Stay Awake – ARC Book Review

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.

WOW.!!!! I am still reeling my mind on this book even after I have finished this book! It was really good–so good that I stayed up all night to finish this book!

Liv Reese wakes up inside a cab, with no memory of how she got into the cab or why she was in the cab in the first place. Her skin is scribbled with a black ink pen, saying STAY AWAKE. And in her purse, she was carrying a bloodstained knife. When she reaches to her apartment, she finds that another couple is already living in the apartment. Liv has no recollection of what really happened. Meanwhile, the police are investigating on the murder of a man who was stabbed in his apartment and this may all tie to Liv Reese…

If you have Before I go Sleep and Memento, then this book will be one for you. This is the third book I have read of Megan Goldin and I must say, this book has to be her best book aftet Night Swim and The Escape Room. From the start of the chapter till the end, the author has done a good job of drawing the reader into the story and making the reader feel like they are at the edge of the seat! Liv is suffering from a very rare disorder due to the trauma she had faced two years ago which makes her an unreliable narrator, wondering as a reader whether Liv actually murdered someone or not. You also get to see Liv’s life two years ago, before whatever the trauma she was in and the story divides between past and present, so you could actually get a glimpse of what really happened. The ending…wow it was so unexpected and also the revealation of the actual killer was also a complete surprise and unexpected…WOW! I just couldn’t believe THAT ENDING!

So if you like a gripping psychological thriller that will throw you at the edge of the seat, which is quiet unputdownable with lots of unexpected twists and turns…then read this book–worth whopping five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Canelo for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.