Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ebook and audiobook arcs of Stay Awake. I was excited to read this one because I also enjoyed The Night Swim by the same author. I liked this one for the most part- it definitely kept me guessing at who might have been the one responsible for the murder. Because of the nature of the main characters memory loss, it did get repetitive at times, but that was also helping build the story. The addition of the different perspectives of the main character and one of the detectives was also a nice detail and kept the story progressing. It wasn't a page turner for me, but an okay book. 3.5 ⭐

This was a fast paced story that made me intrigued from the moment I started reading. I loved the concept of the main character having memory loss each time they awake from sleep. With notes written all over her arms, she has to piece together what has happened. It reminds me of 50 First Dates meets Memento. I loved the crime aspect and the dual POVs. I also enjoyed the past and present shifts in the story too. As the reader, I got to learn a little more about what was really going on and at times I knew more than the MC. I enjoyed the ending and only have a few questions about the story.

Liv the main female character has the most bizarre condition, she forgets the past two years every time she falls asleep. Full of twists and turns. Tells the story from the main female character‘s point of you as well as the detectives working the murder homicide case. Flows very easily and does have some flashbacks of her life from before. Definitely an interesting story, not a storyline I’ve read before. Kept me reading and wondering what was going to happen next.

Thanks to Netgalley for my electronic advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

As much as I enjoyed Goldin's last book, this one was a huge mess. It was infuriatingly repetitive, entire sentences and sections repeated over and over (things like "I looked down at my hands, and saw STAY AWAKE written on them.") as if either the reader is completely brain dead or the author had stopped and started and forgotten she'd already written this mere pages prior.

On top of that, it's too long with too many POV switches and has an almost nonsensical ending. I hope Goldin's next is better, and I'll definitely give it a shot, but this really diminished a lot of the goodwill she had with me as a reader.

I did not finish at 25%. It just wasn’t holding my attention. It’s me, not the book. Maybe I’ll try again later.

Pub date: 9 Aug 2022

I liked this story. I can see how some would find it repetitive but I do feel like it was done well, to put the reader in Liv's frame of mind each time she wakes.

We meet Liv Reese in current time when she wakes up in the back of a cab unsure where she is, where she's going or been. We jump back in time about two years earlier several times throughout the book. Then, when we get towards the end, we go back two days from the current time. I found the multi timelines easy enough to follow.

Along with Liv in the current time, we follow Detectives Darcy Halliday and Jack Lavelle as they investigate the murder of a British man. Detective Halliday was my favorite character by far.

There were several times I rolled my eyes at Liv's decisions but then again, I can't imagine waking up with no memories of the past two years so I guess I can't judge.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and how everything gets wrapped up in a neat bow by the end. There's a lot of details included that explain each piece of the mystery.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the early ebook and audiobook to read and review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for this ARC of Megan Goldin's Stay Awake. I absolutely loved this! I'm a bit hard to please when it comes to mysteries and thrillers. I often find myself guessing all the answers in advance and it makes it hard for me to relax and enjoy the ride at times. My favorite stories often involve unreliable narrators and sometimes multiple timelines. I think anyone who enjoys these tropes will have a fun time following along with Liv and her Memento-esque nightmare. This was a snappy and quick read, in that you'll sit down and stay there as you race through the twists.

This book was great! Not only was it a good read but the author managed to tell a story that kept your attention, without being repetitive. Sounds weird but the a protagonist has a problem with losing her memory every time she falls asleep. I thought it may get old with her waking up repeatedly saying “Where am I? What was I doing? Where do I live?” but the story is told so well, in multiple timelines, from different POVs, and really keeps your interest. Quite a feat, IMO. My favorite Megan Goldin book yet!

My New Favorite Book.
I loved this book from start to finish. It was a mix of the TV series "Blindspot" and "Gone Girl". I highly recommend this book.
I read Megan's book, "Escape Room." That book was a 5-star rating for me as well.
I received this galley from NetGalley.

The Night Swim by Meg Goldin is one of my favorite thrillers of all time, so I was ecstatic to receive an early copy of this ebook. A fantastic start to the book, Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. Worst of all, she has a bloodstained knife with her and messages all over her hands telling her to stay awake. Throughout the story, we travel back and forth in time between the present and two years ago while we piece together the details behind Liv’s memory loss and what she’s forgotten in the past two years / 24 hours.

This concept is so unique and entirely thrilling. It creates this unreliable narrator because of her memory loss, which is something I love in thrillers. I also really appreciated the short chapters and dual timeline to add to the intensity of the story. The ending felt a little unsatisfactory, and I would’ve loved to see more of what happened after the story ends.

Overall this was a terrific thriller, and I am so thankful to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sending me an advanced copy of this ebook!

Megan Goldin is a stunner in the genre. The Night Swim was one of my favorite reads of the year, and when I saw Stay Awake in my inbox, I screeched with excitement. I was thrilled to finally be able to take this gem to the beach with me and dive in.

From the publisher via Goodreads: 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 the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers―a stranger who now lives in her apartment and forces her out in the cold. 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 disoriented in a New York City that looks nothing like what she remembers. 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. What did she do last night? And why does she remember nothing from the past two years? Liv finds herself on the run for a crime she doesn’t remember committing as she tries to piece together the fragments of her life. But there’s someone who does know exactly what she did, and they’ll do anything to make her forget―permanently.

In the vein of SJ Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep and Christopher Nolan’s cult classic Memento, Megan Goldin’s Stay Awake is an electrifying novel that plays with memory and murder.

I devoured this book. From the constantly shifting suspicions to the unreliability of the narrator, Stay Awake is one of the books you just cannot put down. Liv's voice is engaging and nuanced. I enjoyed the relationships explored in the procedural chapters, and was gripped trying to figure out the mystery along with them. This was the perfect beach read for me, so if you're looking for your next vacation thriller, add this one to your bag now.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

Stay Awake was my third ARC from author Megan Goldin (I really need to get ahold of that other backlist title!) and I swear they just keep getting better and better. Stay Awake is definitely my favorite of the three I've read (The Escape Room, The Night Swim, and Stay Awake).

We open the story with Liv Reese waking up with no idea where she is or how she got there. The only possible hint she has is writing on her arms, but all it says is "Stay Awake". Why? She arrives home just to find out she doesn't live there anymore and when she goes to call for help, she finds a bloody knife. How in the world did Liv get this knife and why can't she remember?!

Stay Awake is truly twisted and suspenseful. The narrator is clearly unreliable, as she has no memory of what happened. We get to watch the story unfold at the same time as Liv so I truly had no idea what was going on until the end either. The twists make sense, but you never see them coming, which is something I definitely look for in my thrillers. This was a five star read for me and solidifies the fact that I love Megan Goldin and will be picking up anything she writes in the future.

Really enjoyed this! A twisty thriller that kept me guessing right till the end, I finished it within the day. Stay Awake alternates between the perspective of Liv, who can’t remember anything from the last two years, and the detectives investigating a murder, which may be linked to Liz. For once, I liked both narrators equally - it was just as interesting to read about Liz’s efforts to uncover what happened to her as well as police work. The two detectives, Darcy and Jake were engaging characters, I wouldn’t mind seeing them appear again! The reveal of the central mystery and Liz’s memories was well done, really created a tense atmosphere without being too slow. Highly recommend, thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

It took me some time to really get into this story but once I did, I was hooked! Each chapter ends in a way that you can't put it down. I really enjoyed the concept and fast pace. One issue I had was with the main character, she would be looking for answers however when someone was close to helping her, she would run away! So that became a bit frustrating. I also didn't feel like the ending was super crazy and exciting like I was hoping for. But regardless, I still enjoyed this thriller.
3.5 stars

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book!
Overall I enjoyed this book but thought it felt incomplete - the premise was incredible but I thought that it was a bit lacking.

Stay Awake takes us through the story of Liv Reese, a girl with a unique type of amnesia. Every morning, Liv wakes up having no clue where she is or what happened in the past two years of her life. She's truly living in the past. The notes on her hands and arms read phrases like "stay awake," "you forget everything when you fall asleep," and "wake up;" a message that was also found written in blood on the window of a recent crime scene. All signs point to Liv being connected to the murder in some way...but how?

Have you ever ridden in a car with a driver who's constantly tapping their foot on the break and sending their passengers lurching back and forth? This book feels like a similar form of whiplash. It disjointedly takes the reader from various times of day (on a Wednesday), then flashes back 2 years, then takes us to the present day but from the POV of Detective Halliday, a woman trying to prove herself on NYPD after her years of military service. There's so much going on, yet it doesn't feel like the story is being propelled by its contents. Like Liv, I felt like I was reading the same things over and over again, without having any understanding of why.

I truly felt like this is one of the most predictable thriller/mystery books I've read. It was predictable in the sense that there weren't many alternatives on how things could potentially turn out. I just kept hoping for the end of the book to come so everything could be wrapped up in a nice ribbon and I could be released from the nightmare that was this story. To me, the characters weren't super relatable or intriguing and lacked development throughout the course of the book. The detectives' storyline felt like an afterthought and I don't think Liv's portions of the book were as suspenseful as they were meant to be---to me, they just felt jumbled & incoherent. I loved The Night Swim, so I came into Stay Awake with high hopes, only to leave being put to sleep by the unimaginative story.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Megan Goldin for the ARC of Stay Awake!

Stay Awake is an exciting psychological thriller that pulled me in from the beginning. This is packed with tension, suspense, and drama. The narrative is split between multiple timelines. Liv and Halliday, one of the detectives investigating the murder, are the main narrators. The mystery behind Liv’s amnesia is intriguing, and the way the novel unfolds makes it unputdownable.

What a good book! I was awakened at 2:30 this morning by my furbaby Duke, as is my habit I picked up my Tablet to start a new book, little did I know that I would stay with Liv until her horrid nightmare ended, one way or the other. I will admit being skeptical about the reviews of this book, sure I thought, another Thriller, you will not sleep, all hype no substance! Was I wrong! It does live up to the hype, I was hooked after the first Chapter, yes, it took the chapter for me to suspend reality, and fall into Liv's waking nightmare! I had to know what happens! I refuse to give away any spoilers, trust me, as a severe critic, this is a turn-the-page, watch the next episode, (in my mind, it is always a film rolling) I must know who is the real killer? As a side note, with the latest DNA technology, hair roots are not necessary, they can match DNA with just a hair strand.
I highly recommend it! Thank you #Netgalley, #StayAwake #MeganGoldin who is a new author for me, but I have looked at her books to see what I have missed.
carolintallahassee

Stay Awake

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Megan Goldin writes a really solid thriller with unique premises, this was my third book of hers. In Stay Awake, a woman loses her memory every time she falls asleep. She has to rediscovery and understand what happened the last few years as she is chased around New York.

If you’re looking for a dual perspective and multiple timeline book, this one has both! Somewhat the unreliable narrator, but a different take on it than the usual alcohol or drugs. A solid thriller coming out next month!

Thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this eARC!

Such a good read. I loved the different points of view and the timelines. I've already told my hometown library to get this book when it is released.