Stay Awake is a gripping thriller that had me hooked from start to finish. I really enjoyed not only the back and forth of timelines but the multiple POV added great layers to the story as well.
Megan Goldin created a fascinating story, between the characters & the plot twist I was completely captivated. This is a perfect psychological thriller full of mystery & suspense.
Crime fiction fans and fans of the unreliable narrator will equally appreciate this one.

As always my reviews are always spoiler free and my own honest opinion.

What a book! Imagine every time you wake , you are thrown back 2 years before. This happens every time Liz goes to sleep. So, she writes notes on her hand and arms that tell her to "Stay Awake."

When Liz wakes up, it's no longer Spring. Strange people are leaving in her apartment. The place she worked has had a facelift. People she meets seem to know her but she can't remember them.

There's a murder, (not spoiling because it happens at the beginning of the book), and Liz is seen on a CCTV camera. One detective things she is guilty. The other isn't so sure. She thinks something else is going on with this murder.

I was captured by the first page of this book. There were some red herrings, one I totally fell for. I never suspected who the culprit was, it blew me away. I suppose because this person never even entered my mind.

Why can't Liz remember stuff? What happened two years ago that caused her to have this certain kind of amnesia? Which detective will be right?

Publishes August 9, 2022.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the Kindle Version of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Happy Reading 📚😀📚

#netgalley
#stmartinspress

4.5 well earned stars. This was captivating, and sincerely hard to put down. The past/present scenes were handled very well, easy to follow. The main character was believable and wrenched emotions from the reader throughout the novel. Can you imagine not being able to remember 2 years out of your life… amnesia caused by trauma? Can you imagine how frightening it must be not to be able to fall asleep for the fear of not remembering what happened the day before? Someone is trying to kill you, but who and why?

Megan Goldin has a talent that puts her on my automatic TBR list whenever she releases a new novel. I’ve enjoyed her past efforts and this may well be my favorite.

Thank you #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for the advance review copy. Highly recommended.

While I won't necessarily remember everything I read in Stay Awake in a year or two, this kept me thoroughly entertained. The twists were well executed and surprising, which is really all I want in a thriller.

This was a fast, fun thriller that had me wanting to stay awake to finish it! (See what I did there?)

Liv is a bit of an unreliable narrator, since she has no memory at all of what has happened to her in the last two years. Every time she falls asleep, she wakes up like a blank slate, only able to remember answering the phone at her desk two years prior. She has written various warnings and instructions all over her body, but this tends to only confuse her further as she stumbles around New York attempting to figure out what has happened to her life and her loved ones. When Liv becomes the primary suspect in a prominent murder case, she is desperate to determine what really happened before something bad happens to her as well — is she running only from the police? Or is someone more sinister after her as well?

I devoured this story, and was very pleased with it overall. The pace is fast and the chapters are short. Most are told from either the first-person POV of Liv or the second-person POV of Detective Darcy Halliday. I do so love an unreliable narrator, and I found myself rather horrified by the thought of waking up with zero memories of my recent past. Like Fifty First Dates, but without anyone there to help you through your day. The only thing that irked me about this book was the rehashing of the same things whenever Liv woke up anew, which is arguably an essential piece to the story and truthfully really short (I'm just impatient). I recommend this read for sure!

Thank you to Megan Goldin, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

I found this book compelling from the very start -- Liv Reese keeps waking up not remembering anything that has happened in the last two years. Told between alternating timelines, present day Liv and Liv in the past -- I couldn't put it down as the pieces of her story were filled in. The pace and the writing really put me in Liv's head, and I was truly able to feel how confused and frustrated she was.

This was my first book by Megan Goldin and I am excited to read her previous books and look forward to her next one! A very intriguing thriller, and I'm always a sucker for a narrator that we want to root for and trust, but also can't be too sure about.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

I don't care for books that are repetitive (in this case the main character has amnesia and doesn't remember anything when she wakes up) but Stay Awake was really good other than that aspect. The main character wasn't likeable as an unreliable narrator but the suspense was really good, everything came together in the end, and I was surprised by the reveal.

Wow! What a great ride in the engaging thriller. From the beginning it keeps you guessing about the true events & the person at fault. The main character, Liv, gains your sympathy and concern - she is terrified and confused; and you feel each emotion as well.

Liv wakes up in the back of a cab with no memory of how she got there, the words "STAY AWAKE" scribbled in black pen across her hands. When she arrives at her apartment, she finds it occupied by strangers. And then she finds the bloody knife in her pocket...

Stay Awake is a pulse-pounding, paranoid, frantic thriller chronicling one woman's life as it spirals out of control in an amnesiac fever-dream. I consciously decided not to take this one too seriously -- to not overthink the more outlandish plot elements or the sheer implausibility of the entire concept. I went into this book intending to just have fun with it, and I absolutely did.

This may be my favorite of the three Megan Goldin novels I've read. Stay Awake unfolds across a few different timelines, and the structure is so effective. And it's incredibly impressive to me that Goldin was able to keep all the threads of this complex narrative straight. Although this is a plot-forward book there's still some interesting, thoughtful character development, and the ending took me completely by surprise. 3.5 stars rounded up, simply because I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

⭐⭐/5

• Groundhog Day meets mystery
• annoying protagonist
• confusing ending

I switched off between reading the physical copy and listening to the audio. The audio narration was pretty distracting to me. Unfortunately, this one missed the mark.

🗣️ Thank you to @netgalley, @stmartinspress and @macmillanaudio for the opportunity to read and review this book via gifted eARC and audio! All opinions are honest and my own.

🤯 HOLY 🤯 SMOKES 🤯

This book was everything I needed and more!!!  Right from the very beginning to the very very end this book is non stop! You will be in for a treat of twists and turns galore. Agh I loved it!!! The first night I picked it up I read 50% of the book. I couldn't put it down. The only reason I did make my self put the book down was because it was so good I didn't want to be sleepy while reading it. I needed to absorb and experience every word Megan wrote! I was so invested in her amnesia and what happened every time Liv wrote up.

This is one of my top 5 thrillers of the year. HANDS DOWN!!

Liv wakes up and cannot remember anything from yesterday and in fact she has lost 2 years of her life. She realizes the police are looking for her due to a murder.
Thanks go out to NetGalley for the ARC and to the publisher MacmillanSpecialMarkets.

Loved this thriller so much I read it in one sitting on a cross country flight. Not wanting to spoil this amazing read for others, the only thing I will share is the main character, Liv, experiences a total loss of memory each time she falls asleep. Of course there is a murder involved and poor Liv is definitely connected. Stay Awake is absolutely the perfect title.
The story is told from both Liv’s perspective and that of an astute detective, Halliday, who is investigating the murder. Megan Goldin slowly peels away the layers of onion skin revealing details that lead the reader down various paths only to come to a dead end. The action is taut and well paced, keeping the reader totally engaged throughout. I am looking forward to another book featuring Halliday and her partner.
Four and one half stars for this gem. Many many thanks to Megan Goldin, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for affording me the absolute pleasure of reading an arc of this soon to be published book. I am eagerly awaiting the next book from this gifted author.

Another just okay thriller. I am bummed because I was really excited to receive an ARC by this author from the publisher. I loved Night Swim so much and I just sadly keep striking out with her books since I read that one. I actually had a feeling I was not going to love this and I wasn’t wrong. It’s like a Memento/50 First Dates/Groundhog Day mashup, basically. I did not have a clue what was going on for over half of the book and not in a good way. It really did not hold my interest very well. Once I figured out the plot, I was easily able to predict whodunit and why, so that was disappointing. The main character seemed really young to me and it was hard to come to like her because of the amnesia and how she handles situations. Since the MC has amnesia, it also becomes difficult to like any of the characters surrounding her because you don’t know who is shady vs who is genuinely trying to help her. I did like the character of Detective Halliday, though, so that was a plus. I have one more book in the author’s backlist; hoping that one’s a winner.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Liv has a rare form of amnesia. When she falls asleep, she forgets everything and is living in the past--two years ago. The book starts with her awaking in the back of a cab with a bloody knife. Of course, she can't remember what happened or why she has the knife. Liv looks at her hands/arms and sees writing that says, "Stay Awake."

We also get Detective Halliday's POV, who is investigating a murder. Written in blood at the scene are the words "Stay Awake." This does not look good for Liv. Soon, she is caught in the middle of the murder.

This story is told in Liv's point of view in the present and in the past, two years ago. Sometimes, this was confusing. We also get Detective Halliday's point of view as she and her partner are trying to solve this case.

What I liked:
I liked the short chapters. (always a plus)
I also liked the young detective. She is smart and determined to prove herself on this case. I enjoyed her point of view a lot.

I liked this story well enough, but it didn't feel too original to me. I felt like I had seen or read this somewhere--either on television, movie or another book. I know I am an outlier on this book, because so many people loved it. It just wasn't the thriller for me.

I absolutely LOVED this book. I am a big fan of Megan Goldin and was giddy to get my hands on this book.

Stay Awake follows main character Liv, who can't remember anything that happened the last two years. Last she remembers is waking up at her desk and now, she has no clue what is happening. She hardly even recognizes herself. Every time she falls asleep, her mind basically resets. All she knows is she has "STAY AWAKE" written all across her hands among other notes.

At the same time that we are introduced to Liv, a murder occurs in the city. On the window of the murder scene writes STAY AWAKE. Is Liv connected?

First off, I loved the premise of this book. What a great idea for a thriller! But the book goes so much deeper than this. Not only can Liv not remember her own life and there is a murder trying to be solved, but the events that have happened over the last few years in her life are a thriller in themselves.

I loved the many different plot lines happening from the different stories unfolding to the dueling timelines.

4.5 stars!

This is the first time in a while that a mystery/thriller really hit the mark for me. The premise was super interesting, and though I'm not usually a fan of the unreliable narrator trope, I think this one was done exceptionally well. I often feel like unreliable narrators are used when authors want to include some really horrific plot lines or events and need a cop-out to write those scenes. Enter: the unreliable narrator that we can all point to and agree is a terrible person, and so therefore the traumatic plot line could never be the fault of the author. STAY AWAKE is not like that in the slightest. The main character of this book was unreliable because of memory loss, not because of any character deficiency. The memory loss made the story frustrating and intriguing and sad and wild simultaneously, which I found I enjoyed.

My one gripe: I beg BEG BEG the editors to go through the writing in this book and count every adjective or adverb or description, and for every 10 adjectives, delete nine. There were some really truly basic and mundane things that were described in a just clunky way. Like: Americano brown hair or this sentence in the first chapter: "I stare hypnotically out the window as city lights streak by against a blanket of darkness, lulled by the pensive hum of the car radio." It's just so many words for someone zoning out in the backseat of a cab?

Some details or moments were included in the story that didn't seem to have any purpose as well, but I could mostly ignore those. I feel like this book would benefit from a few more pass throughs of editing and some plot restructuring, but I am obviously no expert. HOWEVER, the story was good enough and the characters interesting enough to me that it didn't make too much of a difference to me.

Daily amnesia, a bloody knife and danger abound in this fast paced thriller. Liv Reece is in trouble and she can’t remember the last two years of her life. What’s worse is every time that she falls asleep, the amnesia starts all over again. Piecing together that she is both in danger, AND being sought after by the police for murder, Liv must figure out who to trust and who not to trust before it’s too late.
Fans of contemporary “memory loss” thrillers will enjoy this one.
~Thank you to NetGalley and Publisher

Stay Awake was a very…..weird, crazy story. Not weird or crazy in a bad way.
The main character, Liv, seems to have lost memory of the last 2 years of her life. Sound intriguing? I know I had to keep turning the pages to try and figure out the twists and turns this story takes.
Honestly, I liked the police detective characters more then the main character. I would like to see the detectives in their own series.
Overall, Stay Awake is a suspense crime thriller that I did enjoy though not so much the ending.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions and thoughts expressed are my own.

What It's About: Liv Reese wakes up in a back of a taxi with no recollection of how she got there. She finds a bloodstained knife in her pocket and her hands are scribbled with messages: STAY AWAKE. Meanwhile, Detectives Darcy Halliday and Jack Lavalle are called to investigate the homicide of an unidentified man, where on the apartment's window were written the words: WAKE UP - in blood.

My thoughts: This was my third book by Megan Goldin and let me tell you - IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT! She is my auto-buy author now!

I loved the plot which I find really intriguing and it kept me guessing throughout the story. I really have no idea how it will end but I did guess whodunit, just not sure of the motive. The pacing was perfect and I loved the POV of both Liv and Detective Halliday equally. The investigation was filled with suspense and I loved following their investigation.

I've read and listened to this book. However, I enjoyed reading the print better as the narrator for Liv Reese wasn't for me. There were parts where her narration sounded comical and it felt like she clenched her teeth all the time while talking. I did not enjoy it at all.

Regardless, I personally think this was a solid thriller/mystery and I enjoyed it thoroughly. If you're looking for a book that will keep you at the edge of your seat, this may be the one for you!

Pub. Date: August 9th, 2022


***Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this gifted reading copy. All opinions expressed are my own.***