Synopsis

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.

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Review

I have been a fan of this author since The Escape Room. I enjoyed her second book, The Night Swim, as well. So when I saw she had a new book coming out, I knew I had to get my hands on it to read. This book did not disappoint, and I think it is my 2nd favorite after The Escape Room.

In this psychological thriller, we meet Liv, who cannot remember anything if she falls asleep. To combat this rare type of amnesia, she ingests a lot of caffeine and other products to keep her away, a sort of forced insomnia. However, her body will force her to fall asleep, and she awakens with no memory of how she got somewhere. She also thinks it is 2 years in the past and is searching for her roommate, Amy, and her boyfriend, Marco. But at the same time, there are forces working against her, and the police are close to honing in on her after discovering a dead body and some incriminating evidence against her…or is it?

This story is told from two different timelines, current day and two years ago, right before Liv lost her memory. The back and forth kept me riveted to the book, which was hard for me to put down. I kept trying to figure out who the villain was and if Liv was crazy or not. I suspected one character but was far off base…I think there was something with this character, but it is never answered or resolved. There were a few surprises, but some earlier scenes led me to believe that certain events had happened, but there was never any definitive proof.

I really liked Detective Darcy Halliday and her approach to deciphering the clues and not assuming that Liz was a killer. She was very methodical but also not afraid to put it all on the line when necessary. I felt bad for Liv because she couldn’t remember anything and wrote notes on her arms but couldn’t remember what the note was for or if she could trust what was written. Plus, she couldn’t get any answers for the missing 2 years, but some were trying to help her and looked out for her knowing that she couldn’t remember.

While there are things that aren’t realistic, such as Liz consuming lots of caffeine but never having to go the bathroom, it still was a fantastic read.

We give this book 5 paws up.

About the Author

Megan Goldin was a journalist before she became a writer. She reported from the Middle East for the Associated Press, Reuters, the (Australian) ABC, and other news outlets. She worked in Asia as a reporter and editor for Reuters and Yahoo.

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