and can’t remember why she is where she is. She doesn’t know why she’s holding a bloody t-shirt with a bloody knife. She hides it in her clothes and goes to her apartment…only it isn’t her apartment anymore. What is going on? And how is it two years later than she remembered?

Liv’s memory resets two years every time she goes to sleep. This does make the chapters from her point of view kind of repetitive. However, while this is still a book that relies on some characters not believing the main female character, this does make a nice change from the female MC being an alcoholic trope.

The dialogue in the scenes with the police officers felt a little awkward, but for the most parti enjoyed switching between Liv and the officers’ points of view.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Sorry it took so long to review.

This was an interesting take on an amnesia themed thriller. Every time Liv falls asleep she forgets everything that happened to her in the last couple of years due to a traumatic near death experience. Live must stay awake and figure out who the killer is before she takes the fall or is killed herself. The story was face paced and intriguing. I liked the uniqueness of the story. I liked the ending of the book to. I do need to say the book does get a little repetitive with the amnesia and having to start over again when she falls asleep.

Overall I really enjoyed this one, its a solid thriller with an amnesia trope.

First, I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book. I am leaving this honest review of my own will.

The cover and title were what drew me to this one. I’m glad I read it! The characters, and the world building are great.

This thriller kept me entertained. I mostly listened to the audio and loved January LaVoy’s narration of course, but the other narrator was lacking. She emphasized weird words, and was slow and far too dramatic. It was almost as if she didn’t know where the story was headed herself, it made it confusing. In terms of the story, it was repetitive and I think Liz being able to wake up and finally remember things needed more explanation. The story ended when it should have and yet it still felt abrupt. Not my fave from this author, but a solid, entertaining, read. Rounded up.

This novel felt a bit like a reworking of the familiar theme of living a day over and over again. In this case, every day is new for Liv as she forgets the previous one and the two years prior. The back story as to what happened to her is revealed in a dual time manner as the current investigation progressed. I did feel that produced a choppy plot development. The narrative contains multiple points of view, something I found a bit distracting.

I also felt Liv's experiences where repetitive. I never understood why, when she was told or realized she lost her immediate memory every night, why she did not do an online search and write down what she learned about herself and the others she had known. She could have gone to a public library and done so. Because of that, Liv's repeated and frustrated experiences lost interest for me.

Then there was the ultimate villain. I felt the identity was not well foreshadowed in that we did not know information about this person that would have helped readers at least suspect the individual. There was a nice bit of suspense at the end but only because the villain did not kill Liv right off, something that did not make sense to me.

Goldin does well with unusual plots and I have liked her previous novels. This one just did not seem up to par with a choppy plot progression, lack of character development for Liv, and a less than realistic ending.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

This is the second Megan Goldin book I've read and the second one where I've been really engaged until the end. For whatever reason, I just find the endings of her books kind of lackluster, which is a shame because the rest of the book is very good and unique.

Stay Awake is about Liv, who has a unique form of amnesia where every time she falls asleep, she forgets everything. Think the Adam Sandler movie 50 First Dates, but with murder. She does have memories of her life from two years ago, so she keeps returning to that time every time she wakes up. Unfortunately it also seems that she was a witness to a murder she doesn't remember.

Like I said, the book was interesting and unique and everything, but the ending felt almost juvenile in the way everything wrapped up so neatly. If this was marketed to a YA reader I could completely understand, but since this is adult fiction I think it just didn't fit.

4 Oh, So Good Stars
* * * * Spoiler Free
Life has always had secrets. We go about our days and then we go to sleep expecting to wake and know what our life will continue to be.

But what if we feel like we just woke up, but instead of being in our bed, confused about a dream or nightmare...we seem to all of a sudden be in a taxi, never knowing how we got there, and then...having a life nothing like what it was before you "woke up".

This book took that and did it on steroids having me turning pages so fast it made my head spin.

I really like Megan Goldin- I think she is a fantastic writer and this story was no different.

Liv Reese has a very peculiar confdition. She has a form of amnesia where she loses the last two years of memory every time she falls asleep. She is also maybe wanted for murder.

Combining flashbacks to two years prior and a story line following the detectives- Stay Awake was difficult to put down. It was propulsive and exciting the whole way through.

I am honestly the ideal reader for thrillers since I do not care to identify the twists and rarely guess them so this was a really fun story as we tried to figure out what really happened to the murdered man and to Liv.

Really fun and I am glad I picked it up!

Thank you NetGalley and St.Martin’s for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this novel. I look forward to Goldin’s next release.

I was super excited to get this book as an ARC after reading The Night Swim a few summers ago, and unfortunately this one didn't quite do it for me.

It was interesting enough to keep me reading to the end, but I found it just a thriller version of 50 first dates. Liv forgets everything once she goes to sleep at night, and finds herself a prime suspect in a murder. If she falls asleep she wakes up thinking it's 2 years earlier and has to re-learn things about her life.

It became a bit redundant, and some parts of the story were very predictable.

I will still pick up future Goldin books but this one missed the mark a bit for me.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy.

Arriving in a taxi at her New York apartment Liv Reese has no idea how she got to New York. Liv doesn’t have her keys or cell phone. Hoping her roommate Amy is home she rings the bell only to have two strangers answer her call. Slowly but surely Liv comes to realize this is no longer her apartment. Her last vivid memory is from two years ago. Nothing about what is happening now is part of her memory. As she tries to figure out what she is going to do Liv notices all the writing on her hand. There are messages like “don’t fall asleep” and “trust no one”. Desperate to recall what happened to trigger her memory loss Liv starts looking for answer.
While this is happening a murder has taken place. While out jogging Detective Darcy Halliday hears the call for assistance at the crime scene. Eager to get a case of her own she quickly heads to the scene. The body of an unknown man is found in an apartment by the housekeeper. The apartment is a used as a B&B and the owner is out of town. Detective Jack Lavalle a seasoned police officer has been sent to assist Darcy with the investigation.
Liv Reese is linked to the crime so the search for her begins.
I liked STAY AWAKE. The characters were interesting and the story was suspenseful.
The particular memory loss that the memory character suffered was plausible. In a case like this I think it is best to accept that a condition like this is possible to enjoy the story.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced digital edition of this book.

I love Megan Golden. Both The Escape Room and the The Night Swim were favorites of mine, and Stay Awake continues the trend of twisty, suspenseful thrillers that are hard to put down! I have read some reviews that say that the amnesia trope is overused, but, in my opinion, Stay Awake takes what could be an overdone theme and makes it fresh. The concept of recurrent amnesia every time Liv falls asleep is so intriguing, and Liv is a compelling character that makes you want her to succeed, even if you're not quite sure what she's done.