#StayAwake:⁣
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I will say I almost DNF this one multiple times. Maybe I’m just impatient (that’s clearly what it is there’s no “maybe” about it) but the whole “well, this looks SO different, when did that happen” x10 and not realizing it’s because you haven’t been there in a hot minute really gets me. I get it’s an amnesia trope, but like.. after the third time I have hope the MC would be like, “bro, what’s the date?” to the cashier at the Dunkin Donuts. My irritability could have also come from the way my audio would cut half chapter, then I’d press play and it would start a new chapter and I had no idea what was going on. It was frustrating to say the least.⁣
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But I can’t take out my technological mishaps on the talented Megan Goldin. So, I read the majority of it and would attempt to listen when I could. With the audio, January LaVoy did what she does best, kill it. Her narration of Halliday was absolutely perfect. So perfect, that I wanted to listen to this narration more than of Liv’s. Liv was over dramatic and there was almost an over emphasis on the reading to where I just was happy when the audio would cut and I would have to physically read it. ⁣
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I enjoyed the reveal. It made sense and it was still a bit of a shock. I felt the tension was generated so wonderfully that i was waiting for it to burst! It was pretty fast paced once Liv realized this was not a drill, time has changed. ⁣
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Overall, I’m pretty indifferent on this one. I love Megan Goldin, but Liv just was not it for me. It may have been the narration, which stinks because the counterpart of January LaVoy was amazing. I know most of my friends really enjoyed this one, so I encourage you to check it out yourself! I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next and hope it’s a 5 🏃‍♀️! Thank you @macmillan.audio and @minotaur_books for the gifted copy. Stay Awake it out now! ⁣
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QOTD: You HAVE to stay awake. What are you doing to help achieve the goal? I’ll probably scroll aimlessly on Instagram and take a lap around the house 😂

DNF - I am not the target audience for this book. Though the premise sounded interesting & enthralling, the final product was not one that I could engage with & I found myself loosing interest in the writing style almost immediately.

Liv is a writer for a magazine and now she cannot remember the past two years. This disturbance begins with her waking up in a taxi and when she returns home, there’s someone else living there. She reached for her phone and instead she finds a bloody knife. Her hands are covered in blood and a message is written on them. She is commanded to stay awake. While trying to figure out what is happening she catches a News story. The story is about a murder and at the scene of the crime, the same message is scrawled in blood. Lives memory has betrayed her and she’s on the run. A riveting thriller, with twists and turns to keep the reader invested in Liv’s mysterious outcome.

Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this book, I received a copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Note: I finished this and reviewed/posted on Bookstagram and NetGalley on Pub Day, Aug 9th. For some reason my review here on NetGalley did not post. 😥 I just noticed it. I was not actually late on my review. Copying/pasting my review from my Booksta.

💤 ᖇEᐯIEᗯ 💤

Happy Pub Day!

🕯️𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗸𝗲
🕯️𝗠𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻
🕯️𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝟰.𝟬𝟲 𝗼𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀
🕯️𝟯𝟱𝟮 𝗣𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀

🎧𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸:
•𝗡𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗝𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗟𝗮𝘃𝗼𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗺𝗼𝗴𝗲𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗵
•𝟭𝟬 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 𝟱𝟵 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ • 5/5 stars

"𝘈 𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘈 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘔𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘯 𝘎𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯’𝘴 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘈𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘺."

💭 Ok full disclosure... I requested an ALC of this from NetGalley. My request was denied. So I requested an eARC and it was approved. Two of my favorite narrators, January Lavoy and Imogen Church, teamed up on the audio of this one, so I was DYYYYYING to listen to it. Yet I made a commitment to the publisher to have it finished on or before pub day. 😑 Sooo.... I read half of it via my eARC, then I woke up at 4:30AM today and bought the audiobook so I could get it finished on pub day. 😜😂 Tricky tricky....

This is truly a case of "the audiobook is better" -- and not because the book isn't good by itself (it totally is), but because the right cast of narrators can elevate a book. It's like listening to a movie with your eyes closed. And, like The Night Swim, THIS BOOK was elevated as an audiobook.

Ok, about the book... WHEW!!! I literally JUST finished!! What a trip!!!! This was so unique, so unexpected, so thrilling, and so brilliantly creeptastic!!! 🙌 The author has a way of making you feel like you're inside the head of her characters, and I LOVE that! 👏

I feel like I can't comment too much on the plot here, because I don't want to give anything away. I went into this without having read the synopsis, and I'm so glad I chose to read it this way!!! I had no idea where this was going to take me... But I'll just say, I was NOT EXPECTING THAT!!! 😱

Thank you @megangoldinauthor @stmartinspress @netgalley for my gifted review copy. ❤️

Liv Reese suffers from memory loss. Every time she falls asleep, she forgets the past two years of her life. To help her remember, she writes all over her arms and hands, things like "don't fall asleep" and "stay awake." Which is why Liv is shocked when she see news of a recent murder where the killer wrote "stay awake" in blood on the window. Now Liv is afraid she may be a killer at the same time she is receiving threatening telephone calls from someone she doesn't remember. Megan Goldin did a wonderful job of making me feel badly for Liv; her writing made Liv's lapses in memory and fear totally believable. It got a bit confusing at times, but what a wonderful premise! A very original story. It sometimes dragged a bit in the middle, but when it picked up, boy, did it take off! Definitely pick this one up!

This is a Psychological Thriller that takes you on a very wild ride. I cannot say how much I loved this book. I have had bad luck with thrillers recently, but this did not let me down at all. This book is told in two timelines (one present day and the other two years before). The beginning was slow to get moving, but once it did I really was into the story. I did not see this book ending like it did, and wow that was one great ending. I listened to the audiobook, and I loved the narrator of the audiobook so much. I was kindly provided an e-copy and e-audiobook of this book by the publisher ( St. Martin's Press) or author (Megan Goldin) via NetGalley, so I can give an honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

A friend of mine described this as 50 First Dates but make it a thriller. It took me over 100 pages to figure out WTF was happening and it felt super stiff and weird. I loved the Night Swim and this one fell flat for me.

Megan Goldin is one of those authors - I'll ALWAYS purchase her work. This was a fast-paced thriller that I couldn't put down. I loved the book's premise of falling asleep and waking with no memories. It instantly drew me in and kept me guessing until the satisfying end. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I received a digital advance copy of Stay Awake by Megan Goldin through NetGalley. Stay Awake was released on August 9, 2022.

Stay Awake begins with Liv waking up in a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she arrives at her apartment, a stranger answers the door, then turns her away. Instead of her phone, she is carrying a bloodstained knife. On her skin are messages warning her to trust no one and to stay awake. Liv eventually realizes she has lost two years in time and that a murder occurred last night, perhaps by a woman who looks a lot like her. We follow Liz as she works to piece together the bits of her life and avoid the stranger that is reaching out to her with a combination of information and veiled threats.

As a main character, Liv is fantastically unreliable. She is clearly not sharing the details of her past with the reader, but it works because she doesn’t know those details herself. As the story unfolds, the reader ends up knowing more about Liv than she knows about herself, which creates scenarios with some tension and concern for Liv’s safety. Other than Liv, we only get a true sense of one other character, the police officer working the murder Liv might be responsible for. Other characters in the novel are not developed, and very much pushed into the background.

Other than the moments of tension involving Liv being in potential danger, the story felt a bit flat despite the enticing premise. Often I can pinpoint why a story didn’t work well for me, but in this case, I can’t put my finger on it. I did struggle with some continuity in the story, a lack of a sense of place (it took me a long time to sort out where the story was taking place due to contradictory clues in the narrative), and threads that were dropped late in the novel. These factors may have kept the story from really landing with me.

Overall, Stay Awake is a story with a fascinating premise, that didn’t quite deliver for me.

Wow! This author is quickly becoming one of my favorites. This is the 3rd book I’ve read by her and I’ve really enjoyed them all.

Liv wakes up late at night in the back of a cab. She can’t remember how she got there or where she’s going. In fact, the last thing she remembers is answering her phone in her office at work on a sunny July morning. She looks at her hands and sees notes written on them - Stay Awake! Wake Up! Don’t Trust Anyone - and is concerned. She gets even more concerned when she arrives at her apartment only to find other people living there. While standing outside, she realizes she has a t-shirt balled up in her hands and in the t-shirt is a bloody knife which she immediately tosses.

This begins the endless loop that Liv is living in. Every time she falls asleep, she wakes up with no memory of where she is or how she got there. It’s now Fall - two years after she answered that phone call in her office - and Wake Up has been written in blood on a window at the scene of a murder. Did Liv kill someone?

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, the author and NetGalley for an eARC of this book.

The premise to this novel was excellent but the main character was incredibly grating to read about and the plot became too repetitive.

I have recently gotten more and more selective about thrillers - they so often miss the mark for me. Luckily, this one gave me everything I wanted!

This book really used the unreliable narrator in a perfect way that didn't make me roll my eyes once. I was hooked from the start, desperate to find out how it would end, and was very satisfied with how everything turned out.

I didn't find this to be a book with mind-blowing twists, but that didn't take away from the enjoyment at all. If you're a thriller fan, you'll love this one.

This was my first Megan Goldin and I am so excited to read some of her backlist because this book was a fun one to read. I always like when thrillers are slightly unique and maybe this premise has been done before but I haven't read anything like it. Liv wakes up in a taxi with no memory of how she got there only to discover that two years have passed since the last thing she remembers. The story is told in alternating timeline with the present where Liv is covered in writing telling her not to go to sleep and to the past leading up to her last memories. I enjoyed this thriller and was surprised by the ending. I liked both timelines and wasn't distracted when we switched which is the case for me sometimes. Liv was an interesting character to read about and I felt really bad for her, especially when you get towards the end of the book. At times it was a little hard to read because losing ones memory is a fear of mine but I thought the author handled it well. Highly recommend this one! Thank you St. Martin's Press for my #gifted copy for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Liv wakes up in the back of a NYC cab with no memory of how she got there or where the cab is taking her. When she arrives at her apartment, strangers are living there and quickly kick her back outside. Liv has no purse, so she looks through her pockets. The good news is she has a wad of cash. The bad news is she has no cell phone. Instead, there is only a bloody knife in her pocket. What could be happening to her? And why is Stay Awake written on her arms?

Stay Awake is a fun romp combining Memento with a traditional woman-in-danger-who-doesn’t-know-where-to-turn thriller. The pace is relentless. I couldn’t stop turning the pages! I had a bit of a problem with the conclusion, but I can’t tell you why without giving spoilers. Still, it is definitely a 4 star read!

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

Another hit by Goldin! Like the movie "Memento" but better. The protagonist was very relatable, and the settings terrific. Loved it!!!

Rare amnesia mixed with psychological thrillers is almost always a win. I was intrigued and it kept me guessing. Great book.

I love this author. Her stories just grab you and pull you in. I love the characters and the storyline. Always enjoy her books

This book is a perfect thriller which will keep you guessing till the end. Liv Reese is missing a chunk of her life. She's confused, she's running and she does not remember a huge part of her life. What exactly happened to her?
As soon as I started reading the book, I remembered a hindi movie which had pretty much a similar plot and this book delivered on all counts. I can't reveal the name since it would be a spoiler but people who watch Indian movies can immediately understand within the first chapter which movie I am referring too.
What I liked: The plot and the characters except for a few. The characters were believable. The plot was well developed and moves with a good pace.
What I didn't like: It's not exactly not liking but I would have liked one more chapter on how did the perpetrator find out? I will leave it at that again everything would be a spoiler.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book.

This is a fantastic psychological suspense thriller. I did not put this book down until I finished it. This was spooky. I loved that I could not figure out what was happening to Liv for such a long time. I love Liv. I loved Detective Halliday and Detective Lavelle. This story kept me on the edge of my seat. This was one of my favorite stories this year. I received a copy of this book from St. Martins Press for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

OH MY GOSH! I absolutely LOVED this book. I hated having to put it down when my eyes got too heavy at night. It was written so well. Definitely a lot of back and forth with points of view and time frames, but if I was able to keep track, then I'm sure most would. AH, I literally cannot believe how hooked I was to this story. It reminded me of the show Blindspot in a way. But now that I have finished and I know everything....I'm still left wondering, what the motive was by that person and the original act? IYKYK. Still trying to figure that one out. Here is me about to go find some others who have read this to pick their brain! Okay, you must read this!