Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the gifted ebook of Stay Awake! All opinions in this review are my own.

Stay Awake started off really strong. I devoured the first 25% of this novel in one sitting. I liked the structure of the novel with multiple points of view and flashbacks, which help reveal new information without making one of the characters recite it.

I try not to judge thrillers based on the ending because it's difficult to write a satisfying end to all the tension that's been built up. While the big reveal was a little lackluster, I felt like there were still some loose ends that never got tied up. The biggest one was that motive was never explained for the original crime that started everything. You can deduce why they did it, but it still seems weird that was never addressed at the end.

Overall, the reading experience of Stay Awake is very chilling. I am excited to read more of the author's works.

5 Stars for this highly entertaining and gripping thriller!

I have loved this author's previous books so I'm really not surprised how much I enjoyed this one too!
Pulled me in right from the start and had me staying up until the early morning reading.

It was a gripping read and the suspense was full on right up until the end. I loved how everything came together.

Another well-written and intriguing novel from Megan Goldin!!

Megan Goldin is such a uniquely talented author, and Stay Awake embodies her uniqueness entirely. This novel is SO strange in the most excellent way. I was absolutely captivated from the second I read the premise (several months ago) until 50% through the e-arc I received.

Unfortunately, this novel is exhaustively written to the point that I felt the story was conveyed too completely. The reading experience became overwhelming and exhausting by the time I reached the end of the book. 20% of the novel could be eliminated by removing the detectives’ viewpoint entirely, and the story would still be 100% understandable and complete. The ‘2 years earlier’ chapters could be elaborated to fulfill a total page requirement if necessary, as those were the most important chapters.

The ‘2 years earlier’ chapters should have provided the information necessary to respect (not expect) the final twist, and yet I had to ask myself “who?” after reading the reveal. Maybe, after consuming so much filler information (the detectives’ viewpoints), I became too antsy to finally reach the end and accidentally skipped over some major clues, but I don’t think so. Not to mention, there were several red herrings inserted throughout the chapters that I forgot the second I finished reading the paragraphs where they were mentioned. I truly never gave them another thought.

I felt letdown and a little bored once I reached the final few chapters. Goldin’s writing, however, kept me reading until the very last word. I ultimately enjoyed this story for the most part. I will continue to read whatever Goldin writes, but this is definitely my least favorite of her novels so far.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Stay awake was a good book that kept me guessing until the end. This author is one I’m familiar with and enjoy.

An interesting read for sure! I haven’t read a story where a character suffered memory loss or sleep conditions such as this. Honestly, I was a bit confused at first. However, the story was easy to read and easy to follow that kept me turning the pages. It was fascinating that this story referenced to Agatha Christie’s memory loss. With regards to fiction books, I wasn’t sure if this reference was true or false so I googled on Agatha Christie and Wikipedia informed me the same as what was referring in this book! I have only read the author’s And Then There Were None and loved it so it was exciting to see the mention of the author experiencing the same condition as the main character in this story! I liked how smart and quick thinking the main character Liv was. Ted sounds like a great guy as well as Harry. I can’t imagine living life with this medical condition but it was good to see how a person could attempt to live a normal life by following doctor’s advice.


This book started with Liv at 2:40am. She woke up in a cab with no memory of how she got there. Somehow she got cash to pay for the fare but no purse or the keys to her apartment she shared with Amy. When the cab driver dropped her off at her apartment, she rang the bell for Amy to let her in but met with a stranger couple. They let her in to use their phone to call her boyfriend. When Liv entered their apartment she noticed that the apartment no longer looked like hers. She decided to take a cab to her boyfriend’s place. She dig around her pockets and found cash for the ride and an unexpected surprise in her sweater pocket. She saw notes on her hands with the name of a bar so she decided to stop by the bar first. The second view was Darcy, Detective. She responded to the police call, 6th floor apartment to find a dead man in bed with an apparent stab wound. They estimated that he may have been drugged because it doesn’t look like he put up the fight when he was attacked. Liv again woke up at a park bench and had no memory what had happened previously except for seeing the notes on her hand. The story then changed direction starting with Liv two years earlier when she was dating Marco and roommate with Amy. Things started happening with her but she had no recollection that she did it, such as picking up dry cleaning clothes. After she woke up from the bench, she went into her job but didn’t recognize the layout and the coworkers. After a few blunders, Liv realized two years have passed by and she didn’t know why. The story told in a timeline. In present day, Liv found herself restarting the day with no memory each time she woke up at odd places like park bench or train. The alternative view was the police detective investigating a crime. The story switched to the past followed Liv’s life before the incident. All evidence at the murder scene pointed to Liv, but Liv couldn’t remembered if she had killed anyone.


Stay Awake was well written and a fast paced read! Each time I read this story I didn’t want to put it down. But life got in the way and I didn’t get to read it as often. This is the only thriller where I able to guess who the killer was. I still loved the read despite knowing who killed. I enjoyed the detective’s investigations. That art exhibit was really out there freaky. How did the author think of that idea?! I also enjoyed the mini cliffhangers at each chapter. The randomness of the stalker’s acts was definitely odd. I can see why police wouldn’t take the report seriously. I wonder if there will be a sequel for this book because that bad police Krause should get in trouble for his slack in investigations. This book was an excellent read and I recommend everyone to read it.

xoxo, Jasmine at www.Howusefulitis.com for more details

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review. Please be assured that my opinions are honest.

I'll bump it up to 4 stars because once I got 2/3 of the way through I couldn't put the damn book down. I just had to finish. The story was really well told and the navigation between narrators and timelines was well executed -- in some books like this those transitions are poorly done and take away from the overall enjoyment of the book. I thought ending was good, but not great .. I was really hoping for some kind of twist that would floor me but that
didn't happen. .. and in hindsight it would have been really tough to pull off with the small list of characters "available" in the narrative to be the "bad guy' at the end. Overall, like with other books from this author, the reading experience was highly enjoyable.

I really enjoyed the premise of Stay Awake. Our girl Liv is involved in a murder, but she can’t remember anything because her memory resets to two years in the past every time she falls asleep! Say whatttt?! It was so fun watching Liv try to piece clues together to figure out what was going on. I loved the structure of the story and how the past eventually caught up to the present. So well done!

The police procedural chapters were my least favorite. I though they were clunky, with large blocks of text and not enough dialogue. I much preferred the chapters from Liv’s perspective.

All in all a solid thriller!

Thanks so much to the author, NetGalley, and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy!

This is my first book by this author, though I have read some positive reviews on her prior books and currently have The Night Swim in my TBR.

In this suspense filled novel, we follow Liv, who after recovering from a near death experience (among other traumas) with no memory of the perpetrator, moves out of the country to be safe. She returns for reasons I can't explain without spoilers, but her amnesia is triggered and every time she falls asleep she wakes up thinking its 2 years prior, before the incident. She attempts to leave notes for herself, but they are short and relatively unhelpful. So, she tries staying awake but her ongoing lack of sleep only amplifies the amnesia.

In addition to her obvious issues, Liv ends up a suspect in a murder of a man that she has no recollection of knowing. There's a knife in her pocket, surveillance of her coming out of the building and a note she wrote to herself tells her not to trust the police.

We read from the point of view of Liv in the current time, confused, hunted and doing her best to stay awake; the POV from Liv 2 years ago in the time leading up to her near death; and, the POV of the detectives who are investigating the murder and debating Liv's involvement.

This is everything I want in a thriller- well crafted, fast paced, with short chapters that kept me turning pages.

Now I need to bump The Night Swim up on my tbr list!!

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review! Review will be posted to Goodreads, Bookstagram (Books_beaches_and_tea), Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

The premise was interesting and unique - when you have an MC with a very particular kind of amnesia with frequent resets, it leads to a lot of tension where the reader knows more than the character. However, I’ll be honest, it got old very quickly. I was much more interested in the flashbacks and the detectives, which were much more of a driving force of forward momentum.

But also take my review with a grain of salt because I don’t really enjoy thrillers anymore like I used to.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Netgalley and Megan Golden for letting me read Stay Awake early. This one hits the shelves August 9.

Ok, so I really enjoyed Stay Awake. This one really kept me entertained and it was hard to put down. Megan Goldin is super talented, that’s for sure. I loved her previous book, The Night Swim so when I saw this one coming out I definitely wanted to be an early reader. I loved these characters and the whole premise of this book. I didn’t even read the synopsis, I went in blind which I highly recommend. If you need more convincing read the next paragraph, if you trust me get your library holds and preorders ready for August 9.

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.

Megan Goldin has given us another riveting, unputdownable story!
Liv Reese suffers from memory loss. She wakes up in a cab not remembering how she got there. She has a bloody knifes wrapped in a shirt and has no idea what happened. On her hands and arms are messages she’s written to herself, one being, stay awake!
This propulsive thriller is exactly what I needed when I started feeling like I was in a slump. I could not get enough of the story and at times this was creepy in a very good way! Cannot recommend this book enough!!
So thankful for this ARC given by netgalley and the publisher in return for my honest opinion.

“Wake up! Stay awake! Don’t go to sleep!” Liv Reese sees these messages scrawled on her hands and arms, but she can’t recall why. As she goes through her day, she can’t help but remain confused when nothing is as she remembered it. Simple things like returning to her apartment and her workplace remind Liv that she is no longer living the life she remembers. Liv is startled when she can’t get a hold of her boyfriend or roommate, who she hoped could give her answers. As she tries to piece together the events she has forgotten, she is entrenched in a murder investigation. Liv wonders if she may have actually killed someone, without any memory of it…

Megan Goldin’s <em>Stay Awake</em> has an interesting premise, yet the execution was unremarkable. Liv’s failing memory gets to be irksome as the book progresses, which left me frustrated waiting for tiny pieces of the plot to be revealed. None of the characters were especially likable, and I hoped for more intensity in the plot. The novel did pick in the second half, yet the ending was lackluster. Overall, <em>Stay Awake</em> was entertaining but not propulsive.

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin is another great book by this author. This story reveals the life of Liv who is in a bit of a time loop due to some traumatic events. This book has a dual timeline and dual perspectives. I really enjoy when the past and present come together. The characters are flawed and human. The ending was twisty and surprising! Highly recommend.

***** I received an ARC from NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my honest review. *****

I thought that Stay Awake was a slow burn for a good chunk of the book. The main character Liv suffers from memory loss every time she falls asleep. A lot of lines and small details were repeated unnecessarily. This book did pickup speed at one point and once it did it kept me interested until the very end. The author was creative with the storyline, I love when I’m not able to predict the twists and the author keep me guessing until the very end which is why I gave this book four stars.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC to read and review.

I was so excited to see a new Megan Goldin book! I loved The Night Swim, and was hoping for another great story. Stay Awake did NOT disappoint!

The book opens with Liv Reese waking up in a cab with no recollection of how she got there. Her purse and phone are missing, and it doesn’t take Liv long to figure out that something is horribly wrong. Everything she thinks she remembers seems to have changed, and soon Liv finds herself on the run, possibly part of a murder she can’t remember.

This book was gripping. It kept me guessing until the end. I was very invested in learning what had truly happened two years ago in Liv’s past, as well as finding out what was going on in the present storyline. I enjoyed the perspective of Detective Halliday too, and getting glimpses of information as the police worked on the case. I seriously couldn’t put this down once I got started!!!

If you liked The Night Swim, definitely pick this one up too!

The second I heard the synopsis of this Stay Awake by Megan Goldin I knew I had to read it. Unfortunately, this was one of the most boring thrillers I’ve ever read. The plot of this book was so interesting with a woman who loses the last two years of her memory every time she falls asleep. Instead, this book put me to sleep. I really just wanted something interesting to happen. The good news is this is a quick read so if you are interested in reading it then it won’t take you very long.
.
Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to give my honest review. I wish it would have gone better. 😔

What a nonestop ride this book is, wow! Thank you Netgalley & St Martins Press for an advanced copy of this book, it’s sure to be a masterpiece!

I read this is roughly 24 hrs, I literally woke up in the night & couldn’t sleep, thinking about the story. I just had to know what was going to happen next.

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 claims to live in her apartment. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it’s missing. In its place is a bloodstained knife. Her hands are covered in scribbled messages, like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE.

Two years ago, Liv was 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, similar to the 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. But there’s someone who does know exactly what she did, and they’ll do anything to make her forget—permanently.

This comes out August 9th!

Megan Goldin is very skilled in creating tense situations and page-turning scenes. In her latest, Stay Awake, the main character is very much an unreliable narrator due to an amnesia condition that causes her to reset to her life two years ago, every time she wakes up. The reader learns what led to this condition and why she is suspected of homicide through a combination of flashbacks and different perspectives. While the “unreliable narrator “ is overused in thrillers, the author does it in a unique way and with considerable skill. Thanks to NetGalley for this digital ARC.

Thank you to St. Martins for our copy of Stay Awake by Megan Goldin. This one is available on August 9, 2022.

Rating: 3⭐️
Genre: Thriller

Thoughts: I really enjoyed the over all concept of this story, it definitely kept me reading. I did struggle to follow the story as it jumped to different periods of time in a two year basis, just a bit hard to establish the timeline but maybe that was the point?

Read This If You Enjoy:
-Books by Megan Goldin
-Books that rotate between different timelines.

Liv wakes up in a cab not knowing how she got there or where she’s headed or even who she really is. All she knows is that the words “Stay Awake” and “Don’t Sleep” and several other disturbing notes are written all over her hands and arms. So when a news story appears that shows the killer laving the same message written in blood, she tries to figure out what it could mean to her. Then she finds a bloody knife in her pocket and she has to prove her innocence while trying not to fall asleep so she’s doesn’t forget whatever she’s able to uncover.
The story alternates between past when the events took place and the present where the detectives are working to solve the crime. If you don’t pay attention, you may have to do as I did and have to go back several times and make sure you don’t miss any details.
Now, im going to keep my negative stuff short, but…there are plot holes. There is a LOT of repetition. I get that it’s a Groundhog Day type situation, but there’s times that things are said twice in the same paragraph! Some of the dialogue is too dumbed down-especially the detectives. They come off as not super smart.
All that to say that while there are definitely some flaws, I still enjoyed this story and it kept me on my toes trying to see If she was going to figure it all out.
Thanks to St Martins Press and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.