Stay Awake was an incredible book. It follows Liv, a woman who suffers memory loss every time she goes to sleep. Which is highly inconvenient when she wakes up one day and is suddenly being accused of murder. It also gives you the point of view of the two detectives working the case.

The author manages to convey the confusion Liv is constantly growing through perfectly! The tension and excitement throughout the book is palpable!

I enjoyed this book so much and am always looking forward to more books by Megan Goldin.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

“Everyone has roles to play. Sometimes we don’t know it until it’s too late. You were given a choice, Liv. Every choice has a consequence.”

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a early review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

After reading ‘The Night Swim’ I found myself a fan of Megan Goldin. I eagerly went out the same day I finished to get her other book ‘The Escape Room’ that I still have yet to read. This release is one of my most anticipated for 2022 and I was over the moon when Netgalley approved me! However, this was just… okay. It wasn’t horrible and it was a great thriller to get me out of my slump but it wasn’t as good to me as ‘The Night Swim’, and I think I had too high of hopes for this one.

I liked the concept of this a lot. We follow our main character, Liv, who wakes up in the back of a cab with blood on her and the words Stay Awake all over her knuckles, she remembers nothing. We later learn that she has a medical condition, stemming from a past trauma, that causes her to forget everything from the last two years, every single time she wakes up. Cool right?

Liv was not a character I liked. She was naive, which I guess makes sense, and so repetitive. I lost count of how many times her inner monologue says that the words on her hands match the words on the building (without me giving too much away). It was fine the first couple times but then it just got so annoying I would roll my eyes. I understand it’s suppose to help with the amnesia approach but my God.

I really en joyed the chapters from the eyes of the Detectives. That was cool to follow their process and see police work behind the scenes. We also have several chapters that take us back 2 years; which is the last time Liv remembers anything. Like I said, a pretty cool concept.

I didn’t guess the twist until a chapter before it was revealed, which was in one of the last five chapters. I feel like that’s both a good and a bad thing? Like why did it take so long? But also good that the story was good enough for me to not figure it out.

Not a bad thriller, and one I will recommend if you are trying to get out of a reading slump.

Also, how terrifying would it be to wake up each day and remember NOTHING?!

TW: murder, mention of suicide, mention of self-harm, mention of panic attacks, infidelity

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I've enjoyed other books by this author, but when this book first started I wasn't if I was going to like it. I think it was a good middle of the road mystery/thriller and definitely kept my attention. I thought it slowed down a bit in the middle, but still intrigued me enough to keep reading. I also enjoyed the multiple POVs/timeline. Overall this was a solid read and I look forward to more books by this author.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillian Audio for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

*3.5 stars*

If you're looking for a fast-paced thriller/mystery that will leaving you flipping the pages fast, then you'll want to pick up Stay Awake. From the first chapter, I was drawn into the mystery and wanted to know what was going on with the main character.

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi, not knowing where she is. After she's dropped off at her apartment and discovers someone else living there, she leaves disoriented, reaching for her phone in her back pocket and instead discovers a bloody knife wrapped in a tee-shirt and the the words Stay Awake written across her knuckles.

We also follow a pair of detectives investigating the murder of a man in an apartment where the words Wake Up have been smeared across the window. The two stories gradually come together in a tense, action-packed plot.

The timeline jumps all over the place, so this is a mystery where you need to pay close attention. It's a fairly complex plot, which at times I found a bit muddled. But despite some questionable plot elements, I was impressed at how Goldin structured this mystery, using Reese's severe memory issues to add genuine suspense.

My biggest issue was the ending, especially the villain revelation. I just couldn't buy the motivation behind the killings. IMO, there weren't enough clues and foreshadowing to make the ending believable. Also, the writing is very basic. I don't need my mysteries or thrillers to have beautiful prose, but I was hoping for a bit more detail and atmosphere to the writing.

I would recommend reading Stay Awake if you love an unreliable narrator, fast-paced thrillers and solving mysteries.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital arc. My opinions are my own.

I listened to this and thought the two narrators did a good job with the emotions and suspense of this book. When Liv falls asleep, she forgets anything from the past two years. When she wakes up her last memory is from two years earlier, when she was at work. There are two timelines, the present and the two years before and it was easy to follow the changes between the two. It did get a little repetitive to me in the middle but overall I enjoyed this audio book. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

3.5 stars!
Liv has a special condition: everytime she falls asleep, she forgets everything from the last two years. Another part of her condition is that she doesn’t know that she has it. So when she wakes up in the back of a taxi holding a bloody knife, she is extremely disoriented. She goes to her apartment, only to find that there are different people living there. She tries to call her boyfriend, but he doesn’t answer. She begins to realise that she can’t trust anyone as she starts to uncover her past.

This was a fun read and the introduction had me hooked. The premise was fascinating and I really enjoyed the writing style. However, when I reached the middle, I got bored. It was just too much and it felt extremely unrealistic to me. The story went on too long without any of the pieces connecting and overall, I was disappointed. I liked The Night Swim by Goldin much more! Thanks to @stmartinspress, @macmillan.audio & @netgalley for my review copies.

🩸🔪BOOK REVIEW🔪🩸

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin
Release Date: August 9, 2022
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5


What would you do if you woke up in the back seat of a taxi cab with no idea how you got there, or what day it was, or where the cab was going? That is what happens to Liv Reese. No purse. No phone. No wallet. No keys. No clue of what has happened.

Two years ago, Liv was a successful writer at a prestigious magazine. She had a handsome Italian boyfriend and a stunning flat with her best friend in Brooklyn.

Once she finds her way back to her apartment, she finds a couple of strangers now living there. With confusion taking over, she reaches in her pocket and finds a bloody knife. She then realizes her hands are covered in scribbles. The most distinct of them reads “STAY AWAKE.”

Now she is wandering New York, dazed and confused. The last thing she remembers happened in the spring, and now the chill of fall is setting in. And in her efforts to figure out what is happening and why she has no memory, she sees a news clip where a man has been murdered and a message scrawled on a window that mirrored the ones on her hands. In her renewed panic, she wonders if she was involved. How could she be involved in a murder and have absolutely no memory of it? What she doesn’t realize is that someone is watching, knows what happened, and is willing to do whatever it takes to make her memory disappear….forever.

🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪

THIS BOOK WAS AN INSANE RIDE. I was HOOKED from the very beginning. The past and present, and the multiple pov, is all intricately woven and unravels PERFECTLY. I was on the edge of my seat for DAYS. And to be honest I couldn’t figure it out until it started unraveling, and even then, I still had a few theories. If you love thrillers, READ THIS BOOK. I have already bought Megan Goldin’s other books because I was so impressed with this one. It was fantastic!!

🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪

✨Thank you @netgalley for the opportunity to read this before it is published!!✨

#bookstagram #bookmom #bookstagrammer #bookclub #whatimreading #bookies #bookish #readwithme #ilovebooks #booksbookandmorebooks #bookishlife
#bookishthings #currentlyreading #thriller #mystery #edgeofmyseat #whatjusthappened

5 stars! Liv wakes up in the back of a can with no idea where she is. Her house isn’t hers anymore and she has notes scribbled across her hands and arms. Readers find that Liv has a form of amnesia where she loses her memory every time she goes to sleep. This is a classic psychological thriller, and quite a joyride. Goldin hit it out of the park with this one! Thank you for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Megan Goldin’s latest novel Stay Awake is releasing August 9, and I was lucky enough to get an early copy! Every time Liv wakes up, her memory is wiped clean. She is greeted with messages scrawled all over her hands and arms with clues from what happened the day before and urging her to stay awake so that she doesn’t lose her memory again. It is a vicious cycle as Liv struggles to discover who she is and what has happened in the past. If you ever wondered what would happen if 50 First Dates crossed over with Law and Order, this is the book for you! I would also very highly recommend Megan Goldin’s other thrillers, The Night Swim (my favorite of hers) and The Escape Room. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

Megan Goldin will be releasing STAY AWAKE on August 9, 2022. Thank you to the publisher & Net Galley for my Advance Reader Copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review. I’m a newcomer to this author’s work but WOW, I will be anxiously waiting for her next book. STAY AWAKE is a psychological thriller featuring fictional detectives, an unreliable protagonist, and a refreshingly creative, clever plot based upon amnesia. The novel introduces readers to the narrator Liv Reese as she wakes up in the back of a taxi with no recollection of the present or past two years. The prose includes elements of a police procedural, providing up close and personal details of the fascinating murder investigation with evidence tying Liv to the scene of the crime. This author expertly tells the story through alternating timelines and characters, while never allowing the storyline to become dully repetitive given the nature of the themes of amnesia and memory loss being the driving forces of the novel. As a reader, I was rooting for Liv even as an unreliable narrator; however, another character captured my attention. The characterization of Detective Darcy Halliday will have readers rallying behind her and the pursuit of the killer. I loved this character due to her basic values, her humility, ability to bend convention as a woman, and her keen sense of observation. I admired how Detective Halliday’s essence remained intact throughout the story. STAY AWAKE is bursting with entertainment, masterfully plotted, and landed a superb ending to a fulfilling thriller.

What a fun ride this book is! Goldin has written a page-turning thriller that hooks you in the first pages and never lets go. I actually picked this up to see what was upcoming for my reading plans and then couldn’t put it down, at the expense of some other things that I was already reading.
Stay Awake is a story that begins with our protagonist, Liv, awakening in the back of a cab in NYC somewhat confused as she heads home in the middle of the night. She has lost her keys and purse so she knocks on the door hoping that her roommate is home. A stranger answers the door and demands to know why she is ringing their buzzer in the middle of the night, again. She has writing all over her arms reminding her of key phrases, like “Stay Awake” and phone numbers and names. She has a condition where she loses her memory when she falls asleep causing her to start over each time. The story is partly told from Liv’s perspective in the current day and also past Liv from 2 years previously. There are multiple timelines and multiple POVs as detectives try to sort out a current case and an unsolved case from 2 years previously. This keeps the plot moving rapidly. It also keeps the reader guessing. The only issue that I had was in the heading for each timeline or POV change not really orienting the reader at first glance. It sometimes took a couple of paragraphs to grasp where in the story we were at that moment and who was there. Occasionally this took me out of the story, but briefly. The plot drives the story so well that it clearly makes up for a little hesitation in following the story arc.
I loved the character development. I enjoyed the story and especially loved the ending. Really fun and thrilling read. Great when you are craving the fast paced thriller to hook you.
Highly recommend.

#StayAwake #NetGalley #StMartinsPress

Reviews for books like this need to be vague because it would be easy to spoil the book. A note here: As I read others’ reviews before writing my own, several of the top ones spoil certain aspects. So I advise not reading reviews if you want to be surprised. (It defeats me writing a review, but I promise, it’s spoiler free.)

Imagine waking up, seeing a note on your hands saying, “stay awake,” and you have no memory of how you got to where you are. Everything is different, even down to how you look, and you realize you’re missing two years. Additionally, you learn someone has been murdered, and you’re the prime suspect.

I read Goldin’s two previous books, so I knew I would enjoy this one. I can’t even imagine the constant state of confusion Liv was in. Her confusion and fear leaped off the page. Goldin writes in-depth characters and a tense storyline that keeps you flipping pages long after bedtime. Thank you, St. Martin’s, for sending this along.

3.5 The phrase "stay awake" was written probably 100+ times because of how important it was! Why does Liv see this phrase everywhere? It's on sticky notes near where she wakes, it's written on her hands, and people continue to tell her this phrase!

Liv wakes one morning to find herself in an unknown location. She goes home to find strangers living in her apartment that for whatever reason no longer has her possessions inside. You as the reader are as baffled as Liv tries to navigate what is going on!!

The book is a bit repetitive due to the nature of the storyline. It did feel a little Groundhog movieish for me with the constant repeats, but it was a huge part of the plot.

I loved that I didn't solve this thriller on my own and almost felt like I was Liv, the main character.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the advance ebook in return for my honest review.

I love Megan Goldin's other books and this one did not disappoint. I liked how the author kept the reader just as confused as the main character who has amnesia and loses her memory of the last two years when she goes to sleep. The reader follows the main character in her journey to find out about her trauma and what happened to trigger this amnesia. I love who done it books and I definitely did not figure out who was the culprit till the very end. They we're not even on my radar! I highly recommend this book! Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!!;

A different kind of thriller than I usually read, but it was a great ride! A tad unrealistic, however I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. A female protagonist with memory issues caused by trauma is trying to figure it all out and survive. Even with blood on her hands, I was rooting for her!

Thank you to St Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Stay Awake
Megan Goldin


Goldin’s Stay Awake may just be the best thriller of the year, a fast paced super psychological thriller that will keep listeners up all night on the edge of their seat with their nails bitten to the quick; think of a dark Groundhog Day that repeats every time you wake up but instead of trying to impress a girl you’re running from a killer, only you don’t know it and oh by the way every time you wake up it’s rinse and repeat because you think it’s two years in the past. Wow! And while Megan builds her story the audience will get fed crumbs that might fill in some blanks but could just as easily be red herrings leaving the audience listening attentively to every word so they don’t miss a breath.

Liv Reese wakes up in a NYC cab with a pocket full of cash, a bloody knife in her pocket and strange phrases like WAKE UP written on her hands. Deciding she must have had too much to drink she goes home to her apartment and discovers that someone else lives there, she goes to her office and discovers that while she’s well known she doesn’t work there anymore it’s like she’s in an alternate universe and she’s not sure where to go for help, she thinks about calling the police until she reads a message on her hand that says, TRUST NO-ONE. Tired, afraid and a little paranoid she just wishes her best friend and roommate Amy or her boyfriend Marco would answer their phones then maybe she could make some sense out of all this nonsense.
Liv doesn’t know it yet but she’s in grave danger and her strange amnesia is both a blessing and a curse, the big question is will she figure things out before the danger catches up to her.

Meanwhile NYC detectives Halliday and Lavelle have their hands full trying to solve a bizarre murder of a man in a short term rental with no murder weapon on scene the only evidence is a long strand of dark hair on the pillow beside the dead man and the biggest clue is the words written in the victim’s blood saying WAKE UP.

The characters are amazing in this intense chilling novel and everyone plays their role perfectly, Liv will make the audience scream STAY AWAKE more than one time during the novel, she’s vulnerable and wide opened to all the sucker punches she gets during the novel and the lead detective Darcy Halliday is fantastic a no-nonsense cop with a good head on her shoulders, a military background and compassionate. Her fellow detective Jack Halliday is also a good character a Yin to Halliday’s Yang open minded but at times needs coaxing to see things her way. The villain however remains in the shadows until the shocking reveal that will have most listeners bamboozled. Fans of Megan Goldin, Hank Phippi Ryan, and Lisa Gardner will not be able to take off the earbuds until the credits roll.

I loved "The Night Swim," and "Stay Awake" had an interesting premise, so I had high expectations for this book. "Stay Awake" is about Liv, who has many forgotten memories. The concept for this book kept me engaged as I attempted to find out what happened to Liv. I thought the big reveal was well-done. In terms of cons, the book's timeline jumps around, and there's another POV of the detective. This was occasionally distracting and hard to follow. Some of the phrases were repetitive. Ultimately I gave this book 3.5 stars rounded up. Thanks for the advance review copy.

This was a DNF for me around 20% in. Makes me so sad since I loved The Escape Room by this author! I'll not give up on this author though because the reasons why I didn't like this had absolutely nothing to do with the author or the writing. I've found I'm not a fan of memory loss stories and I should have known I probably wouldn't like this if I didn't like the movie Memento but I didn't listen to myself. Thank you for the opportunity!

Everything about this book grabbed me as soon as I saw it the title was very interesting and I had to see what it meant, then the cover was something I'm not used to seeing. A red cover with an ominous figure sounds right up my alley. Then to top things right off when I read the description I knew that this was one I didn't want to miss out on and man was I right on that fact. One of the things that I was surprised about was how elegantly Megan Golding wrote this book her wording was almost poetic at times and considering the sometimes dark story line it was very unexpected but very much welcomed. The best part about this book was how right from the first page our author took us on a thrill ride and never stopped. There was no slow build up she just threw you right into the middle of the situation. I loved this because it left us trying to figure things out with our main character, Liv. The book is all about our man character Liv as she awakes only to realise that is not the next day like she had expected however it is now two years later and she doesn't recognise anything about where she is. She must be confused or so she tells herself only things don't seem to be looking in her favour as the apartment that she once shared with her roommate is now being rented out to a different couple who, according to them, have been living there for a while now. Her world is in total confusion and things only get worse when she leaves as she notices the words "Stay Awake" written on her hands. Who wrote this? What does it mean? And what is going on? These were some of the many questions that I had along with our main character. This is one book that you will be unable to put down because you want to find out what is going on just as much as our main character does. There was multiple time lines and points of view in this book that I'm not normally a fan of however, given the plot of the book it was the right decision. This thriller had everything and kept me guessing all the way. My favourite part though was the fact that it held my attention the whole way through and I never wanted to put it down. Great read I've never read anything like this before and if the rest of her books are even half as good as this one then she has gained a new fan for life. Great read and I'm so glad I got the chance to check it out.

Liv Reese wakes up not knowing where she's at or how she got there. There is writing on her skin, telling her to "Stay Awake". Because every time she falls asleep, she forgets everything from the last 2 years. And now she's right in the middle of a murder and must try to figure what's been going on in her life in order to rescue herself.

There was a lot going on in this one. The back and forth in time and multiple POVs made it hard for me to keep up. I liked the story but the execution didn't work well for me and made it unnecessarily confusing. .

Available August 9, 2022.