Stay Awake: A Novel

A murder she doesn’t remember committing. A killer she doesn’t remember meeting. Megan Goldin’s Stay Awake is an electrifying novel that proves memory can be deadly.

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.

A complex thriller that unfolds at a breakneck speed, Megan Goldin's Stay Awake will keep you up all night.

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Published Aug 9, 2022

345 pages

Average rating: 7.23

62 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

bookshelf.at.tiffanys
Dec 19, 2024
6/10 stars
Liv is living the life in NYC. She writes a food column for an incredibly popular magazine. She shares an apartment with her best friend and her cat and has an Italian boyfriend that she adores.

One night, she wakes up in the back of a cab with writing all over her hands with no recollection of how she got there. The last thing she remembers is answering her phone at work earlier in the day. Her night goes down hill from there. She gets back to her apartment and there’s a strange couple there that won’t let her in. Then the creepy, anonymous phone calls start…

This novel definitely takes you on a ride and has some suspense! I would for sure classify this as a thriller. I really enjoyed the back and forth timeline, it helped build the story and made you understand Liv’s condition more.

I did however find it to be very predictable and that’s one thing I really don’t like in my thrillers. I want to be surprised around every corner. The narrator was pretty good, I really didn’t like how her voice had a synth type sound if you speed the narration up.

Thank you @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for this ALC of Stay Awake by Megan Goldin in exchange for an honest review.
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Anonymous
Oct 30, 2023
8/10 stars
50 first dates, but make it a thriller

Right away, this book drew me in and kept me on edge, trying to figure out what was happening and what happened to Liv in her past.
Writer13
Nov 01, 2022
10/10 stars
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