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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
When Liv Reese awakens in a taxi late at night, she's uncertain how she ended up there. Upon closer inspection, she's covered in blood, and a knife is in her hands. Liv has no idea what has happened to her, and later, when she sees the news reporting a man's murder, she feels unsettled by how much the suspect captured on CCTV resembles her. With a black hole in her memory each time she falls asleep, Liv has nowhere to turn and no guidance, and it seems like the police aren't the only ones hunting her down.
Stay Awake maintains its momentum from the first page to the last, and the story concludes nicely. The quick pacing, along with the unique narrative elements, keeps the twists feeling fresh and appropriate to the plot. However, despite the many praises I can sing about this book, there were aspects that never quite sat right with me. There's a persistent trend of 'telling rather than showing' where multiple plot points are spelt out bluntly instead of giving the reader clues and allowing them to uncover the spiralling pathways that arise from each major revelation.
Adding to my frustration was Liv's unyielding strictness. Her predicament of waking each morning with a blank slate in her memory could have been mitigated if she had been more productive in logging her learnings from each day. Running away from every source of help, while prolonging the tension in the story, only added further annoyance for the reader. Overall, Stay Awake is a suspenseful and entertaining read, a solid thriller, and (thanks to its striking plot) is definitely worth the read
Stay Awake maintains its momentum from the first page to the last, and the story concludes nicely. The quick pacing, along with the unique narrative elements, keeps the twists feeling fresh and appropriate to the plot. However, despite the many praises I can sing about this book, there were aspects that never quite sat right with me. There's a persistent trend of 'telling rather than showing' where multiple plot points are spelt out bluntly instead of giving the reader clues and allowing them to uncover the spiralling pathways that arise from each major revelation.
Adding to my frustration was Liv's unyielding strictness. Her predicament of waking each morning with a blank slate in her memory could have been mitigated if she had been more productive in logging her learnings from each day. Running away from every source of help, while prolonging the tension in the story, only added further annoyance for the reader. Overall, Stay Awake is a suspenseful and entertaining read, a solid thriller, and (thanks to its striking plot) is definitely worth the read
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Liv’s last memory is sitting in her office and answering the phone, but somehow years have passed and Liv has no idea where the last two years of her life has gone.
Unable to get in touch with her friends Liv’s only clues are messages she finds written on her arms. The situation intensifies when the same message is found at a murder scene.
The classic “who done it”
While I did really enjoy the bulk of this book I found the ending to be a major let down. It wasn’t a shocking twist, it was more of a … “ok, but that’s a pretty big stretch”
In fact anyone I talk to who has read this book, all said the same thing.
Some books when the killer is revealed is like
- wow. Of course. How did I not see that.
This one is more
- riiiiiiiight. But why?
Unable to get in touch with her friends Liv’s only clues are messages she finds written on her arms. The situation intensifies when the same message is found at a murder scene.
The classic “who done it”
While I did really enjoy the bulk of this book I found the ending to be a major let down. It wasn’t a shocking twist, it was more of a … “ok, but that’s a pretty big stretch”
In fact anyone I talk to who has read this book, all said the same thing.
Some books when the killer is revealed is like
- wow. Of course. How did I not see that.
This one is more
- riiiiiiiight. But why?
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
This story reminds me of the movie "Momento". Megan Goldin has definitely used some of the movie's clever plot devices as inspiration for her book. In the beginning, that really annoyed me, but fortunately I was able to get over it. Once I did get over it, I couldn't put the book down. Overall, a solid thriller with lots of suspense.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A woman wakes up with no memory of where she is or how she got there... and she discovers that the place she thought she lived in is not the same and other people live there... and there is a bloodstained knife in her pocket. On her hand are various messages scribbled, but most importantly one that says “ STAY AWAKE.” Liv Reese is a woman who wakes up with no memory of the past two years, she doesn’t know what has happened to her, how she’s been living her life, and why she keeps forgetting everything every time she falls asleep. Two years ago she was living her life as a successful writer for a trendy magazine, she had a loving best friend, a handsome boyfriend, and everything was great... until strange things and notes started showing up in her apartment. Live swears she is being watched, that someone is stalking her, but no one will believe her. She tries to report it to the police but they don’t believe her... and when a horrific thing happens and leaves her scarred and suffering from amnesia she now finds herself two years later back in the place where the crime happened... and apparently the killer is still on the loose and has noticed she is back. Liv will now have to trust herself and her guts if she wants to make it out alive. Liv will have to gather up all the missing clues and pieces of her life and try and solve the mystery of what happened to cause her to become like this and who the killer is, and with sleep as a ticking countdown to her memory resetting, she’ll have to stay awake for as long as she can before she starts the cycle again. This was a fantastic take on the unreliable narrator perspective, i thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and the story kept me so invested until the very end! i have loved the rest of the works written by this author and this one definitely did not disappoint!
*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*
*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*