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.

For anyone who suffers from insomnia it is well known that it can lead to psychosis. We must sleep and this is a heck of a story with the MC suffering from dissociative fugue resembling as an homage from the late great Agatha Christie. The MC went through a trauma that she doesn’t recall two years before only to discover every time she falls asleep she is once again back in time to that place before the trauma happened two years before. Don’t trust anyone.

This is the first Megan Goldin thriller that I've read but it won't be the last. The setup pulled me in: Liv wakes up and finds herself in the back of a taxi with a bloody knife and writing all over her hands but has no memory of what has happened. Two perspectives, Liv's and the police detective's, are used to narrate the next few days as they unfold, with some flashbacks thrown in as well. I loved the dark mysterious atmosphere created by Goldin while I immersed myself into Liv's mystery. I thought it was a well done page-turner with a satisfactory resolution. I highly recommend Stay Awake for those looking for a noteworthy mystery/thriller. Thanks to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for early access to #StayAwake in exchange for my honest review.

STAY AWAKE is exactly the kind of thriller I love, with twists and turns on every page that make this book impossible to put down.

Liv Reese is a young woman who wakes up to discover that the life she had no longer exists and she can not recall why....each time she sleeps, her memory is again erased. She finds writing all over her hands and arms with phrases like "Stay Awake" and "Trust No One", which only adds to her confusion.

The story unfolds as Liv slowly pieces together what has happened in her life and finds herself on the run for a crime she doesn't understand or remember. It's a race to figure out what is happening as Liv retraces her steps and tries to piece together the past two years. Meanwhile, Detective Darcy Halliday and her partner are also trying to determine what has transpired...is Liv a criminal or a victim?

Megan Goldin has again written an engaging and exciting thriller that did not disappoint. Highly recommend!
Thank you to Megan Goldin and St. Martins press for the ARC!

The author did a fantastic job with keeping me guessing. I felt empathy for the main character and loved the detective parts as well. A great mystery and thriller that will make you want to keep reading through the night

A thriller that had me wanting to read straight through to the end! This was nicely paced; a fast jaunt through a plot that had just enough twists and turns to keep me turning pages. Although I correctly predicted whodunnit about halfway through, I still wanted to find out exactly how it happened.

I do wish there had been more time spent on the motivations of the antagonist. The rest of the story was detailed, but that part seemed to be lacking and would've made the book a little bit more interesting. That said, it's a minor flaw. If you're looking for a quick, punchy read, this is a good one.

I received this book as an ARC and this is my review. This story kept me guessing right to the
end. Sleep deprivation, paranoia and murder keep the protagonist running and dodging. She cannot sleep or she will forget everything and everyone. The characters are all flawed and most are hiding something. I totally recommend this book to readers who enjoy psychological thrillers with a dose of weird and quirky.

Liv Reese woke up in the back of a cab with no memory of how she got there or where she was going. She was relieved to see a familiar place when the driver drops her off at her shared apartment. Only, it was no longer her home and hadn’t been for over two years. Liv is turned away by the new tenants, confused and overwhelmed she examins her pockets looking for her cellphone to call her boyfriend or roommate. She didn’t find her phone, but she did find a blood stained knife wrapped in a T-shirt. Once again, Liv had no knowledge of how it got.

Liv had a unique type of amnesia. Every time she falls asleep she awakens and can't remember anything from the last two years. Her last memory is answering the phone on her desk at work. Liv desperately tries to remember what has happened during this two year gap. But in order to do that she must stay awake.

This book reminded me of 50 first dates meets a thriller. I've never read anything by Meg Goldin, but now I'm hooked on her writing. This story was very engaging story from the first to last chapter. You could feel the tension build with every scene as Liv battled mental and physical exhaustion, trying to piece her life together before the cops found her, and more importantly, before succumbing to fatigue and sleep and amnesia once again. What I also appreciated was how the writing was clean. It was wholesome without unnecessary profanity or graphic description.

Thank you, St. Martins Press, for this gifted copy.