a fascinating concept that was bafflingly dismal in its execution 😭 this was one of the most disappointing thrillers i've read all year.

i have a great track record with megan goldin's writing. the night swim stirred up so many intense and mournful emotions in me, while the escape room was a highly entertaining and vindictive - if predictable - mystery. so when i saw stay awake available on netgalley, you can bet i smashed that request button!

unfortunately, this just wasn't the book for me.

the premise was immediately intriguing. liv reese awakens to find herself in a taxi with no memory of how she got there; in fact, the last thing she recalls is picking up a phone call on a gorgeous summer day in her NYC office... which turns out to have been two years ago. what happened in the intervening time? why can't liv remember? why are cryptic phrases scrawled all over her hands - one of which matches a bloody message painted at the scene of a recent murder? while liv goes on the run from the NYPD, grappling with severe memory loss, she must delve deep into her murky past to survive the present.

again, i'm just so disappointed. i feel like the book was so fixated on the concept, that the plot (and characters and overall stakes) took a far backseat - and stay awake was all the worse for it. the story really suffered from repetitiveness and over-explanation of technical details, including overwrought logistics behind the police work (e.g., handwriting analysis) and, particularly, the reason behind liv's memory loss. the writing in this book was bland and passive - and felt all the more haphazard with the transitions between character POVs, as liv's chapters are narrated in first-person present-tense, while detectives halliday and lavelle are in third-person past-tense. (maybe this is a function of the advance copy i read, and the final publication will read as more polished?)

moreover, none of the characters were compelling to me. nothing about liv stood out to me as individual or interesting; the two detectives were straight out of central casting, with zero distinguishing quirks to set them apart from the dozens other homicide detectives i've watched on tv / read about; and the side characters were barely fleshed out. in fact, the paltry cast made the book very predictable, as there is only one reasonable person who could be the perpetrator.

in all, stay awake was a really underwhelming reading experience. however, though this wasn't the book for me, i'm still looking forward to what megan goldin cooks up next!



many thanks to netgalley and st. martin's press for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Liv has an unusual diagnosis - whenever she falls asleep, she forgets the last two years of her life. So when she finds herself in a cab, she has no idea how she got there. However, she gives the cab driver her address, but is mystified when 2 total strangers open her door and tell her that they live in that home. The story unfolds with both the present day and 2 years prior. We learn that Liv had a successful job as a writer for a prestigious magazine, but all she has now is a bloody knife and writing across her hands and up her arms. She has lost her phone and cannot remember anything that happened recently.
This mystery/thriller is interesting and held my attention to the end.
I thank the author, publisher and Netgalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Imagine waking up every day and having no memory of the last two years of your life. Megan Goldin does a great job with insomnia and trauma. I couldn't put the book down!

As much as I was looking forward to reading/listening to Stay Awake, I have to add I really struggled with it. It was in credibly repetitive, and not in a good way. There were too many plot holes and inconsistencies. And one of the two narrators was overly dramatic, making it very difficult for me to stick with it. Overall, this one just did not work for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-copy of Stay Awake in exchange for my honest review.

Having recently finished “Stay Awake” by Megan Goldin, I am happy to have had the chance for the preview; thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press!

This was a story that I would definitely recommend to anyone in need of a zippy thrill. It was actually perfect to read while dealing with my own (minor) issues of sleep deprivation. The alternate chapters took a bit to figure out, but once I did, I was able to follow along with little confusion as Liv’s missing memories were revealed. When the “who done it” character finally showed their face at the end... it wrapped all the unknowns of this story up in a comforting way. Sleep tight!

I picked up Stay Awake last month when I was looking for a thriller to bust a reading slump and this novel was the perfect anecdote. A dual-timeline, dual-perspective story with just enough creepiness to cause a slight shiver up your spine, this is a great beach read to add to your bag for any summer trip.

WHAT I LOVED
🔪 The unreliable narrator trope is a key element to this story but it’s done in a really unique way. Liv, the protagonist, has no memory of the night before and has to piece together her few memories. You might think you know why she can’t remember, but there were some interesting twists that I didn’t see coming.
🔪Goldin does a great job of planting clues and red herrings throughout, which make theorizing a lot of fun. I had many ideas about what was happening and who the culprit was, but nearly all of my initial thoughts were wrong. The ending was very clever and the final reveal is one of those moments where you’ll think back and all of the clues planted along the way will come into place and everything makes sense.
🔪This novel plays around with time and perception in ways that reminded me of a Christopher Nolan movie. That obviously won’t be for everyone, but I really enjoyed that aspect and thought it differentiated the novel from others I’ve read in the genre.

WHAT I DIDN’T LOVE
🔪 Because information is revealed slowly as Liv learns more about herself and the events of the previous night, it took several chapters for me to feel comfortable with the book and have a solid sense of what was going on. Each chapter has a heading letting you know when it is taking place, so be sure to pay attention to those labels as they’ll certainly come in handy.

This was my second novel by Goldin and while the mystery and subject matter are very different from The Night Swim, I liked both novels equally. I read Stay Awake in just a couple of hours and can attest that you won’t be able to put this one down.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC. Stay Awake hits shelves in August.

I loved, loved, LOVED the concept for this book. The way the story unfolded was engaging and dynamic. Due to a certain plot choice by the author (trying so hard to keep this spoiler free because discovering what’s going on in half the fun!), this was a particularly fascinating story from the POV of the reader. The three different timelines (for lack of a better term) were interwoven in a cohesive way that was effective in keeping the tension palpable. And that tension was HIGH. You often hear about “books you can’t put down,” but this actually is one. I needed to know what was going on and flew through the bulk of it in one day. Plus the tension adds to the genuinely creepy and unsettling moments that occur, which at times made me physically feel uneasy.

My only complaint about this book is that I think the twists did a disservice to how wonderfully unique the premise and execution were. The reveal felt a bit predictable to me, and the reasons for it were at once not well explained and completely obvious because of how cliched the scenario was. That being said, I would easily recommend this to thriller fans. It was fun and refreshing take on the genre, and cemented Goldin as a go-to author for me!

But also I need to know more about the cat

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the ARC

I love mysteries that start fast and keep that pacing throughout. They’re perfect for pulling me out of reading slumps or book hangovers. All that to say, Stay Awake from Megan Goldin started with intrigue on page one, and it was the perfect book to pull me out of my latest book hangover. The story Stay Awake begins with the main character, known as Liv, who has lost her memory. We quickly realize she must stay awake to avoid losing her memory again. This synopsis may sound familiar to anyone familiar with anterograde amnesia, and there were moments when I was reminded of the movie, Memento. That said, Stay Awake provides an extremely unique twist on amnesia tying in a murder mystery and the mystery of how/when Liv lost her memory. Add to that dual pov’s (mc & detective) & dual timelines (past and present) and the story becomes incredibly interesting. Definitely worth bringing it beachside, if you’re looking for suspense.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an arc in exchange for my honest review.

What a wild ride!

Liv Reese, a foodie writer in New York, wakes up in the backseat of a taxi with no idea where she is nor how she even got there. It gets worse. When she arrives at her apartment, she discovers she no longer lives there. When she goes to work, she discovers she no longer works there….and as if that wasn’t hellish enough, she’s lost her phone, found a bloodied knife hidden in her clothes and is suddenly aware of “stay awake” written on her hand….what does it all mean?

High octane suspense, coupled with a fast moving plot, makes this a tense read. I couldn’t figure out the killer until just before the end.

I did struggle a bit with the alternating chapters at first, I know the purpose of the simulcast but I felt there was a huge amount of information dumping. I wonder if there could have been a better way to catch Liv up to speed without too much background information from her friends and the detectives? Regardless, it’s a unique combination and the author’s exploration into the premise that memory can be deadly held me captive.

I was gifted this advance copy by Meg Goldin, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

Two years ago, Liv Reese was brutally attacked and left for dead, leaving her with a form of amnesia that makes her forget everything that happens every time she falls asleep. Framed for murder, she's constantly hiding from the police because they didn't listen when she told them she had a stalker. I can only imagine the terror of not knowing where you wake up or how you got there. This definitely left you rooting for her as she let's go of her past and learns who to trust. This was definitely an edge of your seat read and I really enjoyed it.

3.5 rounded up!

You wake up in the back of a taxi with no idea how you got there. You try to enter your apartment but a stranger answers the door and you discover that you no longer live there. You reach for your phone only to discover that its has been replaced by a blood-stained knife. What do you do?

This is the premise of Megan Goldin's newest, "Stay Awake", and it completely drew me to it. Up until the moment, I began reading this book I couldn't stop thinking about how excited I was to get into it. This was a really solid thriller that took some tropes I've read before (jilted ex, memory loss, framed for your best friend's murder, POV of a detective fresh on the beat) and took them in some interesting directions.

My one qualm with this story is the repetitiveness. While I understand that this is an inherent issue in a plot where our main character is constantly waking up and reliving the experience of losing her memory, it got pretty boring to keep reading about and constantly hear the same thoughts expressed over and over. I think the way that the big reveal at the end was laid out was really smart. I'm not someone who goes into mysteries and thrillers trying to guess the whole time what's going to happen, so things being predictable don't really bother me too much ... this is one that I think some people might find predictable, but for me it wasn't a big issue!

While I definitely prefer Goldin's "The Night Swim" (5 starts from me!!) this is definitely a strong addition to her works.

This is thriller about a woman, Liv Reese, who suffers from a severe and rare type of amnesia which occurs everytime she falls asleep. Once awake, she remembers nothing from the recent past., This becomes a huge problem when she wakes up in the back of a cab holding a bloody knife with messages like “stay awake” scribbled on her hands. There were parts of this novel that felt disjointed to me and a little hard to follow. It was a fast paced read with a pretty good twist at the end. However, it fell a little flat for me. I gave this novel 3.25 stars.









https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58724748

Book Review: Stay Awake by Megan Goldin
Published by St. Martin's Press, August 9, 2022

★★★★☆ (4.25 Stars)
Positive!

Versatile thriller writer Megan Goldin enthralled readers with her sophisticated "The Escape Room" (2019), a financial thriller loaded corporate drama and high-tech gimmickry, followed by murder-mystery "The Night Swim" (2021), with the author's personal twist on the rising popularity of true crime podcasts - "one that puts you in the jury box".

Both novels remarkable with fresh ideas, original plots, creative, imaginative, even as the author fearlessly straddles the very edge of implausibility.

// "Stay Awake" by Megan Goldin (2022) //

A shattering Aeschylus moment wrecks havoc on the life of cultural events writer, Liv Reese. Triggered post-trauma, Liv loses her memory every time she falls asleep, in between two murder cases, years apart, where she finds herself between a rock and a hard place as both the prime suspect - and the helpless prey who doesn't know whom to trust...

3-D Fischer Random Chess comes to mind as I read this quasi-medical suspense thriller. Megan Goldin crafts a complex story, this time largely based on borrowed popular movie themes. Set intermittently in multiple graduated timelines from alternative first and third person perspectives, once again she pushes the envelope to the cliff edge of the suspension of disbelief.

Think Liv Reese as a composite of Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day" (sans the comedy), Guy Pearce in "Memento", Naomi Watts in "Mulholland Drive", and finally Johnny Depp in "Secret Windows" with skeletons deeply buried in a closet of blank memories.

Replete with loose ends, but compensated by compelling dramatizations and commendable prose.

Complex, gripping, entertaining.

Review based on an advanced reading copy courtesy of St. Martin's Press and NetGalley.

This was a really fast-paced intriguing thriller. Told in alternating timelines from today when a man was discovered murdered to two years ago. Our MC, LIv, has a rare case of amnesia where she cannot remember anything from the past two years once she falls asleep. So each day, she wakes up confused, distrustful of most people and with no memory of anything that happened the last two year of her life. All she knows are the messages written on her hand like "Stay Awake!" or "Don't Sleep". In attempt to not feel out of control, she takes pills and drinks excessive amounts of caffeine in order to not fall asleep. Instead of solving her problem, this is is just leading to erractic behavior and her falling asleep anywhere.

Will Liv recover her memory in time to discover what really happened two years ago? Or will she be arrested in this murder based on being present at a murder scene two years ago where it's unclear if she was the murderer or another victim?

This was my first novel by the author, but it won't be my last.

Stay Awake is a different kind of thriller from Megan Goldin. What happens when someone forgets everything from the last two years every time they fall asleep?

"Liv wakes up in a cab with no idea about how she got there. At her apartment, there are strangers there. Instead of her phone, there's a bloody knife in her purse. And then she sees her arms are covered with writing that says STAY AWAKE. She catches a glimpse of local news and finds out that she's a suspect in a murder. How did she get here? Did she kill someone? She doesn't remember"

I like when an author tries something different. Lots of previous books have had characters with memory issues. even those caused by trauma. But Goldin puts Liv in an almost impossible situation. You're listening and thinking that this poor character is lost and can't recover. But Goldin keeps writing and shows you what happened. The killer is one that's hiding in plain sight. I had no idea. I'm usually pretty good at making a guess - not this time.
There are mostly two POVs - Liv and the Detectives. I hope we see the detective team in future books. I think there are more stories there.

Another great story from Goldin. Another great thriller option for your summer reading

This psychological thriller kept me hooked from page 1! It was easy to follow with tons of twists and turns. I really enjoyed this and it was different than the usual thrillers I’ve been reading

This is the best psychological thriller I've read in years. It freshens up several tropes (like the unreliable narrator) and didn't rely on mental-illness-as-the-bad-guy like too many do. Every time Liv falls asleep, she loses most of her memories. In this story, she tries to piece together her memories and gets entangled in a murder investigation. No one she talks to knows what she's been up to, and most of what she has to go on are notes she's scribbled on her arms.

I inhaled this--in one sitting! -- and will definitely be reading more Goldin books.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I’ll picked this up because Megan Goldin is an auto-buy author for me. I loved her previous two releases: The Escape and The Night Swim. And, as it turns out, I absolutely loved this one as well.

I love Megan Goldin’s writing. Her pacing and style are on point. She writes in alternative timelines, so you get an accounting of what is currently happening while getting sneaks at the past all throughout the novel which keep me going like a moth to a flame. Her books are simply unputadownable to me.

Pick up a copy. You won’t be sorry!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St Martin’s Publishing for the Advanced Reader’s Copy. I am forever in your debt for this amazing opportunity

#netgalley #stmartinspress #stayawake #megangoldin

Thank you Net Galley and St Martins Press for this E-ARC!

Past and present timelines, murder, and amnesia are a factors that make this thriller so effective!

Liv needs to stay awake to remember. She writes reminders on her skin because when she falls asleep she thinks it’s two years prior.

Her best friend Amy, and boyfriend Marco were murdered and she was very close to being another victim. She was in a coma and could not remember what happened. She moved to London to recover but was consumed by trying to determine who killed them.

Liv finds herself in New York attempting to resume her previous life, but ends up being a suspect of a murder that ends up being tied to the original murders. Up until recently (aside from the original murder event) she didn’t have issues with her memory, but now she must remain awake to hold on to any bits of information she knows.

NYPD believe Liv is their prime suspect, but as the truth reveals itself as Liv flies under the radar, there’s way more to this mystery than what meets the eye. Will Liv’s amnesia be something that helps her or hinders her once the NYPD catch up to her?

Wow crazy thriller with definite Memento vibes. Enjoyable twists and turns. Worth the read. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy!