“Homicide cops served a much more important purpose in society than just putting killers behind bars. ‘Homicide detectives,’ he said, ‘are what keep us civilized. We are the last line of defense against the barbarians.’”

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. Two years ago she was dating a new guy, thriving as a successful writer for a trendy magazine, and living with her best friend Amy in NYC. Now, she’s lost and disoriented in a city that looks nothing like what she remembers.

This book is told from three perspectives: Liv Reese now, Liv Reese two years ago, and homicide detective Darcy Halliday. While I do enjoy dual timelines, this one was a bit difficult to follow initially. It wasn’t until about 1/3 of the way into the book that I was able to truly get into the story. Prior to that I found it hard to follow who was killed when, who remembered what, and who all of these men were. It was just a tad disjointed, but it came together nicely as the story progressed. The mystery elements were good and kept me guessing.

As for the audio, I may have squealed out loud when I heard that January Lavoy was one of the narrators. She is one of my absolute favorites and just makes every book she narrates better. So obvi I loved this one!

Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, St Martin’s Press, and the author for the ARC and ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Not sure where to begin with this review. Started slow and pretty repetitive throughout…which almost had me not wanting to finish. But based on the premise of the book, repetition is kind of a given. From my perspective there was one pothole that never got answered which was pretty frustrating, but the ending tied up the majority of loose ends. It was thought out pretty well to seem somewhat realistic enough. Pretty entertaining read overall.
I haven’t read other books by the author but I’m tempted to try another.

Admittedly, this took me a bit to get into, but I was hooked after the 30% mark or so. I liked the alternating chapters, and the story definitely kept me guessing until the end. I'm not sure I enjoyed this as much as Night Swim, but I do think this will be a popular end-of-summer book.

I'm starting to think that maybe thrillers aren't for me. I thought this was a smart story but I guessed the villain early on and didn't really buy the motive. Maybe I need to be better about suspending disbelief. That being said, I loved the procedural aspects of the book and how fast-paced it was.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the copy to review.

✨ Liv wakes up with writing on her hand and a bloody knife in her pocket - with no memory as to why.

💥Liv is wanted for murder, but she doesn't remember doing it. In fact she can't remember anything since 2 years ago and every time she falls asleep, her short term memory erases. When I tell you this book was un-put-down-able, it's totally true. Very intense as well! There were some extremely minor plot holes but over all this book was so satisfying.

My face at the end: 🤗

🍪 I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to @netgalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this ahead of publication.

💯 For more details on the books we read, be sure to follow me on TikTok (@zaineylaney). I will give you a list of reasons to read! Or listen to our podcast, Elated Geek, wherever you subscribe.

When I started Stay Awake, I felt like I knew I was going to do an all-nighter to finish. I read Goldin’s Night Swim and loved it. Stay Awake is Fast-paced with short chapters, engaging characters, and a mystery to solve. Liv Reese wakes up on a park bench with writing all over her hands. Last thing she remembers is sitting at her desk at Cultura Magazine. Chapter headings let you know whether you are current day or two years earlier. I could not read the first half of the book fast enough as I followed her life from two years ago and as she tries to navigate her present life. The second half slowed down for me as I felt there was a lot of repetition. I am glad I did stick with it as the last 15-25% had a satisfying finish. One question I have is if this book could be the start of series for Detective Darcy Halliday? My thanks to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. The opinions in this review are my own.

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a cab with no recollection of her night. the last thing she remembers is answering her phone at work on a sunny day.

she makes it back to her apartment, only to find out that there are other tenants living there. confused & desperate for answers, Liv looks for her phone in her pockets—instead to find a bloodied knife wrapped in a blood-stained T-shirt. she then notices all the writing on her hands & arms, messages urging her to “stay awake”, “you forget everything when you fall asleep”, and to “trust nobody”.

throughout the story, Liz tries to piece together the last two years of her life while desperately trying to stay awake. meanwhile, the police are investigating a brutal murder that seemingly links back to Liz. they track down information about their suspect, leading them to insight on Liz’s rare illness connected to a trauma she endured several years ago, causing her to have severe memory blocks.

Liz can’t remember anything that happened the night before, but surely she is not capable of murder? she is desperate to find answers before the police catch up to her, before she falls asleep and forgets everything all over again, or worse; before someone dangerous from her past catches up to her.

this book had me HOOKED. it was told from alternating perspectives of the police during their investigation, present-day Liv, and Liv two years prior. these different POVs were crucial in creating a suspenseful atmosphere with grim foreshadowing.

readers begin the book w/ as little knowledge as the police and Liz; but gradually, we know more & more while Liz continues to fall asleep and forget everything once more, eventually giving readers a gripping & anxiety-ridden audience advantage.

i flew through this book because I was so eager to figure out Liz’s trauma & how it connected to the murder investigation. it had the perfect amount of scandal & suspense without being too far-fetched. thank you to @megangoldinauthor for this new must-read suspense! definitely a new favorite of mine!

thanks to @netgalley & @stmartinspress for my advanced reader’s copy. this book is out on August 9th!

I loved the novel, but not the audiobook. There were parts that were spoken very oddly, super slow in parts and fine in others.
But as far as the book itself goes, it was fantastic! Fast paced and clearly thought out.

Thank you to NetGalley for the prerelease ebook.

This book was crazy. It has a LOT going on and is pretty impossible to sum up succinctly without sounding insane. Suffice it to say you need to suspend a hefty dose of reality to read this one, and be prepared to slow down - this is not one that you can speed through. It was good, but damn, it was a lot. 4 stars.

This was one of the books I was looking forward to the most this year, but sadly it really really really missed the mark for me. Has Goldin fallen into the category of overhyped author? Possibly.

This book has a ton of short chapters, very similar to Goldin's typical writing style but nothing held my attention long enough to make me want to continue on, I often felt myself putting it down and finding something else to do. The narrator has memory-loss, so not only was she unreliable, but it felt super repetitive at times as well. It just felt like this author had too much going against her, it was hard to care about what she said.

The ending left much to be desired and was very predictable, but didn't give proper closure either. I don't know, I would love to see what other people think once more people get their hands on this! For now, I would say, this isn't worth the read. And i really did LOVE her other books so much.

A huge THANKS to St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my (overly) honest review!

I loved THE NIGHT SWIM by this author. STAY AWAKE had a lot of potential but unfortunately it just didn’t do it for me.

Likes
✨alternating timeline
✨memory loss storyline
✨short chapters

Dislikes
✨I understand the character lost her memory, but it was very repetitive
✨not enough twists
✨didn’t like the characters
✨ending was predictable

I really wanted to love this one, but it definitely fell flat for me.

DNF’d at 30%.

There is a story here. I was intrigued my the MC story at first. Waking up in a strange place and having zero memory of the past few months. Strange markings on your body saying “Stay Awake.”

As I progressed further in to the book I started to get annoyed. What is this person supposed to do, literally never go to sleep?!

I might be in the minority here, but this one quickly started to feel redundant. I also struggled with the timeline. Going back and forth between present day and the past, it took me a minute to find my footing at the beginning of each chapter.

This is most likely a “me” thing. I would still give this one a chance. I loved Megan Goldins The Night Swim. Who knows I may revisit this one again I the future.

Thank you to Netgalley for a chance to read this early in exchange for an honest review.

Megan Goldin serves up another winner with “Stay Awake,” a thriller that combines a detective novel with a thriller element. One might be reminded of the movie “50 first Dates,” where a woman wakes every morning with no memory of what had transpired the previous day. This book, however, shares nothing else with the romantic comedy and presents a darker side as it depicts a woman without a support system and operating primarily on her own.

New detective Darcy Halliday has been teamed up with veteran Jack Lavelle. While others prefer to see her recent case as one of the open/shut variety, Darcy insists there is something more. As more facts come to light, it appears that there is a murderer is desperately trying to find Liv, suspecting that she knows enough to identify him. The thriller element is now set, as we follow Darcy in her attempts to find Liv while Liv tries to work through the problem of not remembering. She is clever enough to write notes on her hands to help her waking self through the next day, but many times there is only enough information to lead to more confusion.

I had read Ms. Goldin’s previous novel, “The Escape Room,” and while I enjoyed that book, this one tops it. The author has a talent for weaving two related stories together and building the tension to a fever pitch until a nail-biting climax. Highly recommended. Five Stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a complimentary electronic copy of this book.

Read this if you like: short chapters, having no clue what's happening 🤣, past and present timelines, multiple POVs

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she’s dropped off at her house she discovers a stranger lives in her apartment. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it’s missing, and in its place is a bloodstained knife. That’s when she sees that her hands are covered in black pen, scribbled messages like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE.

Two years ago, Liv was living with her best friend, dating a new man, and thriving as a successful writer for a trendy magazine. Now, she’s lost and has no idea what happened. Catching a glimpse of the local news, she’s horrified to see reports of a crime scene where the victim’s blood has been used to scrawl a message across a window, the same message that’s inked on her hands. She wonders if she's a murderer.

This book had me hooked. I had no freaking clue what was happening. Every time Liv goes asleep we get flashback of what happened to her. This book reminds of a crime show. I loved it. It's a fast paced page turner and I could put it down. Pick this up on the 9th! Highly recommend this book!

Thank you for NetGalley, the author, and St. Martin's Press for the gifted book! ❤️

May contain spoilers!
This was a riveting, thrilling psychological mystery that I found difficult to put down. The protagonist, Liv, has a very rare form of amnesia and has completely forgotten the last two years of her life. What makes this condition most difficult medically is its rarity. Every time she falls asleep in the present, any new memories formed are completely obliterated from her consciousness. This is present fiction's most unreliable narrator, a literary device I usually dislike, but author Megan Goldin wove the plot so brilliantly that I was submerged in the story with the suspense escalating. One must suspend disbelief in the premise. On the downside, I started the book with a vague nagging suspicion that I had read or seen something similar, but at the same time, I was baffled by the developments. I worried about Liv's safety as more of her past was revealed.

(Spoiler)** We learn Liv's memory problems began when two people close to her were stabbed to death, and she was severely wounded and in hospital in a coma. She was a suspect in the murder, but there was no tangible proof. She moved to London, worked at a reliable job, and met a man she thought she would marry. She suddenly returned to New York with no memory of her past two years in London. The story begins with Liv waking up in a taxi with writing covering her hands and arms. These are messages warning herself to stay awake. Her last memory was being at work in a NY office, looking out the window to a bright, sunny summer day. She thinks she is returning to her apartment that she shares with her friend Amy on the same day.

To her shock and bafflement, she finds her apartment is now occupied by a couple who have lived there long enough to have remodelled it and angrily tell her to go away. Her cat is missing, and where has her best friend Amy gone? She can not contact her, and also her boyfriend, Marco, will not answer her calls. She gradually realizes that she is living in a new reality, and it is now autumn; almost two years have passed since she remembers being at work. People she encounters remember her and mention that they heard she had moved to London. This alarms Liv, and she doesn't recall or believe these people.

Liv has moved into a new apartment, living alone, and disturbed by weird phone calls and unsettling, unexplainable things happening in her apartment. Someone may be watching her. When she goes to the police, they decide Liv is being delusional.

We learn that Liv had been a suspect in a double murder in the past, but the case was unresolved due to a lack of tangible evidence. Now two police officers are searching for her as a strong suspect in a new bloody killing using the same method. One of the detectives feels she is guilty, but a female officer wants to give her the benefit of a doubt. Liv is terrified as she has learned she is being pursued by police and cannot remember either killing. Is she guilty, or is the killer someone else? Will the police find her and send her to prison, or will the actual, unknown killer find her first and silence her forever?

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the captivating ARC that had me engaged throughout with surprising twists and reveals and with a compelling, well-developed character whose fate concerned me. Recommended!!

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin wasn't what I expected... which is a good thing. I was expecting your classic unreliable narrator but this was a unique spin on it and was quite enjoyable. It tied up a bit too easily at the end but was definitely a twist upon a twist upon a twist that had me quite surprised at parts. I would definitely recommend this book and am thankful I had a chance to read this galley from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for my honest review.

I loved THE NIGHT SWIM, so I couldn’t wait to read @megangoldin’s new release, STAY AWAKE. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this advanced reader’s copy of STAY AWAKE, available on August 9.

This thriller really kept me stunned and surprised until the end! It was completely unpredictable and unlike any mystery I've read before. The book begins with Liv waking up in the back of a taxi with no recollection of how she got there. She finds a bloody knife in her pocket, but no memory of why. Needless to say, everything that unfolds kept me hooked after that!

This story weaves between three perspectives: Liv’s past, Liv’s present life, and the detective trying to get to the bottom of everything. I really liked the switch between these three scenarios throughout the book. There were a lot of intentional details (some of which I realize now totally hinted towards the killer) that at times were hard to keep track of, but they all played a significant part. This book was clearly very well thought out, making it so exciting to see everything come together in the end!

I had a good idea of who the killer would be, and I ended up being right, but I still had no clue how things would conclude. What I really loved about this book was that I had no idea what was going on and each chapter led us one step closer to the truth. This was a suspenseful read that any thriller-lover truly must read!!!

I am so happy I went into this book blind. I don’t think I even read the synopsis before requesting it. This is my type of thriller for sure. It was suspenseful, full of mystery and kept me on my toes with guessing what was going to happen. I loved this concept and it kept me turning pages into the night. Highly recommend this book to you all!

I was excited to read Stay Awake as unreliable narrators are becoming a favorite troupe of mine in mystery and thrillers. They are also very hard to write and keep track of. This book felt like a darker version of 50 First Dates as the main character, Liv, has no recollection of the past two years of her life after she wakes up from sleeping. We get to read about Liv's experience pre= and post-memory loss. Liv also is in a bit of trouble due to the memory loss, so we also get to read this story from the POV from two cops investigating a crime.

I didn't hate the book, but wish there were some more tied up loose ends. Many things I was hoping would get clarified if the book were maybe 10-20 pages longer. Seemed like an abrupt ending to me. A cool concept and worth reading.

Liv Reese is missing the past two years of her life. As in she has no idea what happened during that period of time. One minute she's sitting at her desk at a trendy magazine office and the next she's in the back of a taxi feeling disoriented and lost with two years having passed. Her hands and arms are covered with messages written in ink - Stay Awake, Wake up, Trust no one. When the cab stops at her old brownstone, she rings the bell to get her roommate up; however, the door is answered by an angry stranger yelling at her to go away while claiming to have lived there for some time. Megan's phone is missing as is her purse. If she allows herself to go to sleep, she repeatedly forgets the last twenty-four hours. Each time she wakes up, her mind is a blank slate. She's running on fumes. What's happening to her? Why does she have the feeling she may have done something terrible and her life is in danger?

Detectives Darcy Halliday and Jack Lavelle are working the murder case of a man whose apartment window has the words Wake Up written on them in his blood. A woman was seen entering his apartment with him hours earlier, but later left by the back alley alone. As their investigation progresses, the detectives have reason to suspect Liv is that woman. It's true that the same message is written on her hand, but does that make her a murderer? She hasn't a clue why she wrote it nor why she was carrying a bloody knife wrapped in her bloody shirt that she threw in a garbage can. The story that ensues is convoluted, twisted and tense.

Stay Awake unfolds through two points of view - Liv's and Det. Hallidays. Liv has an illness brought on by an extremely traumatic event that she doesn't remember. This story is told through dual timelines, slowly revealing what happened to Liv two years ago and the police investigation in the present. The action is fast-paced from beginning to end, and the tone is dire. Readers soon realize that someone has reason to silence Liv, and she's a sitting duck with the amnesia rendering her clueless as to who she can trust and who she can't. Goldin brilliantly weaves several viable red herrings into the story, and I'll admit to not suspecting the true murderer until the reveal. When I realized who the culprit was and why, I kicked myself for not figuring it out. But then, that's the magic of Goldin's stories.

While some may find Liv’s story a bit repetitive, it serves to drive home the dilemma she finds herself in each time she awakens with no memory. She's living in a nightmare, on the run from everyone including the police while doing everything possible to stay awake and figure out what's happening to her. I believe the repetitiveness of that part of the story drives home the magnitude of the state she finds herself in while driving the tempo at breakneck speed.

Stay Awake is a mesmerizing, expertly plotted psychological thriller intertwined with an excellent police procedural. The two go hand in hand steadily building the tension all the way to the shocking climax. My understanding is that readers may get to see Det. Halliday in future books, and I must say I'm intrigued. Goldin has penned another dark, ominous thriller with vibes of Memento. Highly recommended to fans of suspense thrillers, mysteries and police procedurals!