After being in a bit of a reading slump these last couple months Stay Awake is exactly what I needed! This book keeps truly keeps you reading with every chapter getting better!

The book is told in two POVs, Liv and Detective Halliday with multiple timelines. She does a great job with the flow of the story, I was never confused.

I was pleasantly surprised I didn’t find the book to be repetitive due to the nature of the plot. Each chapter builds nicely with lots of suspense and twists.

I went into this book blind and I definitely recommend you do too!

Thank you so much to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for this digital copy in exchange for my honest
review!

BOOK REVIEW ‘STAY AWAKE’
…
★★★★

Thank you @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the e-Arc.

Imagine finding a bloody knife in your pocket with handwriting all over your hands to STAY AWAKE…

I’ve been such a fan of Megan since her prior novel ’THE NIGHT SWIM’ (clap). I haven’t read ‘THE ESCAPE ROOM’ and am definitely moving this up ASAP. ’STAY AWAKE’ did NOT disappoint! There are quite a few mixed reviews out there but I gave it a solid four stars based on many things:

Short chapters
Multiple POV’s (detective and MC)
Unreliable narrator/amnesia trope
Writing style (pace and rhythm)
Binge worthy (read in 2 sittings)

I looooooove unreliable narrators. That is all. Officially out now! Definitely a must read - you will not have an issue staying awake.

I love Megan Goldin and this book didn’t disappoint. I couldn’t set it down!

Liv wakes up in the back of a taxi with no recollection of how she got there. When she heads home a stranger answers and claims they live there now and her roommate Amy is nowhere. How long has time passed and why does Liv have a bloody knife on her.

The intense build in Megan’s stories always get me. So full of twists, and ones I don’t see coming, which are refreshing. This book is what psychological thrillers are about. It’s fucked up but well done. Definitely a book worth the read, especially for all the build up.

A fast-paced thriller, this book was extremely enjoyable. I read it in one sitting because I could not put it down. The premise was extremely unique and deeply intrigued me. I liked the main character and felt her despair as well as her bewilderment. I did not guess any of the twists and turns. The book was well-written and very engaging. I recommend this book.

Rating: 3.5/5 🌟

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Megan Goldin, and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Stay Awake gave me Memento vibes and the suspense, as well as the short chapters made this fast-paced psychological thriller hard to put down!

I did predict the ending, so it didn’t exactly blow me away, but it kept me hooked throughout to see if my theory was correct. Stay Awake jumps between different timelines and the POVs of Liv Reese and Detective Darcy Halliday, which was well-done for most of the book, but did get a bit confusing at times. I liked the characters, and thought they were developed very well. The end was anti-climatic for me and it should have been a bit longer and more suspenseful at the end <spoiler>when Halliday arrived at the warehouse</spoiler>. There were some plot-holes, for example the explanation behind Liv’s condition and how she managed to move back to New York alone didn’t make too much sense. I would have liked some more closure in the end and not having some questions answered bothered me, like <spoiler>what was the deal with Kevin?</spoiler>

Overall, Stay Awake is a good psychological thriller that’s hard to put down until you have all the pieces put together! This was the first book I read by Megan Goldin, and I will definitely be checking out more of her work in the future !

Liv Reese has a good life. A decent boyfriend, a wonderful best friend, a job she loves.... and no memories of how she lost it all.

It's hard to describe this book without spoiling it for potential readers... so just go out a read it yourself!
It turned out to be a much more exciting thriller than I anticipated!
Memory loss... overused plot device? Not this time. It is deftly weaved into the story in such a way that it feels fresh and engaging.


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

I really liked this one! Liv was such an interesting character, and I kept turning the pages to see what would happen next. I was surprised by the outcome, which I love. Solid 4 stars for this one. I definitely want to read this author again.

I think memory-loss stories are not for me. It's too chaotic and I just find myself wanting to give the person so many solutions instead of focusing on the story. I enjoyed the back and forth POVs between the MC and the detective, combined with the flash backs to the past. However, I guessed pretty early on what had happened and would happen and unfortunately that made this book feel too long waiting for the reveal. I think many people will enjoy this book, it just wasn't for me.

Mystery - 3.5*

Megan Goldin's book usually grab me from the beginning and this book was no different. Liv Reese wakes up and has no memory of how she got where she is. The last thing she remembers is being in her office and answering a phone call. It was summer and now it's late fall. What has happened to her? She has written notes to herself on her hands and arms telling herself to stay awake.

We hop timelines a bit so that we can get Liv's backstory. Two years earlier she is working at a magazine writing articles about food and art. She has a roommate named Amy, a cat named Shawna and a boyfriend named Marcos. In the present, when she tries to find all of them none are where she remembers them being. She has apparently tried to seek them out before as the man who has Marcos' phone number tells her to quit calling.

Meanwhile, a murder has occurred that implicates Liv. Could she have done this? Could someone be setting her up? If she loses her memory every time she goes to sleep is she vulnerable to a killer? Can the cops be trusted?

The story is engaging and a different way to tell a mystery. I really liked it, until about 2/3 of the way through. The story lost some steam and didn't carry the necessary level of tension you need to build an exciting conclusion.

A very solid mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC of this novel.

A mystery man murdered in bed with no ID. A gruesome message written in blood on the window. A woman with a bloody knife who loses her memory each time she falls asleep. Stay Awake is a psychological thriller that weaves the story of the detectives solving the case and Liv Reese in the present day, with scribbles all over her body with reminders to "Stay Awake" and "Don't Trust Anyone" and Liv Reese in the past, leading up to the traumatic day that landed her in the hospital and the inability to retain her memories. Told from these alternating POVs the reader is invited along to figure out whodunit when you can't take any information at face value.

I was intrigued by the premise of this book and trying to figure out just what was going on with Liv's memory. Not only is the reader trying to figure out what happened in present day, but the truth about the past isn't laid out clearly either. It was an enjoyable read, but to me it wasn't thrilling enough. There were some red herrings thrown in but I was able to predict the twist at the end, and I'm primarily a Romance reader not a Thriller reader. I kept waiting for another twist that would truly shock me, but it never came.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read an advance copy of Stay awake by Megan Goldin. This was a thriller that keeps you guessing as it starts with Liv waking up in a cab with no clue how she got there, no purse, or phone and the words Stay awake written on her hands. Why are there strangers living in her home and why is she carrying a bloodied knife? This book bounces back and forth between present day and two years in the past. It totally reminded me of the movie Memento, and while I enjoyed it, I did find myself wanting the story to move along at times. However, those that enjoy psychological thrillers will probably really like it.

When Liv Reese looked at her hands, she saw the writing. Across her knuckles, the ink says Stay Awake. She wrote on her hands as a kid, a bad habit her mother had tried to stop. But there are messages all over her hands now, and Liv doesn’t know why.

She awakes suddenly in the back of a cab and tells the driver the address of her apartment. Liv doesn’t have her purse or her phone with her, and she doesn’t remember right off where she had been. Fortunately she finds some cash in her pocket for the cab. But when she gets to her apartment, her roommate isn’t there. It’s strangers, and they live there. They have lived there for quite some time.

Liv decides to try her boyfriend Marco next, but she notices the name of a bar written on her arm, so she has the cab take her there instead. At the bar, Nocturnal, the bartender recognizes Liv and tells her that when she falls asleep, she loses her memory. That’s why she almost never sleeps, and why she was so exhausted that she fell asleep in the cab.

Liv stays at the bar as long as she can, and then she finds herself a park bench, since she still doesn’t have her purse or phone, and she doesn’t know what’s going on. But when she wakes up again with a start, she is surprised to find herself in the park. And she’s surprised that it’s cooler than she expected. Last she remembers, it was mid-summer, but the leaves are falling off the trees and there is a chill to the air.

Liv decides to try her office. As a features writer for Cultura magazine, she could go to her desk and check her computer. Maybe that would help her remember something. And when she gets there, everyone is really happy to see her. But they’re also surprised, because they hadn’t seen her since she moved to London two years ago. Still, they include her in a planning meeting and set up a makeshift office for her with a laptop. And while they all stop to watch a news report about a brutal murder that had happened, where the killer had written “Stay Awake” in the window, Liv is distracted by a phone call. The man on the phone doesn’t identify himself, but he knows Liv. He says he’ll come to the office to pick her up, which makes her nervous. And then he asks if she still has the knife.

She hadn’t said anything about the knife. When she woke up in the cab, Liv had a knife in her pocket. It was wrapped in a towel and covered in blood. She had thrown it away. But who was she talking to on the phone? And how did he know about the knife?

Meanwhile, the detectives are working the murder. They’re collecting evidence, running fingerprints, checking CCTV footage. And they have found a woman who they think entered the building with the victim and slipped out the back, Liv Reese. Interpol has a yellow alert out for her. The detectives learn that two years ago, she was the victim of attempted murder and now suffers from a condition where every time she falls asleep, her memory resets to two years ago, before the attempt on her life. She had moved to England after she recovered and had been living successfully despite her memory issues. But several weeks ago, something set her off, and she had disappeared from their radar.

Now Liv’s back in New York City. And she’s back in danger.

Stay Awake is the latest thriller from Megan Goldin, and it is full of twists and surprises. Told in parallel stories of past and present, readers go along for an increasingly tense ride as Liv in present day tries to figure out what happened to two years of her life and past Liv is slowly driven mad by someone or something. It’s a struggle to figure out what is real and what is sleep-deprived delusion, and to piece together what this woman has been through. But the skill of storytelling is strong, and it is fascinating to watch this story unfold.

I am mesmerized by this novel. When I started reading it, I thought it was going to go in a very different direction, all typical and obvious for a thriller called Stay Awake. But then it took a left turn. And then it took a detour. And suddenly I was in a very different world than I expected, and it was stunning. There is so much going on behind the scenes in this novel, and the way the curtain is raised to reveal the answers is nail bitingly slow. But it is amazing, as the secrets start to come to light, as the pieces of the puzzle get put into place, and I found myself all tied up in knots as I read it. If you are looking for a truly inventive, original thriller, then don’t go to sleep. Stay Awake.

Egalleys for Stay Awake were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.

You might think this is yet another fast paced thriller centered around one major question, with a lot of twists and turns along the way, but it's not. It's a very clever, very different, VERY enjoyable one. Beginning with a woman who wakes up in a cab not remembering anything from the past two years with the words "STAY AWAKE" written on her hands, this book takes the reader on a far-from-predictable ride. Told from a few different points of view which work together to make a complete and satisfying story, this isn't your average murder mystery. Highly recommend!

I loved the concept of this story!! I enjoy a good amnesia story and this one had so much tension and suspense in it. I liked the alternating perspectives from MC and the detectives. I will say though, I felt the background on the detectives was a little forced and unneeded. Towards the end, it felt a tad repetitive, but to me, didn’t take away from the story. I was also really glad there wasn’t a ‘magical recovery’ of the mc. I loved seeing how everything connected in the end. This was definitely one that I read quickly because I needed to know what happened.

This was a fantastic read. The storyline was unique, one I hadn’t come across before. It really pulled me in. So many twists and turns that kept me guessing throughout. I finally figured out the major twist a handful of pages before it was revealed. That’s a good story and good writing.

I’d definitely recommend this to others and will be checking out the authors other works.

I received this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Megan Goldin can do no wrong!! A totally unputdownable thriller !! This book will have you gripped from the very first page until the jaw-dropping final twist. The audiobook was fantastic, including being narrated by one of my all-time favorites, Imogen Church.

This book had me on the edge of my seat from page one! I loved the dual timelines. And even though I figured things out early on, the writing kept me fully engaged and eager to see how everything played out.

I liked it but it took awhile to get into - great cover! Abit slow and I kept thinking the plot was familiar to another thriller - anyway, overall a good suspense/thriller read.

I loved The Night Swim and really wanted to like this title. I think because I went in blind, I felt like it was going to be about a sci-fi, drug induced cause, rather than trauma caused source of memory loss. While I enjoy other stories about amnesia, the restarting of each day with no memory of the previous day was hard to read. There was tension added by the fact that Liv was in real danger, and I wanted to know more about what happened, and why she was in trouble, although it was somewhat predictable. The author did a good job of getting inside Liv's head, her confusion at realizing it was 2 years from her last memory, and her thought processes for getting information about her life, but I really grimaced most of the way through the book.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced reader's copy.

I loved this unique, twisty, addictive thriller with dual timelines. After a traumatic event in her life, Liv Reese suffers from memory lapses every time she falls asleep, and when she wakes up in the back of a taxi with a bloody knife in her pocket, she has no recollection of how it got there or the events that have just transpired. She notices that she has writing all over her hands that say, "Stay Awake," or "Don't Trust Anyone."

When Liv wakes, she thinks she's living in the past (two years ago), when she was sharing an apartment with her best friend, Amy, who's dating Brett, both of whom are doctors. She also still thinks she's dating her old boyfriend and working at the same magazine. Now she lives on energy drinks and caffeine pills to keep her awake as long as possible.

This book did keep me awake at night because I was so interested and I was dying to know how Liv was going to get herself out of the mess she woke up in. The book was the perfect length, not too long and not too short to where it felt rushed. I found myself second guessing who I thought the killer was and the last few chapters are absolute page-turners. Highly recommend!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.