This was such a twisty thriller I loved it! It was creepy exactly what I needed. I loved the ending and I highly recommend!

Liv Reese wakes in the back of cab lost and disoriented, with writing on her hands and arms and no memory of the past two years. Now she is the prime suspect in an murder investigation? Is someone after her? Who can she trust?

Imagine 50 first dates without the romance or the humor, no cute lightheartedness... instead it's a bit dark and mysterious. I wish I would have enjoyed this more. Between the summary and all the early raving reviews, I was expecting a 5 star thrilling read. Maybe my expectations were set too high. Maybe I just have an unpopular opinion. While the beginning caught my interest and I was instantly hooked. The reader is left just as disoriented and confused as Liv. Because of Liv's memory issues she has to relearn things over and over again, things hat us as readers know. I just found parts of the story implausible. Plot threads that didn't come together. I was left underwhelmed by the story end. It was an interesting premise, the author did well pulling together a unique plot, I just felt it wasn't quite cohesive enough in my opinion. The alternating timeline switches from past to present, as well as the alternating point of views helped move the story along. It It does make for a fast paced read though and I think a good book club book.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review honestly an advanced digital copy.

I really enjoyed Stay Awake. Thriller's are not my first choice on genre but I love to mix them in occasionally. This was everything I wanted in a thriller. It heavily reminded me of an episode of Law and Order and kept my interest throughout the whole book.

The main character Live Reese wakes up and doesn't remember where she is or how she got there. Every time she falls asleep she forgets what happened. All she can remember is answering a phone call at her desk two years ago. She has to try to figure out what is happening to her and who she can trust.

The other half of the book is from the detectives point of view as they try to solve a murder in which Liv may or may not be involved in. I don't want to give too many details away so I will leave it at that.

Again it reminded me of Law and Order. I usually get squeamish if scenes are too graphic but the author did a great job of letting us know what occurred without getting too detailed. This book was a quick read and something I looked forward to picking up again every time I had to put it down.

I absolutely loved this book! My first Goldin read, and it definitely won't be my last.

I'll start with saying that this book reminded me of the film Momento (excellent film, if you haven't watched it). Thinking back, I always really enjoy books and movies who have characters with memory loss. I like how they have to piece out their memories to understand the bigger picture.

This book has a dual timeline, present and past, which I always enjoy. It also has multiple POVs, and I'm learning that these are almost a must for me. And short chapters? Yes please! The story was engaging, fast-paced, and a total page-turner. I struggled to put the book down and would always read several chapters after I've told myself "one last chapter".

I did get confused a few times by the timeline, probably because of the main character's memory loss, but it was never enough to cause frustration on my end.

This was my first read from this author and unfortunately the writing style just didn't click with me. I found it difficult to get fully engaged with this story with the timeline flipping back and forth, and a main character with little to no memory (which makes it difficult to get to know her - something that's important for me as a reader). Ultimately this one just ended up not really being for me, but I'd be willing to pick up another book from this author in the future.

Thank you to the publisher for granting me access to an ARC via NetGalley!

Thank you Netgalley for this advance copy.

This book messed me up. I LOVED Megan Goldin's previous book , The Night Swim, and knew I had to read this one.

This is one of the most intense psychological thrillers I've read in 2022. When Liv falls asleep, she wakes up not remembering. She is stuck in a time loop from two years ago. When she wakes up one night in the back of a cab in NYC with a bloody knife, she finds herself on the run, but she doesn't know who or what she is running from.

Unreliable narrator isn't for everyone, but this is so exceptionally well done. Fast paced, multiple viewpoints/timelines. It's a ride.

I read one other book by this author so I was pretty excited for this one. I thought this book was rather interesting. Not in a bad way. It had me hooked from the beginning for sure. I thought the writing was very good as well.

The main character Liz tries to *stay awake* because when she falls asleep, she forgets everything—her last memory is from 2 years ago. I don’t want to give too much away, so if you want a very good thriller, check this one out! I deducted one star only because I wanted an explanation as to why the villain was a villain.

But overall, this was a pretty quick read and you’ll want to *stay awake* to finish it

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for an advanced copy of Stay Awake

This book was a bit redundant. I think it was also extremely unrealistic. I didnt really think the characters were very developed and i thought the same scenes happened too often.

Wtf did I just read ? Thriller is not usually my preferred genre, and this might be the reason why. It’s so hard to find one that has a crazy plot, with plot twists you don’t see coming or with the ones you dont find too over the top. I have the other two books by this author on the shelf and this one made me not excited to read them tbh wtf

Between loving The Night Swim and the super positive early reviews for Stay Awake, I had HIGH expectations for this one. But wow did they fall short.

Some of my meh attitude toward this book may be related to my deep dislike of the narrator for the lead character Liv. I honestly cringed every time Liv's parts came on. The part was overacted and totally obnoxious. Liv of two years ago was condescending and every sentence contained attitude and felt over the top. Liv of present (understandably) sounded confused, exhausted, weak, and totally powerless, which I guess she was so it sort of worked but it was just way overacted and I am so over the helpless female protagonist role.

Furthermore, I often struggle with "groundhogs day-esque" novels and this one definitely fell into the trap of repetitiveness. So much of the novel felt circular, with Liv never really finding out any new information before falling asleep again and the pattern repeating - YES, please go back to Nocturnal and remind me about how you have no idea who the bartender is and YES, please re-read every scribble written on your hands and arms -- insert eye roll emoji here. The details of the mystery were revealed maddeningly slow and I felt like there weren't enough breadcrumbs given for us to figure out much of it on our own.

Thank goodness the novel also featured a strong female lead, Detective Halliday. Her character was great and her narrator - while slightly robotic (exact opposite of Liv) - was much more palatable. She also gave us way more information and kept the novel moving along.

Finally, it took A WHILE to learn that her memory issues had only been going on for a couple weeks. I had been under the impression for much of the book that they had been going on for two years (back to when they kept flashing back) but that wasn't the case. The fact that it had only been going on for a couple weeks felt less dramatic to me and made the whole situation seem less Memento and more Hangover.

All in all this was entertaining but I probably should have skipped the audio as I likely would have enjoyed it more. If you're a fan of a good mystery and the Groundhogs Day trope, then I definitely recommend.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for a copy of this novel.

At first the sleep amnesia was a bit confusing, but it got much easier to follow along as the book progressed. With alternating points of view, you would go back to Liv and not always realize that she had fallen asleep and was starting over again. That confusion to start is the only reason I couldn't give this book the full 5 stars. The mystery behind Liv's amnesia is so intriguing and I had to get to the bottom of it which made this new novel unputdownable. Gripping, fast paced and a twist that I didn't guess makes this a book I would hugely recommend to anyone and I plan to add Megan Goldin's other works to my TBR!

Thank you to Megan Goldin, St Martin's Press & NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book will be published on August 9th.

The story starts when Liv has a fuzzy memory of what happened that night. She goes to what she thought was her apartment but her belongings or roommate are not there. When she was kicked out, she found a knife in the sweater she was wearing and discarded it. She has written on her hand Stay Awake along with an address. She goes to the address and the bartender knows who she is and remembers her from that night. But she has no recollection being there or leaving. The bartender told her that she had said that bad things happen when she goes to sleep.

From the detective's timeline: she runs to a crime scene where a man was stab but doesn't appear to have defended himself in the attack. And in blood on the window it says Wake Up.

If you are a fan of amnesia driven stories, then this is for you!

This book is told from 3 different POV/timelines - one from Liv, one from the detective, and one from Liv's past (2 years prior). You piece together from the 3 timelines and I thought the pace moved quickly especially in the 2nd half. I was more into the detective pov the most. Just to see them trying to piece together the complex person that is Liv Reese.

I was iffy on the formatting but the further I went on the better I got with it. It ended up working out great with how the story unfolded.

As with any thriller, I always think I know where it is heading but of course I was wrong. There wasn't anything mindblowing at the end or one big final twist so I was a little bummed about that. Without giving too much away of the ending, I like how the author incorporated a small detail that stuck out in Liv's memory that ended up tying it all together with who did it. I do wish we found out why the killer did what they did.

I didn't love this but I also didn't hate it. I was invested in how the story played out and needed to find out the conclusion.

3.5

I previously read Megan Goldin’s The Escape Room and I still have an advanced reader’s copy of The Night Swim in my to-be-read pile. Megan writes fast-paced thrillers that usually take place in a short period of time, but jumps back and forth from past to present in examining how our characters ended up in their predicaments.

Stay Awake is told from main character Liv’s perspective as she keeps waking up in strange places with no recollection of having gotten there. Each time she awakens and starts to figure out where she is, Liv realizes that her last memories are from a sunny summer afternoon two years prior. Her only guide is messages she’s written all over her hands and arms telling her not to fall asleep and not to trust anyone. During Liv’s fugue state, a murder was committed that ties her to the crime and running from the police as she tries to figure out what her connection was.

The book itself, to me, was fairly predictable. Unlike in The Escape Room, I figured out pretty early on what Liv’s roommate Amy was up to and, from there, it wasn’t to much a stretch to keep coming back to my main suspect. That being said, it did not make the book any less interesting. The fast-pace and short chapters kept my heart racing along with Liv’s and I couldn’t put this book down.

Fugue states are so fascinating and really emphasizes how little we know about how our brains work. I read another book years ago about a man who disappeared (presumed dead) and washed ashore in another country with no memory of his previous life, so the way Liv reacted to her trauma really intrigued me and is what I’d want to learn more and understand.

The plot of this book sounded super interesting to me and I really enjoyed Goldin‘s previous book, The Night Swim so I was thrilled when I got my hands on this ARC…. I’ve seen a lot of glowing reviews for this book, and I think I’m in the minority here, but it was not a win for me. Overall it was missing the thrill and suspense I was hoping for.

I felt like I was on a hamster wheel- just going round and round but not getting anywhere. The book started off really slowly, and things didn’t pick up until almost halfway into it. The chapters seemed repetitive and I was uninterested in the detectives and their backstory.

Speaking of backstory…I loooove a good flashback. Learning a characters history is always fascinating to me, and I love that the more I read the closer I get to the truth and current time in the book. But with this one, it took quite awhile until I felt like the backstory was relevant to the story, and by the time the truth and twists were revealed I just wasn’t into it.

And the ending…I didn’t feel invested in the characters at all, and after the big “who was the bad guy reveal”….I was just underwhelmed and a little bit like “wait, what??”

I had too many questions, mainly about how Liv was able to live her life not remembering key details and I just ended up being frustrated, but I don’t want to give any more details away!

This was a true 2.75 star rating for me

Megan Goldin’s The Night Swim was one of my top thrillers of 2021 so I was beyond excited to learn I was selected for an ARC through NetGalley for a chance to read her sophomore novel, Stay Awake, before its release on August 9, 2022.

The book begins when Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a cab with no memory of how she got there. Every time she falls asleep, her memory is completely gone–the last thing she remembers is answering her phone at her desk over two years ago. To make matters worse, she soon discovers she has a bloody knife wrapped in her jacket and has no idea where it came from. Full disclosure, when I started reading this book I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. The first few chapters felt repetitive, with Liv falling asleep, forgetting everything, just for it to happen all over again.

I’m happy to report that after the first few chapters, things picked up considerably. Liv’s present-day story is interwoven with the story of her life two years ago, specifically with the days leading up to when her memory suddenly stops. Readers also follow two detectives who are trying to solve the murder of an unknown man found in a short-term rental. Could Liv be involved? Even she starts to doubt herself as the police close in on their suspect. I thought the change in POV and timelines was nicely written, flowed well, and held my interest throughout. Each chapter kept me captivated and wanting to read more.

This turned out to be a very enjoyable mystery/suspense novel. I highly recommend it to mystery and thriller fans. Stay Awake is my second book by Goldin and she’s quickly becoming a must-read author for me!

A special thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

"Above my knuckles are letters written in black ballpoint pen. I put both my fists together. The letters spell out the words STAY AWAKE."

Liv Reese wakes up every time remembering nothing. There are new people living in her apartment, new staff at her office, new voices answering familiar phone numbers, and new words written all over her hands. All she knows is something isn't right.

This was a fast paced thriller that kept you as in the dark as the main character. I loved the short chapters, that gave you just enough to keep you wanting more. In a constant state of not knowing made you second guess and look at everyone as a suspect of disaster. I loved Goldin’s The Night Swim and this novel came back strong. I loved that there were no romances and the female characters were survivors of their own histories.

This book had a very interesting concept of not being able to remember the last two years of your life every time you fell asleep. I think it was very well done and it kept my interest.

Interesting thriller. It captivated me to finish it right away. I definitely see this being a movie with beautiful people. A bit repetitive the last half. I would also if liked a reason.

This reminded me a lot of 50 First Dates but instead of a rom-com it is more a thriller like Memento. It alternates between now and prior and keeps the reader engaged. I never suspected the killer. Quick read.